Non-Player Character (NPC) believability is a game aspect that can be exploited to increase a game's replayability, but little research has been conducted on the topic. One method for enhancing a NPC's believability is to integrate human-like behaviours into their design, so that they react to players in a realistic and interesting way. A large part of human behaviour can be explained by their emotions; therefore it was selected as the inspiration for the GLaDOS system. Two psychological theories of emotion, Lazarus's cognitive appraisal and Plutchik's psycho-evolutionary synthesis, guided the design of the GLaDOS system, although several components are not unique to these theories. An implementation of the design was created as a "mod" for the popular CRPG "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" to test its feasibility within the context of a commercial game. This task required an additional psychological model, PAD space, to map appraisal values to emotion codes and intensities. Feasibility testing was done via a user study to determine if the GLaDOS system increases player engagement when compared to the original game. While the objective analysis found that there were no significant differences between the two versions, subjective participant responses expressed a strong affinity for the GLaDOS system. Since player engagement is inherently subjective, it is encouraging to see positive responses from participants. This indicates that the GLaDOS system, and NPC believability in general, is one aspect of video games that has the potential to increase a game's replayability and should be investigated further. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc) / Realistic video game characters are a desirable game component to increase a game's value. Even if the game's ending does not change, realistic character behaviours encourage players to replay a game multiple times to see what happens along the way. This is closer to tabletop games where players know the game's outcome, but still play because no two sessions are alike. Despite its advantages, few developments have been made towards realistic game characters. An easily recognizable factor of human decision-making and behaviour is emotion and integrating emotion into character design is one way to improve their realism. The GLaDOS system is a proof-of-concept product that incorporates psychological models of emotion into its design. To test its impact on player engagement, the system was implemented as an extension for the popular computer game "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim". Preliminary test results are promising and show that further development could prove fruitful.

This paper examines five cooperative board games from the perspective of how randomization is used and how it affects the replayability and player strategy, with the intent to properly identify and categorize elements that contribute to replayability and tension and uses randomization to do so. Each element directly affected by or causes randomization is identified, explained (both what it does and how and what it affects), and categorized based on where in the game the randomization originates in the effort to create a base for game designers to get a better understanding of randomization, if and how they can use it, and which method of using it that can be useful for their own designs.The thesis discusses the impact of using certain randomization elements and draws some conclusions based on how they relate to the replayability and tension of games that use those elements.

Replayability in games is important to many players as it increases the amount of play time they get out of a game for the price they paid, which is why it is interesting to know how replayability can be promoted in games with simple mechanics. Previous research has categorised what motivates players to play a game again, as aspects of replayability. These aspects and the inherent subjectivity of replayability have been taken into account to define replayability. In this study, a game is designed to be replayable according to those definitions and then iterated on three times. Four different tools and principles for designing for replayability are used and evaluated in the design. All four tools and principles are considered in the initial design, after which one or a few are selected to be used in each game iteration. For each version of the game, the reason for, and the theory behind, design decisions is documented. The game is then released and player data and answers to two questions within the game are gathered to inform reflection. After which the design is reflected on before designing the next iteration. Four different tools and principles were tested as part of the design process. The Periodic Dilemma Generator (Aghekyan, 2021), the Aspects of Replayability (Krall and Menzies, 2012) (Monedero March, 2019), game elements based on randomisation (Bycer, 2018), and a tool to add synergy (Rosewater, 2013). Each of them proved to be useful in different ways. The Aspects of Replayability helped focus the design as goals to work towards. The Periodic Dilemma Generator tool was used throughout the design as both a design tool and a guide for creating meaningful choices. Randomisation was added as part of the game’s initial design and remained the main source of variance throughout all iterations. Designing synergy between game elements then enhanced both the Periodic Dilemma Generator and the randomised variance, making it the tool that provided the most replayability in the game. Using these tools and principles together, they can guide the design to enhance the complexity of a simple game to promote replayability. / Omspelbarhet i spel är viktigt för många spelare då det ökar mängden speltid de får ut av ett spel för det pris de betalade, därför är det intressant att veta hur man kan främja omspelbarhet i spel med enkla mechanics. Tidigare forskning har kategoriserat vad som motiverar spelare att spela ett spel igen. Det kallas aspekter av omspelbarhet. Dessa aspekter och subjektiviteten av omspelbarhet har beaktats för att definiera konceptet. I den här studien designas ett spel för att vara omspelbart enligt de definitionerna och sedan designas tre ytterligare iterationer. Fyra olika verktyg och principer som handlar om att designa för omspelbarhet används och evalueras i designen. Alla fyra verktyg och principer används i den ursprungliga designen, varefter en eller ett fåtal av dem väljs till att användas för att designa varje iteration. För varje version av spelet dokumenteras orsaken till, och teorin bakom, designbeslut. Spelet släpps sedan och spelardata och svar på två frågor inom spelet samlas in för att informera vid reflektion. Varefter designen reflekteras över innan nästa iteration utformas. Fyra olika verktyg och principer testades som en del av designprocessen. Verktyget Periodic Dilemma Generator (Aghekyan, 2021), principen Aspects of Replayability (Krall och Menzies, 2012) (Monedero March, 2019), spelelement baserade på randomisering (Bycer, 2018) och ett verktyg för att lägga till synergi (Rosewater, 2013). De visade sig alla vara användbara på olika sätt. Aspects of Replayability hjälpte till att fokusera designen som genom att agera som mål att arbeta mot. Periodic Dilemma Generator användes genom hela designen som både ett designverktyg och som en guide för att skapa meningsfulla val. Randomisering lades till som en del av spelets ursprungliga design och förblev den huvudsakliga källan till varians genom alla iterationer. Att designa synergi mellan spelelementen förbättrade sedan både Periodic Dilemma Generator och den randomiserade variansen, vilket gjorde det till det verktyg som gav mest omspelbarhet i spelet. Genom att använda dessa verktyg och principer tillsammans kan de vägleda designen för att förbättra komplexiteten i ett enkelt spel och främja omspelbarhet.

I detta kandidatarbete har vi undersökt hur ett spels narrativa återspelbarhet påverkas av en karaktärs reflektion av spelvärlden genom att skapa en gestaltning som fokuserar på relationen mellan världen, karaktären och spelaren.  Genom att bygga ett narrativ med hjälp av existerande narrativa strukturer, har vi försett oss själva med en testmark där vi kan utföra vår undersökning och implementera olika metoder för att studera dess resultat.  Utifrån Donna J. Haraways teori om situerad kunskap har vi undersökt narrativets återspelbarhet från världen, karaktären samt spelarens perspektiv. Detta har sedan lett till en förståelse om narrativ återspelbarhet inom spel, och hur perspektiv och kontext påverkar berättelsen och dess situering. I vår gestaltning skapar vi återspelbarhet genom att driva ett falskt narrativ som sedan tillåter spelaren ett eget perspektiv och narrativ utifrån hens egna tolkning. / In this bachelor thesis, we’ve researched how a game’s narrative replayability is affected by a character’s reflection of the gameworld through the creation of a design - which focuses on the relationship between the world, the characters, and the player. By building a narrative with the help of existing narrative structures, we’ve provided ourselves with a testing ground where we can research our implementation of different methods to study the results. Through Donna J. Haraway’s theory about situated knowledge we’ve examined the narrative replayability from the perspective of the game world, the characters and the player. This has resulted in an understanding of a narrative’s replayability within games, and how perspective and context affect the story and how it’s situated. In our demo we create replayability by driving a false narrative that allows the player their own perspective depending on their own interpretation.