This thesis has been carried out at the company Stakkr AB in Stockholm. Stakkr have considered moving their existing C++ code to the visual programming language Blueprints in Unreal Engine 4. The objective of this study was to examine the performance of Blueprint if it’s suitable for mobile games, as well to provide Stakkr a suitability assessment of writing code in Blueprint and examine how well it performs compared with the language programming language C++. The assessment of suitability was performed by implementing a translation of two existing C++ classes to Blueprints and an assessment was made regarding development in Blueprint and performance testing between the existing C ++ and the developed Blueprint classes. The method of execution of the assessment was to work agile in short and structured iterations. The assessment of the suitability of the study showed that it was user-friendly to develop with Blueprint. However the existing C ++ classes outperformed the classes written in Blueprints. The reason why Blueprints perform worse has been identified and recommendations regarding the performance issues have been developed. / Detta examensarbete har genomförts på företaget Stakkr AB i Stockholm. Stakkr har övervägt att flytta över sin befintliga C++ kod till det visuella programmeringsspråk Blueprints i Unreal Engine 4. Målet med detta examensarbete har varit att undersöka om prestandan i Blueprints är lämplig för mobilspel samt att tillhandahålla Stakkr en lämplighetsutvärdering av att skriva kod i Blueprints och undersöka hur bra den presterar jämfört med språkstandarden C++. bedömningen av lämpligheten utfördes genom att genomföra en översättning av två befintliga C++ klasser till Blueprints, en bedömning av att utveckla i Blueprints har gjorts och prestandatester har utförts mellan de befintliga C++ gentemot de utvecklade Blueprintklasserna. Metoden för utförandet av bedömningen var att arbeta agilt i korta och strukturerade iterationer. Bedömningen från lämplighetsundersökningen visade att det var användarvänligt att utveckla i Blueprints. Dock presterade Blueprintklasserna sämre än de befintliga C++ klasser. Anledningen till varför Blueprints presterar sämre har identifierats och rekommendationer gällande detta har tagits fram.

Digital commerce is a natural part of our everyday life. To fast and easily be able to make purchases from our home without stress has become a matter of course for us. But the new way to make purchases places new demands on the sales, not least at the important customer meeting. The interaction between customer and seller disappears completely and known marketing methods must be adapted to the new conditions. How does the customer journey change when the step from discovering a product to buying it is just a few clicks away? The study aims to investigate and develop a digital sales process for a mobile game aimed for children. The process is based on the marketing framework See-Think-Do-Care and tries to answer questions like which components are needed in a sales flow? How can a product be adapted to different types of users and can UX design be used to get interested customers to buy the product? The method is divided into two different sections. One section for evaluating the chosen marketing framework and another for the development of the sales process. The development of the sales process was made stepwise by prototypes in different degrees of fidelity. The first part of the result ended up in the implementation of the marketing framework, a developed customer journey, and a compilation of ten guidelines to adhere to for increasing the conversion of new customers. The sales flow was then developed step by step from only showing the routing to be a clickable solution similar to the intended end product. The di↵erent prototypes were evaluated by user testing and it was shown that the largest problem was not to make users understand the sales flow, it was to make them understand the actual product. The hope is that the result of the study will be able to be tested in production and be used in the real sales of the product.

Mobile learning has significant potential to be very influential in further and higher education. In this research a new definition for Mobile Educational Mixed Reality Games (MEMRG) is proposed based on a mobile learning environment. A questionnaire and a quantifying scale are utilised to assist the game developers in designing a MEMRG. A ¿Conversational Framework¿ is proposed as an appropriate psycho-pedagogical approach to teaching and learning for MEMRG. This methodology is based on the theme of a ¿conversation¿ between different actors of the learning community with the objective of building the architectural framework for MEMRG. Various elements responsible for instructing and motivating learners in educational games are utilised in an instructional-motivational model. User interface design for the games incorporates an efficient navigation system that uses contextual information, and allows the players to move seamlessly between real and virtual worlds. The implementation of MEMRG using the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) platform iii is presented. The hardware and software specification for the MEMRG implementation and deployment are also discussed. MEMRG has produced improvements in the different cognitive processes of the learner, and also produced a deeper level of learning through enculturation, externalising ideas, and socialising. Learners¿ enjoyment, involvement, motivation, autonomy and metacognition skills have improved. This research will assist developers and teachers to gain an insight into learning paradigms which utilise mobile game environments that are formed by mixing real and virtual spaces, and provide them with a vision for effectively incorporating these games into formal and informal classroom sessions.

