Intrinsically Unpleasant Sounds and Player Experience

This paper shows how college students without prior experience in video game design can create an interesting video game. Video game creation is a task that requires weeks if not months of dedication and perseverance to complete. However, with Alice, a group of three sophomore students who never designed a game can create a full-fledged video game from given specifications. Alice is 3D graphics interactive animation software, which is well-tried and proven to be an enjoyable learning environment. At the start of this project, students are given guidelines that describe expected outcomes. With minimum supervision, in three days, a working program that matches the guidelines is accomplished. In additional two days, students enhance the quality with better graphics design and music. With this experience, 3D graphics interactive animation software, like Alice, is demonstrated to be a useful teaching tool in education for academic courses of game development and design. This paper not just discusses how the video game was created, but also speaks of the difficulties the team overcomes easily with Alice.

Nowadays, video games are getting popular due to the rapid growth of technology, especially mobile technology. Video games are now able to be played on mobile devices whether in single or multiplayer mode by using the internet and it's free and available everywhere. Understanding player experience in mobile video games is essential for developers and researchers. This research evaluates player experience in a mobile video game using the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) and Player Experience Questionnaire (PENS). The evaluation was performed using an online questionnaire form to the participants (N = 110) who had played the specific mobile game. Using the Core Questionnaire from the Game Experience Questionnaire and Player Experience of Need Satisfaction module, this research found that the Game Experience Questionnaire shows high scores values in the aspects of Immersion (4.22), Competence (3.25), and Positive Aspects (4.38) which indicates a good player experience, and the Player Experience of Need Satisfaction shows a rather balanced yet high score for each value that indicates a satisfying player experience.

There are many studies about the historical evolution of videogames, but most of them focused on technological aspects. This is because, for decades, the creation of video games has become a technological milestone of obvious acceptance in the market. However, in these studies, due to the high importance given to the development of the technology they use, the value of the aesthetic aspects involved in them has been omitted in a certain way. This occurs, for example, in the personification of a character, in many cases ignoring the importance that its design can have in fulfilling its role in the game; despite being this aspect the one that mainly realizes the connection between a player and video game. This research seeks to analyze the evolution of graphic lines of characters and the environment for video games identified as popular. The perception of video games in a sample size of a young population from a local environment is also analyzed. About selected videogames, the most relevant aesthetic aspects related to their evolution and success in the market are studied. The evolutionary changes that have occurred in their main characters are also analyzed, evaluating important aspects such as quality, colors, shapes and textures considered in its design. Finally, other graphic elements are observed in the direct relation with the development of contents, and trends of videogames, as well as the way in which their characters interact with a player. English version: https://nawi.espol.edu.ec/index.php/nawi/article/view/1203/1162

This book covers the design and creation of video games using the Java programming language, with the LibGDX software library. By reading Beginning Java Game Development with LibGDX, you will learn how to design video game programs and how to build them in Java. You will be able to create your own 2D games, using various hardware for input (keyboard/mouse, gamepad controllers, or touchscreen), and create executable versions of your games. The LibGDX library facilitates the game development process by providing pre-built functionality for common tasks. It is a free, open source library that includes full cross-platform compatibility, so programs written using this library can be compiled to run on desktop computers (Windows/MacOS), web browsers, and smartphones/tablets (both Android and iOS). Beginning Java Game Development with LibGDX teaches by example with many game case study projects that you will build throughout the book. This ensures that you will see all of the APIs that are encountered in the book in action and learn to incorporate them into your own projects. The book also focuses on teaching core Java programming concepts and applying them to game development.

