Between particularity and the construction of the world: Mimesis in video games – levels, types, and contexts

The category of mimesis is not a very frequent subject of video game analysis. The literature within this field includes only a few studies devoted to it. In this article I will focus on various extents of mimesis in games as well as factors that have an impact on the mimetic relations. I will also propose several sub-terms, which can define specific types of mimesis in games: from particular mimesis through fractal to the holistic one. The selected games, both the up-to-date ones and those popular in the past, will serve as case studies

AtDelfi: Automatically Designing Legible, Full Instructions For Games

This paper introduces a fully automatic method for generating video game tutorials. The AtDELFI system (AuTomatically DEsigning Legible, Full Instructions for games) was created to investigate procedural generation of instructions that teach players how to play video games. We present a representation of game rules and mechanics using a graph system as well as a tutorial generation method that uses said graph representation. We demonstrate the concept by testing it on games within the General Video Game Artificial Intelligence (GVG-AI) framework; the paper discusses tutorials generated for eight different games. Our findings suggest that a graph representation scheme works well for simple arcade style games such as Space Invaders and Pacman, but it appears that tutorials for more complex games might require higher-level understanding of the game than just single mechanics.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, published at Foundations of Digital Games Conference 201

COMPARING BREAK TYPES FOR SPACED PRACTICE IN A PLATFORMER GAME

The progressive development of in-game skills is important to both game players and designers. Players want to get better at games, while designers want to understand and support player progress. These goals align as skill development leads to heightened player performance, which is associated with positive player experiences. When players gain skill at a consistent pace, they tend to enjoy the game more. One promising area of research relates to the spaced practice effect (i.e., taking intentional breaks between periods of doing an activity). Spaced practice has been shown to improve skills in domains unrelated to digital games, such as athletics, and learning. Spaced practice refers to taking consistent breaks between periods of doing an activity. While there is some research into the area of spaced practice in games, it is unclear if the benefits of spaced practice apply in complex games that combine several skills and elements. If the goal of players and designers is to increase the overall quality of the player experience, there are also several issues with forcing the player to take breaks. For example, most players do not like gameplay sessions being interrupted. Taking breaks serves as an interruption to gameplay, and could potentially hinder the player experience. However, games often contain some natural rest periods—if breaks were implemented into the gameplay itself, players may be able to benefit from the spaced practice effect and not have their game interrupted. Some ecologically valid break-like activities are already present in games that could allow for spaced practice (e.g., cutscenes, mini-games, leaderboards, loading screens). Before designers can implement activities as breaks for spaced practice, we first need to know whether engaging with these activities as breaks reduces the benefits of spaced practice. We built a custom 2D platform game in which a player controlled avatar can wall-jump, swing, via a grapple hook and double-jump through an obstacle course. This game was used as the core gameplay activity in two experiments—one to test if spaced practice improves performance in a complex game, and another to determine how spaced practice is affected by the choice of in-game break activity. Through these experiments, we evidence that spaced practice significantly improves skill development in a complex platformer game; that spaced practice is effective across several types of ecologically-valid break activities; and that the use of short breaks does not subvert flow states during play. This supports that the use of spaced practice in games is beneficial. We further contribute some design guidelines for how to implement break activities

Designing a Knowledge Based Puzzle Game - Case: After Now Archeology

Tämä opinnäytetyö tutkii tietoon perustuvia pulmapelejä. Se määrittelee tietoon perustuvien pul-mapelien pienen genren pulmiksi, joiden ratkaiseminen vaatii pelin ulkopuolisen tiedon käyttöä työkaluna. Tutkimus toteutettiin tarkastelemalla opinnäytetyöprojektina toteutettua peliä After Now Ar-cheology. Pelin suunnitteluprosessi käydään läpi, jotta saadaan hyvä kuva niistä suunnittelupäätök-sistä, joita sisältyy pelin ulkoisen tiedon ääreen ohjaavien pulmien suunnittelemiseen. Peliä tutki-taan käyttäen useita pelien ja pelisuunnittelun teorioita ja työkaluja. Täten pyritään ymmärtämään, miten After Now Archeology sijoittuu pelien kentälle, mutta myös sen olemusta yleisemmin pelien ja pelaamisen kulttuurissa. Tietoon perustuvien pulmapelien määritelmä tuotetaan analysoimalla muita pulmapelien genreen kuuluvia pelejä ja vertaamalla niitä tässä projektissa tuotettuun peliin. Tulee ilmi, että tietoon pe-rustuvat pulmapelit on vaikea sijoittaa yleiseen pulmapelien genreen – varsinkaan digitaalisten pe-lien kontekstissa. Pelin pervasiivinen luonne koettelee pelaamisen ja taikapiirin rajoja. Voidaan myös havaita, että pelaajat jakautuvat hyvin voimakkaasti niihin, joilla ei riitä aikaa eikä kärsivälli-syyttä tiedon etsimiseen ja niihin, jotka saattavat käyttää tunteja yhden pulman parissa etsien in-formaatiota ja omaksuen uutta tietoa.This thesis studies knowledge based puzzle games. It defines the small genre of knowledge based puzzles as puzzles, which require using information not available in the game itself as a tool to solve the puzzle. The study is done by examining a game made for the project: After Now Archeology. The design process of the game is explained, to give an idea of what kind of design decisions has been made when making a game that directs the player to exit the game itself and search for the information outside of the game’s magic circle. The game is then examined using various theories and tools of games and game design, to get an understanding of how the game positions itself within the field of games, but also within the context of gaming culture and playing games. A definition of knowledge based puzzles is made by analyzing the games in the puzzle genre and comparing them to the game made in this project. It is found that knowledge based puzzles are difficult to fit into the genre of puzzles – especially among digital games. The pervasive nature of the game bends the concept of gameplay and magic circle. It is also found that the players divide strongly to those who do not have time and patience to search for information, and them who can spend hours on a single puzzle, searching for information and gaining new knowledge