Online applications that are open to participation lack reliable methods to establish the integrity of user-generated information. Users may unknowingly own compromised devices, or intentionally publish forged information. In these scenarios, applications need some way to determine the "correctness" of autonomously generated information. Towards that end, this thesis presents a "trust-but-verify" approach that enables open online applications to independently verify the information generated by each participant. In addition to enabling independent verification, our framework allows an application to verify less information from more trustworthy users and verify more information from less trustworthy ones. Thus, an application can trade-off performance for more integrity, or vice versa. We apply the trust-but-verify approach to three different classes of online applications and show how it can enable 1) high-integrity, privacy-preserving, crowd-sourced sensing 2) non-intrusive cheat detection in online games, and 3) effective spam prevention in online messaging applications.

Η εργασία αυτή εκτός από το θέμα της, μπορούμε να πούμε ότι χαρακτηρίζεται από τον τίτλο «Κοινωνικά εργαλεία του διαδικτύου: Δημιουργία περιεχομένου για χώρο-ευαίσθητα παιχνίδια από τελικούς χρήστες». Εξετάζει λοιπόν τη χρήση των κοινωνικών δικτύων και των εργαλείων τους ως μέσα για την συνεργατική δημιουργία περιεχομένου για χωρο-ευαίσθητα φορητά παιχνίδια. Τα παιχνίδια αυτά διεξάγονται στον πραγματικό κόσμο και περιλαμβάνουν αλληλεπίδραση των παικτών με αντικείμενα του φυσικού πραγματικού χώρου μέσω φορητών συσκευών. Τα παιχνίδια αυτά ενδείκνυνται για εγκαθιδρυμένη και άτυπη μάθηση. Η δημιουργία περιεχομένου για τις αντίστοιχες εφαρμογές είναι μια διαδικασία που χρειάζεται να συμπεριλάβει ενεργά ανθρώπους όπως εκπαιδευτικούς - παιδαγωγούς και ειδήμονες στην εκάστοτε θεματική του παιχνιδιού, οι οποίοι δρουν ως συντάκτες περιεχομένου για τα παιχνίδια αυτά. Καθίσταται λοιπόν απαραίτητο να υπάρχουν εργαλεία υποστήριξης για χρήστες που δεν έχουν τεχνικές γνώσεις ή δεν είναι σχεδιαστές παιχνιδιών. Στην εργασία αυτή εξετάζεται η κατασκευή ενός εργαλείου, το οποίο μέσω μιας φιλικής διεπιφάνειας δίνει τη δυνατότητα στους συντάκτες περιεχομένου να δημιουργήσουν με συνεργατικό τρόπο, εύκολα και γρήγορα ένα ή και περισσότερα σενάρια παιχνιδιού. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, η εργασία εστιάζει στη συγγραφή περιεχομένου για ένα παιχνίδι που λαμβάνει τόπο στο κέντρο μιας πόλης. Η εφαρμογή συνεργατικής συγγραφής έχει σχεδιαστεί και αναπτύσσεται κάνοντας χρήση δύο βασικών τεχνολογιών: της πλατφόρμας κοινωνικής αλλά και συνεργατικής δικτύωσης στεκιών Google+ καθώς επίσης και την πλατφόρμα παροχής χαρτών Google maps. / In this thesis we discuss the use of social media as tools for collaboratively creating content for location-sensitive mobile educational games. These games are conducted in the real world and include the players interact with objects in the real physical space with the use of mobile devices. Creating content for the respective applications is a process that needs to actively include people like teachers - educators and experts in a particular topic of the game, who act as editorial content for these games. Consequently, it seems necessary to have support tools for users without any technical knowledge. The thesis also examines the development of a tool, which through a friendly interface enables content authors to create in a collaborative way, easily and quickly one or more game scenarios. More specifically, the work focuses on writing content for a game that takes place in the center of a city. The collaborative authoring application designed and developed with the use of two technologies: the platform of collaborative social networking Google+ Hangouts and the Google maps platform.