Problem and goal. The article describes the processes of development of methods of teaching computer science in the organization of extracurricular activities, which contributes to the effectiveness of teaching computer science through the use of games and game forms of organization of extracurricular activities. The aim was to identify the features of the development of an interactive computer game, which is characterized in that it combines all the topics of the course of computer science grades 5-8 and allows to use the tools of an interactive whiteboard, combining them into a single system (grouping objects, working with layers, etc.), and also provides the ability to play using mobile devices, both in the classroom and remotely. This allowed us to take into account the peculiarities of the method of using interactive games in the process of teaching informatics in the conditions of extracurricular activities of students in grades 5-8 and to assess the effectiveness of training, increase motivation and consolidation of students’ knowledge in informatics and increase interest in the subject “Informatics”. Methodology. The development of a specially designed interactive game in the process of teaching informatics in the conditions of extracurricular activities of students in grades 5-8 is carried out by analyzing the possibility of didactic features of extracurricular activities in informatics of schoolchildren in grades 5-8, studying the psychological and pedagogical aspects of teaching students in the conditions of extracurricular activities in informatics using interactive games, observation, organization and conduct of pedagogical experiment and analysis of its results. Results. The possibilities and role of interactive game in the process of teaching informatics in the conditions of extracurricular activities of schoolchildren are revealed. This theoretical justification for the use of interactive games as a tool for development of extracurricular activities in informatics for school students grades 5-8. On the basis of the obtained data, an interactive computer game was developed, introduced and tested as a means of developing extracurricular activities in computer science, the contents of interactive game tasks were selected and systematized, the effectiveness of the method of using interactive games in extracurricular activities in computer science was tested. Conclusion. The results allowed us to conclude that the effectiveness of the game is entirely determined by the extent to which it is implemented educational goals due to the state standard of secondary education in computer science and information and communication technologies. Creation and application of interactive games in extracurricular activities on informatics of pupils of 5-8 classes should take into account general didactic principles (scientific character, availability, systematicity, visibility, continuity, etc.), as well as specific didactic principles due to the use of the advantages of interactive whiteboard - adaptability and interactivity of learning, the implementation of computer visualization capabilities, the development of intellectual potential of students.

Against the backdrop of a hyper-competitive AAA industry and the perception that it is a world reserved for top programmers and hard-core ‘gamers’, Story Mode offers an accessible entry-point for all into writing and designing complex and emotionally affecting narrative video games. The first textbook to combine game design with creative writing techniques, this much-needed resource makes the skills necessary to consume and create digital and multi-modal stories attainable and fun. Appealing to the growing calls for greater inclusivity and access to this important contemporary apparatus of expression, this book offers low-cost, accessible tools and instruction that bridge the knowledge gap for creative writers, showing them how they can merge their skill-set with the fundamentals of game creation and empowering them to produce their own games which push stories beyond the page and the written word. Broken down into 4 sections to best orientate writers from any technological background to the strategies of game production, this book offers: - Contextual and introductory chapters exploring the history and variety of various game genres. - Discussions of how traditional creative writing approaches to character, plot, world-building and dialogue can be utilised in game writing. - An in-depth overview of game studies concepts such as game construction, interactivity, audience engagement, empathy, real-world change and representation that orientate writers to approach games from the perspective of a designer. - A whole section on the practical elements of work-shopping, tools, collaborative writing as well as extended exercises guiding readers through long-term, collaborative, game-centred projects using suites and tools like Twine, Audacity, Bitsy, and GameMaker. Featuring detailed craft lessons, hands-on exercises and case studies, this is the ultimate guide for creative writers wanting to diversify into writing for interactive, digital and contemporary modes of storytelling. Designed not to lay out a roadmap to a successful career in the games industry but to empower writers to experiment in a medium previously regarded as exclusive, this book demystifies the process behind creating video games, orienting readers to a wide range of new possible forms and inspiring them to challenge mainstream notions of what video games can be and become.

<span id="docs-internal-guid-53ba3190-7fff-f986-eada-0c6951574db9"><span>The creation of video games involves multidisciplinary processes that are not accessible to the general public. Currently, the development environments are very powerful tools, but they also require an advanced technical level to even start using them. This article presents a 2D game development environment to propose an alternative model to reduce the technical complexity existing in these systems, presenting a data model and a game editor that allows fulfilling this goal. In order to test its capabilities, several games have been successfully implemented in the proposed environment. With this achievement, it can be stated that it is possible to create video games simply and affordably for the general public without giving up its potential and remarking that there is still a long way to go to reach democratization in the creation of video games and the need to continue working in this field.</span></span>

This volume puts forth an original theoretical framework, the ludonarrative model, for studying video games which foregrounds the empirical study of the player experience. The book provides a comprehensive introduction to and description of the model, which draws on theoretical frameworks from multimodal discourse analysis, game studies, and social semiotics, and its development out of participant observation and qualitative interviews from the empirical study of a group of players. The volume then applies this approach to shed light on how players’ experiences in a game influence how they understand and make use of game components in order to progress its narrative. The book concludes with a frame by frame analysis of a popular game to demonstrate the model’s principles in action and its subsequent broader applicability to analyzing video game interaction and design. Offering a new way forward for video game research, this volume is key reading for students and scholars in multimodality, discourse analysis, game studies, interactive storytelling, and new media.