Level Up: Supporting In-Game Skill Development

Video games are challenging and complex. They require players to master a diverse set of skills to succeed. Through play, players acquire and eventually master these skills, transitioning from novice to expert through skill development. Making progress and performing well in a game is directly tied to a player's ability to master in-game skills, so players are strongly motivated to get better at the games they play. Games can do a good job of supporting a new player's learning, but too often they leave a player to work out for themselves how to improve and get better at the game. The problem is that game designers do not always know how to support skill development in their games. To solve this problem, we need to better understand how skill learning occurs in games, as well as explore specific new approaches for supporting skill learning in games. Games are not the only context in which skill development and high performance is important --- the field of human performance already explores this in detail and provides many theories to apply to this new domain. Inspired by these theories I explore different ways of supporting players’ learning at two different stages of skill development. First, I explore how early learning can be supported through the use of guidance and explore how later learning can be supported by modifying practice. Testing out the effects of guidance by providing new players with different levels of navigation guidance and evaluating how well they were able to learn the environment, I found that guidance improved a player's immediate performance and allowed them to complete tasks within the game more effectively. I evaluated the idea of modifying practice by applying spaced practice (having players take breaks when playing) in two different games, as well as by adding checkpoints to a side-scrolling platform game. I found that having players take breaks improved players' immediate performance and allowed them to make more progress within the game and that a variety of break lengths were effective. I found that checkpoints allowed players to make progress in the game and learn the game just as effectively as when checkpoints were not present. Overall, this research adds to our understanding of how skill development occurs in games and provides some concrete examples of how support methods used in other contexts (such as in sports) can be applied to digital gaming

Between play and design : the emergence of hybrid-identity in single-player videogames

Pour respecter les droits auteur, la version electronique de cette thèse a été dépouillée de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.Résumé Cette thèse examine la nature complexe de l'identité dans les jeux vidéo solo. Elle introduit la notion d'identité-hybride, et propose un cadre analytique pour déconstruire la jouabilité à travers les genres afin de distinguer des moments d’émergence d’identité. Alors que la recherche sur l’identité se concentre couramment sur le joueur ou le personnage-joueur (ou les deux), la notion d'identité-hybride est une forme d’identité fluide, parfois éphémère, qui existe entre le joueur et le personnage-joueur. L’identité-hybride se développe au cours du processus de jeu et inclut nécessairement le joueur (expérience, contexte de jeu, etc. ), l’environnement du jeu (le design, les mécaniques, etc.), et la médiation technologique (ordinateur, console, etc.) qui facilite la jouabilité. Afin de cerner les différents aspects du gameplay qui contribuent a l'émergence de différents types d'identité, un cadre multiforme a été conçu pour isoler les interactions spécifiques? qui comprennent les interactions joueur/personnage-joueur, personnage-joueur/personnage non-joueur, joueur/environnement du jeu, personnage-joueur /environnement de jeux, et joueur/joueur. Il a été associé à un cadre secondaire qui comprend l'examen des spécificités du joueur individuel et la médiation technologique qui facilitent le jouabilité. Une analyse systématique d’expériences de jeu et des éléments de design de trois jeux différents; Mirror’s Edge (DICE, 2008), Alone in the Dark (Eden Games, 2008), et Fable 2 (Lionhead Studios, 2008), a été réalisée pour illustrer les différents degrés d’apparition d'identité dans différentes structures de jeu. En comparant les trois analyses, l'utilité de ce cadre pour mettre de l’avant les éléments qui contribuent au (ou peuvent entraver) le développement de l'identité et, plus spécifiquement, l'apparition de l'identité-hybride, est démontrée. Ces trois exemples jettent les bases d'une discussion plus profonde sur la définition, le contexte, et le processus d’identité-hybride dans les jeux vidéo en général.Abstract This dissertation examines the complex nature of identity in single-player videogames. It introduces the concept of hybrid-identity and proposes an analytical framework to deconstruct gameplay across genres to distinguish moments of identity emergence. While identity research commonly focuses on the player or the player-character (or both), the concept of hybrid-identity is a fluid, at times fleeting form of identity that exists between the player and the player-character. Hybrid-identity develops during the networked process of videogame play and necessarily includes the player (experience, play-context, etc.), the game environment (design, mechanics, etc.), and the mediating technology (computer, console, etc.) that facilitates gameplay. In order to delineate the different aspects of gameplay that contribute to the emergence of different types of identity, a multifaceted framework was devised to isolate specific interactions between the player/player-character, player-character/non-playing character, player/game environment, player-character/game environment, and player/player. This framework was coupled with a secondary frame which includes examining the specificities of the individual player and the mediating technologies that facilitate gameplay. A systematic analysis of gameplay and design elements of three different games; Mirror’s Edge (DICE, 2008), Alone in the Dark (Eden Games, 2008), and Fable 2 (Lionhead Studios, 2008) was performed to illustrate the varying degrees of identity emergence in different game structures. The utility of the framework is demonstrated by comparing the three gameplay analyses and highlighting the elements that contribute to (and possibly hinder) identity development and more specifically, the emergence of hybrid-identity. These three examples form the foundation for a more in-depth discussion on the definition, context, and process of hybrid-identity in videogame play