Only a decade ago, research was limited regarding enjoyment and player motivation in digital games. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a developed story in a mobilepuzzle game. The main research question was if a developed story can affect the motivation to play a mobile puzzle game, and the secondary question was if a developed story can affect players’ overall impression of a mobile puzzle game. The sample size was eight participants (five men, two women, one non-disclosed), who enjoys playing mobile games, and were between 20-28 years old. A semi-controlled field study was performed with a between-group design consisting of experimental group and control group. Participants played freely a mobile puzzle game with a pre-existing or a developed story for a week, then returned for an evaluation interview. Their total playtime was measured with on-screen time trackers and their motivation and overall impression with subjective ratings on a five-level scale, as well as their reasonings to the ratings. The results showed no main difference between the two conditions. However, exploratory analysis found that participants who were interested in a story had lower motivation to continue playing compared to those not interested in a story, possibly due to their player type. This study makes way for future research regarding story and video games, mobile games in particular. In the long run this research could contribute to make mobile games more immersive and enjoying to play for the public. / För bara ett årtionde sen var forskning begränsad kring nöje och spelares motivation i digitala spel. Syftet med studien var att undersöka effekten av en utvecklad berättelse i ett mobiltpusselspel. Den huvudsakliga forskningsfrågan var om en utvecklad berättelse kan påverka motivationen för att spela ett mobilt pusselspel, andra forskningsfrågan var om en utvecklad berättelse kan påverka spelarnas helhetsintryck av ett mobilt pusselspel. Stickprovet bestod av åtta deltagare (fem män, två kvinnor och en som valde att ej ange kön) som gillar att spela mobilspel och som var mellan 20-28 år gamla. En semi-kontrollerad fältstudie genomfördes med en mellangruppsdesign som bestod av experimentgrupp och kontrollgrupp. Deltagarna fick fritt spela ett förbestämt mobilt pusselspel med antingen den existerande eller den utvecklade berättelsen i en vecka, sedan komma tillbaka för en intervju med återkoppling. Deras totala speltid mättes med “on-screen”-tid, deras motivation och helhetsintryck med hjälp av subjektiva skattningar på en skala 1-5, tillsammans med deras resonemang bakom skattningarna. Resultaten visade ingen skillnad mellan de två betingelserna. Den utforskande analysen föreslår dock att deltagare som var intresserad av en berättelse hade lägre motivation att fortsätta spela jämfört med de som inte var intresserade av berättelsen, möjligen på grund av deras speltyp. Studien banar väg för framtida forskning gällande berättelser och spel, specifikt mobilspel. På lång sikt kan den här forskningen bidra till att göra mobilspel som ger mer inlevelse och är roligare att spela för allmänheten.

