Video Game Development and User Experience

This book chapter describes an approach of evaluating user experience in video games by using heuristics. We provide a short overview of video games and explain the concept of user-centred design for games. Furthermore we describe the history of heuristics for video games and the role of user experience of games in general. Based on our previous work and experience we propose a revised framework consisting of two sets of heuristics (game play/game story, virtual interface) to detect the most critical issues in games. To assess its applicability to measure user experience factors we compare the results of expert evaluations of six current games with the user experience-based ratings of various game reviews. Our findings indicate a correlation between the extent to which our framework is satisfied and the game’s average rating.

The first step in understanding the user experience needs of the video games industry is to ascertain current practice. The following chapter gives an overview of the game development process and provides background on the time frame and roles involved. We present case studies from three world-class development studios and show how the user experience is currently addressed during a game’s creation. The first case study with Disney’s Black Rock Studio details the development of their most recent racing game, Pure, and describes the usability testing which the developer believes improved the game’s Metacritic score by 10%. The second case study with Zoe Mode refers to several of their recent releases, Rock Revolution, You’re in the Movies, and games in the Eye Toy series. Special consideration is given to understanding and addressing players in a language appropriate to their background as gamers. The third case study with Relentless Software concentrates on the studio’s use of focus group testing and attention to the casual gamer demographic. In addition to showing real-world examples of current practice, this chapter identifies the contribution that HCI can make for user experience methodologies in the games industry. Recommendations are made for generally applying usability techniques earlier in development, and user experience testing later once a playable vertical slice is available. We conclude with some discussion of innovative methodologies and pose the need for a formalised framework for user experience in video game development.

Procedural content generation is helping game developers to create significant quantity of high quality dynamic content for video games at a fraction of cost of the traditional methods. Procedural texture synthesis is a sub category of procedural content generation which helps video games to have significant variations in textures of the environments and the objects across the progress of the game and to avoid repetition. Generative Adversarial Networks are a class of deep learning algorithms which are capable of learning the patterns and creating new patterns. In this paper, Generative Adversarial Networks is used for procedural content generation for original textures synthesis for video game development. This method is used by video game designers for autonomous redesigning of objects and environment textures. This process saves significant time and cost in video game development. The particular attention in this paper is on procedural synthesis of ground surface textures. The generated texture samples are visually acceptable and have mean score of 2.45 with 0.1 standard deviation after 2K iteration. Also the discriminator loss of generated samples reached 0.74 at the final stage of training. The proposed framework can be used as an effective procedural texture synthesis framework for video game design and development.

This chapter describes an approach to evaluating user experience in video games and advanced interaction games (tabletop games) by using heuristics. We provide a short overview of computer games with a focus on advanced interaction games and explain the concept of user-centred design for games. Furthermore, we describe the history of heuristics for video games and the role of user experience of games in general. We propose a framework consisting of three sets of heuristics (game play/game story, virtual interface and tabletop specific) to detect the most critical issues in video games as well as advanced interaction games. To assess its applicability, we compare the results of expert evaluations of five current games with the user experience-based ratings of various game review sites. In the conclusion, we provide an outlook on possible extensions of our approach.

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.

