En undersökning utfördes av hur väl designmönster som fokuserar på autonomi och utforskning skapar uppfattning av icke-linjäritet hos spelare. Genom användningen av tidigare undersökta mönster och principer inom level design skapades en artefakt i form av ett datorspel med tre nivåer som undersökte dessa designmönster. Resultat utvärderades genom en mixad metod med åtta deltagare. Respondenter fick bedöma hur icke-linjärt de upplevde att de olika rummen i artefaktens nivåer kändes och hur de vägleds genom nivåerna. Respondenter upplevde både känslor av linjäritet och icke-linjäritet från alla använda designmönster i artefakten. Slutsatsen dras att leveldesignmönster inte av sig själv kan skapa känslor av icke-linjäritet hos spelare utan att denna känsla kan påverkas av spelaren själv, dennes mål och spelvanor. Framtida arbetebör undersöka dessa relationer i samband med känslor av icke-linjäritet, samt iterera på metoden som används i denna undersökning. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p><p>There are other digital material (eg film, image or audio files) or models/artifacts that belongs to the thesis and need to be archived.</p>

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This study investigates how visual cues can enhance player navigation in Metroidvania-style level design. This research aims to address the critical need for effective visual cues in improving player navigation within non-linear Metroidvania game levels. By delving into this aspect, we seek to not only enrich the gaming experience for players but also contribute valuable insights to game developers and researchers interested in improving their level design. Using a between-subjects design, we created a non-linear game prototype in Unity, representing the Metroidvania genre, along with three variants incorporating different levels of visual cue markedness, resulting in four versions in total. Data was collected through think-aloud protocols, observations, surveys, cued recall debriefs, and semi-structured interviews to assess participants' responses to the visual cues and their navigation strategies. The results indicate that integrated cues provided the clearest guidance, allowing players to quickly understand their objectives and navigate effectively. Subtle cues preserved the sense of discovery, while emphasized cues effectively highlighted specific items or secrets.

This research seeks to understand the effects of introducing in-game landmarks into games that are played through several fixed camera viewpoints. It studies in what ways the application of landmarks from the perspective of several fixed cameras can aid player navigation.  This study was conducted based on theories such as ontology and comic book sequentiality. These were combined to improve the artifact and generate knowledge on how to better design levels with clarity. As such, a video game artifact was constructed using Research through Design as a methodology to gather design knowledge, supported by a mixed-method data collection practice.  Through these methods, approaching the matter with an ontological lens, several findings were made on player behaviour within the constructed play space. These findings also include ways of better understanding what players focus on and utilize when navigating a play space.

This paper features a study about cooperation and how it can be encouraged via level layout.The research team developed a game with a research intent focused on cooperation driven bythe question: How can player cooperation be encouraged through the placement of incentivesand challenges in the level layout of a local cooperative game? To be able to answer thequestion, the research team looked into papers about cooperation, level design, nudge theory,Cooperative Performance Metrics, and design patterns. The research was conducted by usingiterative design, where three iterations were tested with two groups of four players and thedesign was iterated upon after each test. After all playtests were conducted and all data hadbeen analyzed, evidence was found that the placement of the challenges and incentives in alevel can have an effect on cooperation. This paper makes a contribution to the subject of thecorrelation between cooperation and level design.

The open world game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) has been proven to follow a 40 second rule when placing points of interest for players to explore. The developers of the game said in an interview that the rule existed, and this was proven by a study made in 2021 by Cojanu and Jaber (2021). The 40 second rule means that whichever direction the player goes in, they will encounter a point of interest within 40 seconds. This study asks the question if Genshin Impact (2020) is following the 40 second rule. The researchers analyzed footage from four YouTube content creators to see if the rule was implemented in the game. It was found that Genshin Impact (2020) follows the 40 second rule since the points of interest were about 10 seconds apart. How the player decides to play the game slightly impacts the frequency of the points of interest and could be taken into account when testing the 40 seconds rule. It was found that points of interest found were more random at the start of the game and more intentionally found by the player later in the game. / Öppen världs spelet The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) har visat sig följa en 40 sekunders regel när det gäller placeringen av intressanta platser för spelare att utforska. Spelets utvecklare sa i en intervju att regeln fanns, och detta bevisades genom en studie utförd 2021 av Cojanu och Jaber (2021). Regeln innebär att oavsett vilken riktning spelaren går i så kommer de att stöta på en intressant plats inom 40 sekunder. Denna studie undersöker om Genshin Impact (2020) följer 40 sekunders regeln. Forskarna analyserade videomaterial från fyra YouTube innehållsskapare för att se om regeln implementerades i spelet. Det visades att Genshin Impact (2020) följer 40 sekunders regeln, eftersom de intressanta platserna låg ungefär 10 sekunder ifrån varandra. Hur spelaren väljer att spela spelet påverkar lite grann frekvensen av de intressanta platser och detta kan tas i beaktning när man testar 40 sekunders regeln. Det visade sig att de intressanta platserna var mer slumpmässiga i början av spelet och mer avsiktligt hittade av spelaren senare i spelet.