“Freemium” (Free + Premium) hat sich zu einem führenden Preismodell für digitale Güter entwickelt. Dabei kann die Basisversion eines Produkts, z.B. von Handy-Applikationen (“Apps”), unbegrenzt kostenlos genutzt werden und Firmen bieten Premium-Erweiterungen gegen Bezahlung an. Konsumenten haben in 2018 194 Milliarden mal Apps heruntergeladen und 101 Milliarden US-Dollar für In-App-Einkäufe ausgegeben. Beinahe 80% des Umsatzes auf App-Stores wird dabei durch Handyspiele generiert. 2,4 Milliarden Menschen haben in 2019 Handyspiele gespielt, was der Hälfte aller App-Nutzer im gleichen Zeitraum entspricht. Die Hauptthese dieser Dissertation ist, dass preisreduzierende Sonderangebote von großer Wichtigkeit für das Vermarkten von Freemium-Gütern sind: Obwohl Freemium bereits eine extreme Preis-Reduktion darstellt, indem es ein Produkt Konsumenten kostenlos zum Ausprobieren zur Verfügung stellt, können demnach Firmen durch die Nutzung weiterer Sonderangebotstaktiken höhere Profite generieren. Die Arbeit postuliert weiter (und beweist dies empirisch), dass lange angenommene Risiken in der Nutzung von Sonderangeboten, die vor allem bei klassischen Konsumgütern etabliert wurden, im Freemium-Bereich in dieser Form nicht zutreffen. Diese Perspektive entwickelt und vertieft der Autor über vier individuelle Papiere, die zusammen mit einer einleitenden Zusammenfassung die fünf Kapitel dieser Dissertation ausmachen. Die vorliegende Arbeit ist empirischer Natur und wendet “Advanced Analytics”, insbesondere Feldexperimente und maschinelles Lernen, in Zusammenarbeit mit Firmen an. Als repräsentativer Forschungsgrund dienen dabei Freemium-Handyspiele, in denen Firmen detaillierte Daten über Interaktionen mit Kunden sammeln. Anhand dieser Daten leitet der Autor neue Kenntnisse über Kundenverhalten ab und entwickelt Entscheidungsunterstützungssysteme, die es Firmen ermöglichen, höhere Gewinne beim Verkauf von Freemium-Gütern zu erzielen. / “Freemium” (free + premium) has become a workhorse pricing model in the digital economy: A basic version of a product or service, e.g., mobile applications (“apps”), can be used for free in perpetuity and premium upgrades are available against payment of a fee. Consumers downloaded apps 194 billion times in 2018 and spent $101 billion on in-app purchases in the same time period. Accounting for almost 80% of that revenue, gaming in particular has seen an unparalleled expansion of demand. It is estimated that 50% of mobile app users play games regularly and that a global total of 2.4 billion people will play mobile games in 2019. The core thesis of this dissertation is that promotions are essential to the marketing of freemium goods such as mobile apps and games. While freemium already represents a promotional pricing tactic in using a zero price for free sampling, the author conjectures that firms can operate their freemium offerings more profitably by using further promotional tactics, especially targeted and personalized promotions, to sell premium upgrades. The author also argues (and shows) that widespread concerns around the use of promotions, particularly developed in the setting of consumer packaged goods, do not apply in the same way in this setting. This thinking is qualified and developed across four chapters that represent individual papers after providing an introduction to the work in the first chapter. The work is empirical in nature and applies advanced analytics, in particular field experimentation and machine learning, in collaboration with firms. As representative of the freemium app economy, the collaborating firms observe dense user data that enable the author to both derive insights on consumer behavior that extend existing conceptual thinking in the field of marketing and to devise decision support and expert systems that allow firms to operate more profitably in this setting.

Esta investigación busca estructurar un sistema clasificatorio para los personajes antropomorfos utilizados en los videojuegos móviles. Es a base de esta premisa que se propone la viabilidad de generar una clasificación que responde a procesos gráficos empleados al momento de desarrollar personajes antropomorfos para videojuegos, los cuales van a permitir identificar su razón e intención comunicativa como elemento visual. Para lograr este objetivo se analizó un total de cuatro juegos móviles con distintos ejes temáticos, proceso que toma en consideración premisas sugeridas por clasificaciones en otras áreas de estudio en torno al antropomorfismo. A su vez, esta información se complementa con entrevistas hechas a expertos en áreas de conocimiento pertinentes a la investigación, con el fin de complementar la información adquirida. Producto de estos análisis, se obtuvo como principal resultado un grupo de constantes que responden a las atribuciones emocionales, físicas e incorporaciones de factores contextuales que permitirían generar un sistema de clasificación funcional. Finalmente, se pudo concluir que la ejecución de estos personajes integra procesos de desarrollo y conceptualización similar a los utilizados en el diseño gráfico, además, también se logró identificar prácticas que podrían afectar el proceso de comprensión del personaje y su percepción como pieza comunicativa. / This research seeks to structure a classification system for anthropomorphic characters used in mobile video games. It is based on this premise that we propose the feasibility of generating a classification that responds to graphic processes used when developing anthropomorphic characters for video games, which will allow us to identify their reason and communicative intention as a visual element. To achieve this objective, a total of four mobile games with different thematic axes were analyzed, a process that takes into consideration premises suggested by classifications in other areas of study on anthropomorphism. At the same time, this information was complemented with interviews with experts in areas of knowledge relevant to the research, to complement the information acquired. The main result of these analyses was a group of constants that respond to emotional and physical attributions and the incorporation of contextual factors that would allow the generation of a functional classification system. Finally, it was possible to conclude that the execution of these characters integrates development and conceptualization processes like those used in graphic design, in addition, it was also possible to identify practices that could affect the process of understanding the character and its perception as a communicative piece. / Trabajo de investigación

