This study aims to explore the question, how the use of applied gaming aspects through affective gaming, specifically as affective avatars, can promote an increment in play-motivation compared to today’s serious gaming. Similar studies in different fields have already shown, that the use of serious gaming can have a very positive impact on the motivation. This study should provide an initial step towards applying serious gaming and gamification through affective computing, for a more efficient motivational educating. By combining the fun of gaming, serious part and the affective avatar gaming, a much higher informational and motivational result could be achieved. A quantitative method was used to collect the data from 18 participants, participating in the research study. The participants were separated into three groups, equally distributed between experienced video game players and non-experienced ones, playing three different game versions, including and excluding affective elements. The collected and analysed data indicates, that participants do seemingly show a slightly higher play-motivation by having an affective avatar interaction. The gained result from this study could potentially show a new path of using affective avatars in a serious gaming setting and strengthen its possible potential.

Research within the field of serious games shows that games and simulations can supplement traditional learning methods in a positive way. Modern technology allows for simulations of real situations thus allowing for improved vocabulary training. This paper focusses on ESL (English as a second language training) for adult learners and looks at how a prototype set of minigames could be used to enhance learning outcomes in a specific set of vocabulary. The paper looks at a case study carried out by the researcher in Plymouth in the UK at an ESL training centre. Results from this sample showed that this method of using games is viable, however not that much of an improvement on traditional methods.

Com as crescentes expansão e popularização dos jogos digitais, sua utilização para fins além do simples entretenimento é cada vez mais visada por educadores, especialistas e estudantes. No entanto, os jogos educativos nem sempre conseguem concorrer com jogos comerciais. Nesse contexto, a presente pesquisa tem por objetivo desenvolver e avaliar um conjunto de heurísticas projetuais que contribuam com o desenvolvimento, adaptação de conteúdo instrucional e avaliação de jogos digitais educativos. Para isso, foram investigados aspectos relativos ao design instrucional e abordagens de aprendizagem, bem como características referentes a elementos que constituem os jogos digitais comerciais. Esses dados, obtidos a partir de base teórica composta por autores diversos das áreas supracitadas, foram analisados e comparados a partir de informações similares e/ou complementares, gerando um conjunto inicial de heurísticas. Esse foi revisado e incrementado com informações obtidas através de entrevistas com especialistas da área, realizadas para compreender as percepções e aspectos relacionados à prática do desenvolvimento de jogos educativos. O conjunto de heurísticas foi, então, testado e avaliado por especialistas e readequado conforme o feedback recebido. Os resultados permitiram a construção de um protótipo funcional para a adaptação de conteúdo instrucional, desenvolvimento e avaliação de jogos digitais educativos. / With the growth and popularization of videogames, their use to purposes beyond simple entertainment is increasingly targeted by educators, professionals and students. However, educational games are not always able to compete with commercial games. In this context, this research intends to develop and evaluate a set of heuristics for projects, with the purpose of contribute on the development, measurement and adaptation of instructional content on educational games. In order to achieve this goal, aspects related to instructional design and learning approaches have been researched, as well as characteristics of commercial games. These data, obtained through theoretical research, were analyzed and compared through similar/complementary informations, generating a primary set of heuristics, which has been complemented by data obtained through interviews with experts on the subject. The set of heuristics was, then, tested and evaluated by experts, and reviewed according to this feedback. The results allowed the construction of a functional prototype to improve adaptation of instructional content, development and evaluation of educative games.

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Alexandre Santaella Braga / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia e Gestão da Inovação, 2017. / The teaching of innovation project management is traditionally done by exposing a large abstract knowledge base to the students, which makes it dificult the understanding about the application of these concepts in practical situations. Although information and communication technologies (TICs) became a support tool for training and education, with the use of simulations and gamifications, there are few applications that focus on innovation, and even fewer that consider elements of game design in its planning and development in order to enhance the engagement and results of teaching. Within this context, this research proposes a serious game framework for the simulation of product management with concepts of innovation management. This framework was developed with a high level of abstraction and Tycoon style to allow the use of innovation management concepts in a simplified way through a product management simulator. The objective was to correlate the characteristics of innovation management and its measurements that can be explored in simulators using game design techniques. Subsequently, a prototype of this application was developed. It is hoped that the proposed framework and the developed prototype will be used as a tool to support the learning of concepts taught by teachers in the classroom, allowing the experimentation and the greater engagement of the players / students in relation to this theme.

The development of human-computer interaction (HCI) systems, usable by people withvisual impairments is a progressing field of research. Similarly, the creation of audio-onlygames and digital tools has been investigated somewhat thoroughly, with many interestingresults. This thesis aims to combine the two fields in the creation of an audio-only digital tool,aimed at aiding visually impaired persons to navigate unknown areas. This is done by lookingat the field of HCI systems, and games for blind, and by looking at the concept of mentalmaps and spatial orientation within cognitive science. An application is created, evaluatedand tested based on a set number of criteria. An experiment is performed and the results areevaluated and compared to another digital tool in order to learn more about how to increasethe usability and functionality of digital tools for the visually impaired. The results give astrong indication towards how to best proceed with future research.

