Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:57:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo3205_1.pdf: 3498180 bytes, checksum: 038a58cdee497d379731db88f97e80ce (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / A indústria de Jogos Digitais é um mercado em constante crescimento tendo um faturamento global próximo do da indústria cinematográfica. Porém, sendo uma mídia que teve origem na segunda metade do século XX, os estudos sobre processos de desenvolvimento de jogos ainda são bastante novos e baseados em resultados empíricos de adaptações de processos de Engenharia de Software aplicados à produção de jogos. Sendo o desenvolvimento de software apenas uma pequena parte do processo de produção de um jogo digital, a adaptação destes processos enfatiza a porção de software do jogo e negligencia outras atividades como arte e concepção deixando-as carentes de processos e/ou ferramentas. Uma das carências identificadas é a falta de ferramentas de apoio ao processo de concepção do jogo (game design primitivo), processo este que ocorre na fase de pré-produção, onde os designers, produtores e demais membros da equipe se reúnem para criar o jogo que será produzido. Escolheu-se, portanto adaptar a metodologia ágil de design Extensible Design Method (XDM) para a realidade do desenvolvimento de jogos, sugerindo-se uma ferramenta Web 2.0 de apoio a este processo, chamado XDM Web. A ferramenta possibilita, entre outras coisas, a execução do processo por equipes de criação geograficamente distribuídas

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T16:25:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo14_1.pdf: 7517372 bytes, checksum: f9734f009be616b0184415470b100e2c (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / Este trabalho tem por objetivo auxiliar a indústria de jogos e entretenimento digital do estado de Pernambuco. Primeiramente busca responder por que é importante o designer conhecer os usuários do produto e por que escolher como campo de trabalho a área de jogos e entretenimento digital. Após esta etapa, foi promovida uma série de entrevistas com designers e gerentes de criação das principais empresas para estudo do processo vigente nestas. Concluindo que o modelo de negócio impossibilitava a pesquisa diretamente no processo, foi buscado a solução usando a pesquisa com usuários como um processo paralelo a parte e o trabalho passa a se ater na forma com que os dados sobres os usuários entrariam no processo da APL de jogos digitais de Pernambuco. A solução proposta foi aplicar o método de Personas proposto por Cooper, modificando para proporcionar maior conteúdo imagético e promover o reuso dos dados. Este modelo proposto foi chamado de Cards Persona e testado no consórcio da Olimpíadas de Jogos Educacionais, onde foi utilizado durante o processo de concepção de dois novos jogos

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T16:27:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo2184_1.pdf: 2028582 bytes, checksum: 23607bde1210319f16841621184958dd (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Esta pesquisa procura lançar bases teóricas para uma metodologia de concepção e avaliação dos aspectos narrativos dos games. Iniciando com uma crítica ao estado da arte, constata que a academia está apenas começando estudos específicos sobre o assunto. Adotamos a narratologia como guia epistemológico, verificando sua funcionalidade em formas narrativas anteriores e propondo um repertório de abordagens metodológicas aplicadas ao contexto dos games. Por fim, apresentamos caminhos para estudos mais aprofundados e possibilidades de aplicação prática dentro da própria indústria

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T16:30:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo29_1.pdf: 1690395 bytes, checksum: 7587aa7d520c0bbc7e8816efbc2f76ba (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Esta pesquisa inicia com a observação de que existe uma alta taxa de rotatividade de game designers no Arranjo Produtivo Local (APL) de jogos de Pernambuco. Constata-se que apesar disso, não há métodos formais para que se mantenham dentro das empresas os conhecimentos sobre jogos similares àqueles produzidos no APL o que vem gerando uma perda sistemática de informação nas empresas. O propósito deste trabalho é propor uma solução para este problema: adotamos o pressuposto de que um método de inventariado de jogos é capaz de promover o reuso de informações, minimizando o problema em questão. Apresentamos duas propostas preliminares de solução e uma terceira proposta que foi considerada bem-sucedida na prática, assim como o processo utilizado para chegar a estas soluções