Open-world videogames inherently allow players a significant amount of freedomwhen traversing the in-game world. Due to this fact, level designers for such games are taskedwith the challenge of maintaining engagement and motivating exploration without drasticallyinfringing on their player agency. With this study, the authors analyzed three popular open-world games via a comparative formal analysis to determine the presence and validity of thePOI Diversity Rule, a conceptual rule for effective open-world level design proposed bySkobelev (2023), which recommends having at least three points of interests on the player’sline of horizon, offering different gameplay experiences. The authors performed this study byplotting out a route known as a “critical path”, taking panoramic screenshots within 30 secondintervals and analyzing them. The results showed that the rule is largely prevalent in all threegames. However, the conditions of fulfillment differ in terms of what categories are mostcommon, and whether static or dynamic POI are most prevalent. / Open world-datorspel ger spelare en hög grad av frihet att resa runt i spelvärlden. Pågrund av detta står leveldesigners för sådana spel inför utmaningen att upprätthållaengagemang och motivera utforskning inom spelvärlden utan att allvarligt begränsa spelarnashandlingsfrihet. I denna studie analyserades tre populära open world-spel via en jämförandeformell analys för att avgöra närvaron och giltigheten av POI Diversity Rule, en konceptuellregel för effektiv open world-leveldesign föreslagen av Skobelev (2023). Regelnrekommenderar att det bör finnas minst tre intressepunkter inom spelarens synligahorisontlinje, som erbjuder olika spelupplevelser. Författarna genomförde denna studiegenom att plotta in en rutt kallad "critical path", ta panoramabilder med 30 sekundersintervaller och analysera dem. Resultaten visade att regeln är till stor del närvarande i alla trespel. Men de specifika villkoren gällande dess uppfyllelse skiljer sig åt när det kommer tillvilka kategorier som är vanligast, och huruvida statiska eller dynamiska intressepunkter ärmest framträdande. / <p></p><p></p>

Communicating design is in many aspects a difficult process. Game design is not only directives on look and feel, but also carries intentionality. To properly convey intentionality, a common abstract vocabulary is a well-established method for expressing design. Game design patterns are an attempt to formalize and establish such a vocabulary. Game design patterns are a debated tool and this paper aims to examine the practical application of a pattern through a quantitative study in order to strengthen the potential for a more cohesive definition of the term. This is done by first establishing a game design pattern through observation of RTS games. The pattern is then studied through implementation in three commercial RTS games. The results focus on quantitative data gathered from AI vs AI matches related to game pacing. Through testing and analysis of the AI matches it can be stated that game design patterns in a contextualized setting supports the idea of using game design patterns as a formal tool. It was further concluded that the AI also came with limitations in how the collected data is applicable to the overall design of the games. Additional studies using quantitative data in conjunction with qualitative observations could lend further support to game design patterns as a useful tool for both researchers and developers. / Kommunikation av design är i många avseenden en invecklad process. Design av spel innebär inte enbart riktlinjer för utseende och känsla, utan också intentionalitet. En beprövad metod för att uttrycka design och intentionalitet är skapandet av ett gemensamt vokabulär. Game design patterns är ett försök att upprätta och formalisera just ett sådant vokabulär inom speldesign. Game design patterns är ett debatterat verktyg och detta arbetet ämnar undersöka den praktiska tillämpningen av ett pattern genom en kvantitativ studie för att stärka potentialen för en mer sammanhängande definition av termen. Detta utförs genom att först etablera ett game design pattern med hjälp av observation av RTS-spel. Sedan studeras det genom implementation i tre kommersiella RTS-spel. Resultatet fokuseras på kvantitativ data relaterat till pacing som insamlas från matcher mellan två AI. Genom analys av AI-matcherna kan det anses att game design pattern i en kontextualiserad inramning stöder teorin att använda design patterns som ett formellt designverktyg. Vidare drogs slutsatsen att användandet av AI också innebär begränsningar i hur tillämplig den insamlade datan är i den övergripande designen av spel. Fler studier med kvantitativ data ihop med kvalitativa observationer kan ytterligare stödja idén om game design pattern som ett användbart verktyg för både forskare och utvecklare inom spel.

Embedded systems have become indispensable in our life: household appliances, cars, airplanes, power plant control systems, medical equipment, telecommunication systems, space technology, they all contain digital computing systems with dedicated functionality. Most of them, if not all, are real-time systems, i.e. their responses to stimuli have timeliness constraints. The timeliness requirement has to be met despite some unpredictable, stochastic behaviour of the system. In this thesis, we address two causes of such stochastic behaviour: the application and platform-dependent stochastic task execution times, and the platform-dependent occurrence of transient faults on network links in networks-on-chip. We present three approaches to the analysis of the deadline miss ratio of applications with stochastic task execution times. Each of the three approaches fits best to a different context. The first approach is an exact one and is efficiently applicable to monoprocessor systems. The second approach is an approximate one, which allows for designer-controlled trade-off between analysis accuracy and analysis speed. It is efficiently applicable to multiprocessor systems. The third approach is less accurate but sufficiently fast in order to be placed inside optimisation loops. Based on the last approach, we propose a heuristic for task mapping and priority assignment for deadline miss ratio minimisation. Our contribution is manifold in the area of buffer and time constrained communication along unreliable on-chip links. First, we introduce the concept of communication supports, an intelligent combination between spatially and temporally redundant communication. We provide a method for constructing a sufficiently varied pool of alternative communication supports for each message. Second, we propose a heuristic for exploring the space of communication support candidates such that the task response times are minimised. The resulting time slack can be exploited by means of voltage and/or frequency scaling for communication energy reduction. Third, we introduce an algorithm for the worst-case analysis of the buffer space demand of applications implemented on networks-on-chip. Last, we propose an algorithm for communication mapping and packet timing for buffer space demand minimisation. All our contributions are supported by sets of experimental results obtained from both synthetic and real-world applications of industrial size.