It is now widely accepted that human behaviour accounts for a large portion of total global emissions, and thus influences climate change to a large extent. Changing human behaviour when it comes to mode of transportation is one component which could make a difference in the long term. In order to achieve behavioural change, we investigate the use of a persuasive multiplayer game. Transportation mode recognition is used within the game to provide bonuses and penalties to users based on their daily choices regarding transportation. To easily identify modes of transportation, an approach to transport recognition based on accelerometer and gyroscope data is analysed and extended. Preliminary results from the machine learning tests show that the classification true-positive rate for recognizing 10 different classes can reach up to 95% when using a history set (66% without). Preliminary results from testers of the game indicate that using games may be successful in causing positive change in user behaviour. / <p>Del av Erasmus Mundus PERCCOM. Redovisning skedde på anordnad summer school av partner-universitet där hela konsortiet närvarade.</p>

The military industry has come to look at games as means for better looking and cheaper simulations. Altering games and game engines are not necessarily easy and finding a suitable engine is essential to project success. The features and design of an engine must to a large degree overlap that of the project design. Creating ‘systems of systems’ by integrating external components/systems with games is what to a large extent differentiate military serious games from other fields. However, this is not an easy task, as games are not designed with interoperability in mind. This report explain how games and game engines can be used to create military serious games, and by that explain what need to be done to have a game interoperate with external systems, how to interact with the game engine, and give guidelines to the process of evaluating and selecting a game engine. The report also argues that game engines are not always the optimal solution.

Denna studie har undersökt hur en användares motivation att samla mynt i ett serious game påverkas av att dessa är sammankopplade med spelets gameplay. För att undersöka detta har två versioner av ett serious game skapats, ett där mynt endast kan användas för att köpa kosmetiska uppgraderingar och ett där uppgraderingarna som kan köpas, utöver kosmetiska förändringar, även påverkar spelets gameplay. 12 personer har deltagit i testet och värderat hur mycket motivation de känt då de spelat spelen. Resultatet tyder på att det inte existerar någon markant skillnad mellan hur mycket motivation testdeltagarna kände inför att samla mynt i de båda versionerna. Undersökningen skulle kunna utvecklas genom att fler tester utförs på flera olika typer av mjukvaror.

This thesis will propose a system for feedback and after action review in serious games. The proposed system, called serious achievements, is built on common scoring systems in commercial games for entertainment. A number of games for training is evaluated to give an overview of how feedback is carried out in existing products and a literature review is made to gather background material to motivate and explain the serious achievement system. Guidelines are thereafter formed focusing on how to create serious achievements for a serious game for education by using the course goals from the course’s curriculum. A case where the game On Scene Commander is equipped with serious achievements from the course goals of the course Incident Commander Basic Level is made and evaluated by rescue training instructors. Conclusions are that the course goals often needs to be more specific and the easiest course goals to implement as serious achievements are the ones that is easily measurable.

Syftet med det här arbetet var att undersöka om spelaren fann det mer engagerande att spela när fakta till stor del presenterades som en del av spelets narrativ i motsats till om fakta till stor del presenterades fristående från det. Syftet var också att undersöka om  det  var  motiverande  att  ställas  inför  en  utmanande  rumslig  utforskning  för  att avancera  genom  spelet  och  därmed  kunna  komma  till  dessa  informationsbaserade moment. En specialdesignad modul som stödjer dessa spelaktiviteter skapades därför i två olika versioner – en var för de båda typerna av faktapresentation. Arbetet  baserar  sig  därför  på  teori  om  olika  typer  av  utforskning,  med  fokus  på narrativ och rumslig utforskning, motivation, belöningar och speldesign. Avsikten är att ge ett teoretiskt bidrag till genrespecifika designriktlinjer för Serious Games, med fokus  på  användarcentrerad  speldesign  där  det  är  centralt  att  spelaren  känner  inre motivation. Slutsatsen  är  att  vem  individen  är  har  störst  påverkan  på  hur  mottagandet  av  spelet blir. Experimentet visade dock på att flera ogillade att bli presenterade fakta fristående från   narrativ   i   Norse   Gleipnir   och   att   en   sådan   design   därmed   kan   vara kontraproduktiv.  När  fakta  istället  presenterades  som  en  del  av  spelets  narrativ verkade  de  ha  en  större  potential  att  positivt  påverka  spelarens  motivation  och spelupplevelse  –  förutsatt  att  informationen  presenterades  på  ett  sätt  som  passade spelarens preferenser. Flera av testpersonerna  verkade ha uppfattningen att det hade varit mer positivt om det funnits mer återkoppling mellan information och tema och vad  som  fanns  och  hände  i  spelvärlden.  Vad  gäller  utförandet  av  den  rumsliga utforskningen  visade  experimentet  att  många  uppfattade  den  som  alltför  krävande eller  repetitiv  på  sina  håll,  vilket  hade  en  negativ  inverkan  på  deras  spelupplevelse. Däremot upplevde flera av testpersonerna också positiva aspekter med den rumsliga utforskningen, där en av dem verkade vara atmosfären i vissa av spelets rum.