Scholars have extensively studied video game labor practices (e.g., Bulut, E. (2015). Glamor above, precarity below: Immaterial labor in the video game industry. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 32(3), 193-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2015.1047880 , Bulut, E. (2020). White masculinity, creative desires, and production ideology in video game development. Games and Culture, 16, 1555412020939873; Banks, J. (2013). Co-creating videogames. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing; Kerr, A. (2010). The culture of gamework. In M. Deuze (Ed), Managing Media Work (pp. 225-236). London: Sage; O’Donnell (2009). The everyday lives of video game developers: Experimentally understanding underlying systems/structures. Transformative Works and Cultures, 2. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2009.0073 , O’Donnell (2014). Developer’s dilemma: The secret world of videogame creators. Cambridge, MA: MIT press; Johnson, R. S. (2013). Toward greater production diversity. Games and Culture, 8(136), 136-160. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412013481848 , Johnson, R. (2014). Hiding in plain sight: Reproducing masculine culture at a video game studio. Communication, Culture & Critique, 7, 578-594. https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12023 ); yet, few have exclusively examined the process of character design (e.g., Srauy, S. (2017). Professional norms and race in the North American video game industry. Games and Culture, 14, 478-497. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412017708936 ). Using a grounded theory analysis of 19 interviews with games designers and developers, this work complements existing research with insights on how gender and gendered interactions, technologies, audiences, market logics, and corporate culture integrate and influence character design practices. We found that technological affordances (e.g., game engines and related software; see Whitson, J. R. (2018). Voodoo software and boundary objects in game development: How developers collaborate and conflict with game engines and art tools. New Media & Society, 20, 2315-2332) converged with the masculine, heteronormative identities of game developers to shape normalized valued practices for character design, resulting in formulaic tropes that generally appealed to a masculine audience. Changes in status quo character design were attributed to diversity-conscious individuals, who operated within organizational practices privileging proven formulas over innovative designs.

The term user experience (UX) emerged in the early 1990’s. Thenceforth, UX has become a key term for researchers to focus on aspects that go beyond usability and particularly in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The aim of this study is to analyse the bibliometric aspect of UX evaluation literature from Scopus database whereby 644 papers were extracted. The study utilised publishing or perishing software to collect the data, while VOSviewer was used to visualise the data. Data analysis was also carried out using SPSS and Microsoft Excel. The publication of articles between 2018 and 2019 increased to 117 articles in 2019 and this is the highest publication to date. Most of the publications are from journals and conferences, mainly in English. Based on the analysis of the co-occurrence map of all keywords in the articles published, the keywords frequently used by the authors are user experience (416) and user experience evaluation (155). Most of the research related to UX evaluation was conducted in United States; and the researchers prefer multi-authored publications. The co-authorship map of the journal’s authors showed that V. Roto is one of the dominant co-authorships. Other than that, Arnold P. O. S. Vermeeren is also the most cited author of UX evaluation in Scopus database. This study presents the history of scientific literature in user experience evaluation and will provide guidance for future research.

Evaluating user experience of adaptive digital educational games with Activity Theory

Nowadays, there is a growing interest in User Experience (UX) evaluation in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field to evaluate information systems. Meanwhile, the application of neuroscientific measurement tools in user experience studies is constantly increasing. Within the scope of this study, a systematic mapping is conducted on the use of electroencephalography (EEG), one of the neuroscientific measurement tools, in UX evaluation studies published between 2010-2020. 89 studies are gathered from Web of Science (WoS) database, Science Direct (Elsevier), IEEE Xplore Library, ACM Digital Library, according to the scope of the study, are examined. The aim of this study is to reveal the trends and the use of EEG with the other UX evaluation methods in UX evaluation research. According to the results of the study, the types of data collected by EEG for UX evaluation are emotion and attention, data is generally collected as single episodic experience. In addition, the support vector machine is used for the classification and event-related potential is used for the feature extraction of the EEG data.

The growth of the software game development industry is enormous and is gaining importance day by day. This growth imposes severe pressure and a number of issues and challenges on the game development community. Game development is a complex process, and one important game development choice is to consider the developer’s perspective to produce good-quality software games by improving the game development process. The objective of this study is to provide a better understanding of the developer’s dimension as a factor in software game success. It focuses mainly on an empirical investigation of the effect of key developer’s factors on the software game development process and eventually on the quality of the resulting game. A quantitative survey was developed and conducted to identify key developer’s factors for an enhanced game development process. For this study, the developed survey was used to test the research model and hypotheses. The results provide evidence that game development organizations must deal with multiple key factors to remain competitive and to handle high pressure in the software game industry. The main contribution of this paper is to investigate empirically the influence of key developer’s factors on the game development process.