Research actively explores and advances the play strength of general agents, which are able to play video games without having specific knowledge about them. However, how general agents impact player experience and motivation when implemented in commercially viable games is largely unexplored. In this paper, we investigate this relationship as initial work towards linking general agent behaviour and player experience as a step towards making general agents applicable to commercial video games. Specifically, we created two versions of a simple competitive human-versus-agent game having two general Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) agents with different behaviours. These agents, without having specific knowledge about the game, have two unique goals: i) maximising score; and ii) exploring (more suitable for the game we chose). We integrated these agents into a ’capture the flag’ game and conducted a study to investigate the effects on several player motivation components of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) and Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) scale. Enquiry in this direction opens up the possibilities to start analysing general agents from the perspective of the player’s journey.

Barely 50 years old, video games are among the newest media today, and still a source of fascination and a site of anxiety for cultural critics and parents. Since the 1970s, a generation of video gamers have grown up and as they began to have children of their own, video games have become objects evoking fond memories of the past. Nostalgia for simpler times is evident in the aesthetic choices game designers make: pixelated graphics, 8-bit music, and frustratingly hard levels are all reminiscent of arcade-style and third-generation console games that have been etched into the memory of Generation X. At the same time, major AAA titles have become so photorealistic and full of cinematic ambition that video games can also serve as vehicles for nostalgia by “faithfully” recreating the past. From historical recreations of major cities in the Assassin’s Creed series and L. A. Noire, to the resurrection of old art styles in 80 Days, Firewatch or Cuphead all speak of the extent to which computer gaming is suffused with a longing for pasts that never were but might have been. This paper investigates the design of games to examine how nostalgia is used to manipulate affect and player experience, and how it contributes to the themes that these computer games explore. Far from ruining video games, nostalgia nonetheless exploits the associations the players have with certain historical eras, including earlier eras of video gaming. Even so, the juxtaposition of period media and dystopic rampages or difficult levels critically comment upon the futility of nostalgia.

Self-directed learning in video games, affordances and pedagogical implications for teaching and learning

Currently, few studies focus on analysing the degree of the Player eXperience (PX) in video games. Video games have now become interactive entertainment systems with a high economic impact on society; these are interactive systems characterised by their subjectivity, which differ from other systems in that their main objective is to entertain and amuse the user (player). This work discusses the analysis and evaluation of the User eXperience (UX) in interactive entertainment systems, exploring how usability, given its definition, objectives and the fact it is one of the main dimensions of UX, is not sufficient to characterise the PX, giving rise to a new concept: Playability. In this paper, we present a framework for the analysis and evaluation of the UX in video games. The results show the need and importance of a framework to help us understand and measure the experience that players feel using these types of interactive systems, in order to improve the experience during play time. The proposed framework characterises the experience using attributes to identify and properties to measure UX. It thus provides a multifaceted analysis mechanism to assess the impact of the gaming experience and its relationship with the elements of a video game. We therefore present a system to represent UX based on this framework, with the aim of ensuring and measuring a satisfactory experience of the entertainment system. Finally, we discuss a practical experiment in which an evaluation of the playability of a commercial video game was carried out using the methods proposed in this work.

Multiplayer Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (mDDA) is a method of reducing the difference in player performance and subsequent challenge in competitive multiplayer video games. As a balance of between player skill and challenge experienced is necessary for optimal player experience, this experimental study investigates the effects of mDDA and awareness of its presence on player performance and experience using subjective and biometric measures. Early analysis indicates that mDDA normalizes performance and challenge as expected, but awareness of its presence can reduce its effectiveness.

The game industry continues to evolves its techniques for extracting the most realistic ‘immersion’ experience for players given the vagaries on best-effort Internet service. A key challenge for service providers is understanding the characteristics of traffic imposed on networks by games, and their service quality requirements. Interactive online games are particularly susceptible to the side effects of other non-interactive (or delay- and loss-tolerant) traffic sharing next- generation access links. This creates challenges out toward the edges, where high-speed home LANs squeeze through broadband consumer access links to reach the Internet. In this chapter we identify a range of research work exploring many issues associated with the intersection of highly interactive games and the Internet, and hopefully stimulate some further thinking along these lines.

This chapter explores changing conceptions of learning brought about by technological changes and opportunities and examines more closely the understanding of video game creation as a learning experience. Based on the first year of a three-year ethnographic research study of the educative value and potential of video games within a school setting, this chapter examines the powerful learning and teaching practises in classes of information technology and programming in which video game creation has been used as entry points into learning programming skills. Observations, interviews, and video recordings coupled with students’ articulation of their process were used to examine the depth of students’ learning and revealed the development of their multi-literacy skills, social skills, and their learning process awareness. Suggestions within this chapter include how a social constructivist classroom involving technology and popular culture can be developed and valued.