Educational games have become an established paradigm of instructional practice; however, there is still much to be learned about how to design games to be the most beneficial for learners. An important consideration when designing an educational game is whether there is good alignment between its content goals and the instructional behaviors it makes in order to reinforce those goals. Existing methods for measuring alignment are labor intensive and use complex auditing procedures, making it difficult to define and evaluate this alignment in order to guide the educational game design process. This thesis explores a way to operationalize this concept of alignment and demonstrates an analysis technique that can help educational game designers to both measure the alignment of current educational game designs and predict the alignment of prototypes of future iterations. In my work, I explore the use of Replay Analysis, a novel technique that uses in-game replays of player sessions as a data source to support analysis. This method can be used to capture gameplay experience for the evaluation of alignment, as well as other forms of analysis. The majority of this work has been performed in the context of RumbleBlocks, an educational game that teaches basic structural stability and balance concepts to young children. Using Replay Analysis, I leveraged replay data during a formative evaluation of RumbleBlocks to highlight some misalignments the game likely possesses in how it teaches some concepts of stability to players. These results led to suggestions for several design iterations. Through exploring these design iterations, I further demonstrate an extension of Replay Analysis called Projective Replay Analysis, which uses recorded student replay data in prototypes of new versions of a game to predict whether the new version would be an improvement. I implemented two forms of Projective Replay: Literal Projective Replay, which uses a naïve player model that replays past player actions through a new game version exactly as they were originally recorded; and Flexible Projective Replay, which augments the process with an AI player model that uses prior player actions as training data to learn to play through a new game. To assess the validity of this method of game evaluation, I performed a new replication study of the original formative evaluation to validate whether the conclusions reached through virtual methods would agree with those reached in a normal playtesting paradigm. Ultimately, my findings were that Literal Projective Replay was able to predict a new and unanticipated misalignment with the game, but Flexible Projective Replay, as currently implemented, has limitations in its ability to explore new game spaces. This work makes contributions to the fields of human-computer interaction by exploring the benefits and limitations of different replay paradigms for the evaluation of interactive systems; learning sciences by establishing a novel operationalization of alignment for instructional moves; and educational game design by providing a model for using Projective Replay Analysis to guide the iterative development of an educational game.

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Digital media has created more opportunities for stories to be interactive, allowing the user to participate in plot events and even change the direction of a story. Interactivity can make stories more engaging however if the plot can change as a result of user input then the story becomes non-linear. The resulting system is known as a potential narrative because a narrative is only presented through user interaction. Non-linear stories require extra considerations and content compared to a linear story of similar length. Computer generated content for video games has grown as a field and this raises the possibility of using computer assistance for the creation and management of interactive stories. This thesis explores the paradigm required for both computers and developers to understand potential narratives. The success of a potential narrative requires the same coherency and credibility that a regular story does, in addition to a new layer known as player agency. Coherency refers to the logical causal progression of a plot, credibility is the verisimilitude of the presented story world and player agency is how satisfying the interactive elements are. These three criteria are the guiding principles for the creation of an intuitive potential narrative model. We present a state transition model for potential narratives as well as a prototype using relational programming to generate coherent traversals through a manually authored potential narrative. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc) / Writing stories for video games and interactive fiction is a time consuming and complex affair. The resulting web of possible events and pathways through the non-linear story is known as a potential narrative. Computer assisted tools for creating potential narratives could cut down on production costs and open the door for stories that are able to adapt to the player in real-time. In order for these generated stories to be viable they must be coherent, credible and allow for player agency. These criteria describe whether stories make logical sense and are satisfying for the user to interact with. Taking that into account we present a model for coherent interactive stories which keeps track of the story world and the events that could happen within it. As a proof of concept we implement this model with a prototype to generate traversals through a manually authored potential narrative.

Queerness as a quality has a permanent fluidity. Videogames as a medium are continually evolving and advancing. Thus, queer games have a vast potential as an art form and research subject. While there is already a wealth of knowledge surrounding queer games my contribution takes the form of both research paper and creative endeavor. I created a game by interpreting the queer elements present in games research. My game reflects the trends and qualities present in contemporary queer games, such as critiques on empathy and alternative game-making programs. This paper details what research inspired elements of my game as well as how those elements compare to other queer games.

Emergent narrative, a phenomenon of unexpected contextual stories arising through play, has been researched in the field of game studies since 1999. However, that discussion largely lies in the realm of theoretical stories which are generated by either the system or the player. The purpose of this dissertation is to deepen our understanding of emergent narrative by examining real-world examples of the phenomenon. Four hundred player posts were gathered from forums relating to the video game Skyrim (a large, open world fantasy roleplaying game) and analyzed using a mixed-method framework which is informed by digital ethnography, fan studies, and game studies. Using a cluster sampling method, the posts were divided into categories based on theme. This work outlines the historical trajectory of the term emergent narrative and proposes that player created emergent narratives are novel as they capitalize on random events during play in order to create stories which are both contextual and surprising. Each chapter explores a different kind of storytelling in one hundred of the posts, showcasing the diverse subjects that players explore. This work demonstrates that upon reflection, players are not passive recipients of information from games. By participating in these online activities, players become cocreators of their own stories. This work expands our understanding of players, interactive systems, and narrative by arguing that the act of play is collaborative rather than receptive.