The purpose of the paper to investigate whether the development process of a video game relates to its quality. The worldwide video game industry had its ups and downs from their beginning in the 1950s until the present, with many video games released to success, but there are many which fail. To find the relationship between the development process of a video game and its quality, the author tries to study the development of 20 video games from a multitude of genres by AAA developers and publishers in the last ten years and comparing their respective critical reception and sales. The result of this paper tries to answer the question of whether a video game will be successful or failed in the commercial market based on its development process, marketing and life cycle. From the recent trends, the result is most likely inconclusive or varied depending on the video game in question. The author expects that this paper will give an insight about the development of video games to the readers and act as a basis to decide whether a video game can be considered a success or a failure in the market.

BackgroundSimilar to broader health disparities, Latinx adolescents have higher rates of high-risk sexual behavior resulting in pregnancy rates that are 2 times higher and sexually transmitted infection rates that are 5 to 8 times higher than non-Hispanic, white adolescents. Novel approaches are needed to reduce high-risk sexual behavior among Spanish-speaking Latinx adolescents who represent the fastest-growing group of US immigrants.ObjectiveThis study aimed to partner with Spanish-speaking Latinx adolescents in a participatory design process to develop and test a Spanish-language video game intervention to decrease high-risk heterosexual behavior.MethodsThis is an iterative, two-phase, mixed methods study. In phase 1, we conducted focus groups with Spanish-speaking Latinx adolescents to elicit feedback on the content and format of an existing English-language video game. Feedback was then incorporated into an expanded and culturally adapted Spanish-language video game. In phase 2, we pilot tested the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the new Spanish-language video game intervention by measuring known antecedents to sexual behavior (intentions, self-efficacy, risk perception, and knowledge) assessed at enrollment and 12-week follow-up. We applied a thematic analysis to examine focus group feedback and a bivariate analysis to analyze pre- and postquantitative data.ResultsIn phase 1, 15 Spanish-speaking Latinx adolescents provided feedback for further video game development. A Spanish-language video game was then produced and tested in phase 2. We recruited and enrolled 24 Spanish-speaking Latinx adolescents aged 15 to 17 years. Participants played the video game for an average of 4.2 hours during monitored sessions. Pilot testing demonstrated feasibility and acceptability; 65% (3/20) of participants stated that they would play it again, and 65% (3/20) said they would recommend it to friends. Condom-specific knowledge did significantly increase between baseline and follow-up (P=.007). Other variables of sexual behavior antecedents did not differ significantly between baseline and 12-week follow-up.ConclusionsAn iterative participatory design process in partnership with Spanish-speaking adolescents produced an innovative and acceptable Spanish-language video game intervention aimed at decreasing high-risk sexual behavior in adolescents. Pilot testing demonstrated preliminary feasibility and yielded essential information for further video 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.

While research has investigated the application of computational methodologies in undergraduate biology education, those approaches require students certain backgrounds from multiple disciplines. Recently, game design and development for education has moved into different fields of science, including biology. Several multi-media interactive products have been developed to simulate biological mechanisms and can be used by undergraduate students. However these approaches focus on students as game users and, not as game developers. Here, we propose an innovative approach to involve game design and development into undergraduate biology classroom. The approach assumes no additional background, and aims to increase engagement in the complexities of the course material through the process of game design and development. We initialized a case study that systematically combines a game application-driven project into genetics teaching. In the pedagogical experiment, undergraduate biology and computer science students designed educational games to enhance the speed and depth of comprehension of both biological and software engineering concepts. The result of this study shows that the reinforcement effects of biological education games apply differently on students with or without biology backgrounds.

Computer science (CS) is a field of practical and scientific approach on computation and applications. Consequently, the CS students should be able to adjust to develop different types of software applications. However, even though video games are one type of software, they also impose additional requirements for the developers. In this paper we present the results of our qualitative studies on how prepared CS students are to function as game developers. The paper assesses the knowledge gaps between students majoring in computer science and game developer needs in two ways; a longitudinal study on a game development course and a focused case study on developing a game. Based on our results there are differences in communication and planning approaches between the CS students and game developers, and skill needs for game development content on a traditional computer science course curricula.