Les joueuses (femmes) sont devenues plus actives sur le marché des jeux mobiles ces dernières années. Et les jeux vidéo pour femmes, qui étaient auparavant une catégorie de niche, ont fait leur entrée sur le marché en raison de l’augmentation de l’auditoire. Dans le même temps, cependant, peu de recherches ont été menées sur ces jeux dans le milieu universitaire, en particulier en Europe et aux États-Unis. Par conséquent, l’objectif principal de ce mémoire est d’analyser le design des personnages de cette catégorie de jeux, en abordant le cas de Mr. Love : Queen’s Choice, un jeu mobile pour femmes qui est devenu un grand succès sur le marché asiatique. Sur la base du cadre conceptuel des valeurs dans les jeux proposés par Mary Flanagan et Jonathan Belman (Flanagan et Nissenbaum, 2014) ainsi que la théorie sémiotique de Roland Barthes (1964), ce mémoire étudie les caractéristiques des personnages dans les jeux vidéo pour femmes, sous quatre aspects principaux : les caractéristiques de base du jeu, le gameplay (la façon dont on joue), l’esthétique et la narration. Le mémoire est divisé en six chapitres. Le premier chapitre est l’introduction, qui présente le contexte et la signification du sujet ; le deuxième chapitre est la revue de la littérature, qui vise à recenser les résultats de la recherche académique actuelle sur les jeux vidéo, les jeux mobiles, les questions de genre dans les jeux et les jeux orientés vers les femmes ; le troisième chapitre présente la problématique; le quatrième chapitre aborde la méthodologie et présente brièvement les principales idées directrices et la structure tout au long du processus de recherche. Le cinquième chapitre est entièrement consacré à l’analyse pour répondre à la problématique et le dernier chapitre est constitué d’une conclusion et des discussions. / Female players (women) have become more active in the mobile game market in recent years. And women’s games, which used to be a niche category, have entered the public eye due to the increased audience. At the same time, however, not much research has been done on these games in academia, especially in Europe and the US. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to analyse the character design of this category of games, addressing the case of Mr. Love: Queen's Choice, a mobile game for women that has become a big hit in the Asian market. Based on the elements of game value research proposed by Belman, this paper will study the character design features in this category of games from four major aspects: basic game features, gameplay, aesthetics and narrative. At the same time, since the study of this paper does not involve any interviews, it mainly focuses on textual analysis. The ideas of textual analysis in it are mainly inspired by Roland Barthes’ mythology as well as semiotic theory. The paper is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is the introduction, which presents the context and meaning of the topic; the second chapter is the literature review, which aims to identify the results of current academic research on video games, mobile games, gender issues in games and women-oriented games; the third chapter presents the problematic; the next chapter discusses the methodology and briefly presents the main guiding ideas and structure throughout the research process. The fifth chapter is entirely devoted to the analysis to answer the problematic and the last chapter constitutes a conclusion and discussions.

I denna rapport vill vi lyfta fram de möjligheter och begränsningar som finns för att skapa nya engagerande läromiljöer genom att implementera ett mobilt lärospel i ett svenskt skolsammanhang. För att exemplifiera detta har vi i vårt projekt skapat ett mobilt lärospel kallat Agent O, som två högstadieskolor med ungdomar mellan 15-16 år gamla fått testspela. / This essay is a product of our bachelor of science in interactiondesign. Our focus in this project was to evaluate the mobile learning game from MIT and transform it so it would fit into Swedish schools and to redesign the interface from an interactiondesigners perspective and make it more goal-orientated for teenagers at the age of 13 to 16 years old. This resulted in the mobile learning game called Agent O. A learning game with the main purpose to evolve an interaction between the pupils and the pedagogical material through a handheld computer. Taking the learning procedure to a level where the learning part differs as when reading a textbook or solving a mathematic equation. Learning by doing may encourage the teenager to be active in the lecture in a progressive way.In this essay we present the theoretical basis by giving a background and context description of technology where it has been used as an educational complement. We will describe the limitations when designing an interface for mobile games, and look upon the possibilities for this kind of mobile learning game in Swedish schools. We have performed two main usertests at two schools in Malmö and the results of these tests are presented in the report.