293 research outputs found
Academic methods for usability evaluation of serious games: a systematic review
In the last years, there has been an increasing interest in the design of video
games as a tool for education, training, health promotion, socialization, etc. Usability, which
is a key factor in any video game, becomes even more important in these so-called
Bserious games^, where the users’ special characteristics should be considered, and the
game efficacy depends on the users’ adherence and engagement. However, evaluation of
the usability of this kind of games requires a redefinition of techniques, methods and even
terminology. In this paper, we elicit six research questions and conduct a systematic review
of the scientific literature, which resulted in the selection of 187 papers that contained
the most relevant responses. The conclusions of this systematic review illustrate the
general status of current academic usability evaluations of these games and the main trends
in the selection of methodologies and how are they applied. This view may be a very
valuable foundation for future researchMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación PROCUR@-IPT-2011-1038-90000
Methodologies for evaluating the playability of mobile games:systematic literature review
Tiivistelmä. The gaming industry has been growing rapidly during the past years due to the interest of the new generations in mobile gaming. To deliver a great experience for the gamers, it is required for the gaming companies to produce games that are challenging but at the same time easy to play. To achieve this, it is required to understand the factors that affect the gaming experience. Playability is a term that is used to understand the usability of a game and its experience.
The purpose of this thesis was to understand what is known related to the playability of mobile games and to identify the methodologies that are used by the community to evaluate this phenomenon. To find the answers to these questions, it was performed a systematic literature review (SLR) using the databases Scopus, IEEE Xplore, and Web of Science. After conducting the SLR, 1,390 studies related to the playability of mobile games were found from which 27 were identified as primary studies of this research.
From the data collected from the primary studies, there were identified 12 different methodologies that are used for evaluating the playability of mobile games. The methodologies that are most suitable to assess the playability of mobile games are heuristic evaluation and playtesting. Other methodologies can be used for evaluating the playability of mobile games, but they must include a set of heuristics that allows evaluating the playability. The limitations of the research were mentioned, and it was proposed topics for future research of this field.
The contribution of this thesis is the summarizing of the current methodologies that are used to understand and evaluate the playability of mobile games. The results of this thesis are valuable for game developers, game designers, and game usability practitioners
Heuristic usability evaluation on games: a modular approach
Heuristic evaluation is the preferred method to assess usability in games when experts conduct this
evaluation. Many heuristics guidelines have been proposed attending to specificities of games but
they only focus on specific subsets of games or platforms. In fact, to date the most used guideline to
evaluate games usability is still Nielsen’s proposal, which is focused on generic software. As a
result, most evaluations do not cover important aspects in games such as mobility, multiplayer
interactions, enjoyability and playability, etc. To promote the usage of new heuristics adapted to
different game and platform aspects we propose a modular approach based on the classification of
existing game heuristics using metadata and a tool, MUSE (Meta-heUristics uSability Evaluation
tool) for games, which allows a rebuild of heuristic guidelines based on metadata selection in order
to obtain a customized list for every real evaluation case. The usage of these new rebuilt heuristic
guidelines allows an explicit attendance to a wide range of usability aspects in games and a better
detection of usability issues. We preliminarily evaluate MUSE with an analysis of two different
games, using both the Nielsen’s heuristics and the customized heuristic lists generated by our tool.Unión Europea PI055-15/E0
PLAYABILITY HEURISTIC EVALUATION SYSTEM FOR MOBILE GAMES
Playability is an element that measures the ease of use by which a game can be played.
To evaluate playability of a game, two methods are widely being used; Playtesting and
Heuristic Evaluation. Playability Heuristics are required to perform heuristic evaluation
on games
Optimising safe systems of work using virtual reality (VR) to enhance rescue and evacuation skills
The ability to implement a safe system of work is an important skillset for everyday tasks, most especially for wind technicians working at height in the renewables sector of the construction industry. An effective and safe control measure is critical to the success of every work at height activity. For wind technicians, the use of VR can potentially be deployed as a stop-gap tool useful for optimizing the retention of core rescue and evacuation skills. VR can serve as a useful tool for intermediate practice drills between formal two-year training as most technicians are unlikely to perform any emergency rescue within the timeframe. The significance of deploying VR tool for promoting rescue and evacuation skill retention is based on the premise that the ability of humans to recall specific rescue steps may not be as strong as it is generally assumed. Therefore, this preliminary study aims to design a prototype VR rescue game using realistic graphics to add depth and realism to the game. The number of players will be one at a time and the game play is averagely 5 - 10 minutes per session with purposive target audience (wind technicians, construction professionals, and students) required for user experience and usability testing. The VR simulation serves as a useful source for reinforcing wind technician’s hands-on rescue and evacuation skills, thus improving safe work practices.<br/
Automated Playtesting In Videogames
Game industry has recently emerged as a major software development industry. The
number of games being developed has increased exponentially over the last few years
[20]. And as these numbers grow there is also a need to test these games. Related to the
game development workflow in diverse areas (AI, networking, graphics, engines, etc.) a
unit testing and play testing component should be associated, which nowadays is rare
or even nonexistent. Right now a common approach to testing games is hiring Testers to
manually play a large number of potential scenarios that end users may exercise. Current
game testing practices are labor intensive and become tedious and monotonous with the
passage of time[3]. Furthermore, it gets quite expensive to pay someone to test these sort
of games over and over again. Automated testing simplifies and makes these repetitive
tasks efficient and automatic.
This dissertation consists in the implementation and definition of a framework for
a system that simplifies the creation of unit tests and automatic playtesting. The playtests
test the integrity of the level and are able to determine whether it is possible to exploit
the game in some way. This dissertation has a partnership with the ZPX company that
provided a level to use and experiment the framework and manual playtesting in order
to get results. The results obtained from the use of this framework are compared with the
results of the manual testing performed by testers. These results consist of the time each
testing approach takes, how many bugs were found in total and the quality of the report
for the game level designer. These results uncover the advantages and disadvantages of
the framework and the manual playtesting. One advantage to creating this framework
in a highly general and modular way is that this framework can be applied to different
games and the tedious work from the developer can be taken away since there is not a
need to implement the more general playtests for each new game in development
The Impostor: Exploring narrative game design for learning Korean as a foreign language
In recent years, digital language learning games and applications have proliferated. However, most existing apps employ methods and theoretical approaches that are not designed to teach learners practical language competence. Additionally, commercial apps tend to focus on languages with large markets, leaving smaller languages like Korean unsupported.
The objective of this thesis is to explore language learning and second language acquisition (SLA) theories and their practical applications to find teaching methods that are best suited for improving practical language competence of Korean. Having identified such methods grounded in socio-cultural and ecological SLA theory, the thesis further integrates the teaching methods into a conceptual design of a digital language learning game for learning Korean as a foreign language.
This thesis demonstrates that a grounding the fundamentally messy digital language learning game design process in SLA theory is not only viable but a good starting point. Key findings indicate that the designers need to identify the targeted learning objectives, learning experiences and game experiences as clear design goals early on, to efficiently guide the inherently messy design process. Furthermore, the thesis highlights that digital language learning game designers need to develop and nurture knowledge both in the target language instructional domain and in game design.Viime vuosina digitaalisten kielten oppimista varten luotujen pelien ja applikaatioiden määrä on lisääntynyt voimakkaasti. Valtaosa olemassa olevista applikaatioista soveltaa kuitenkin käytäntöjä ja teoreettisia lähestymistapoja, jotka eivät opeta käytännön kielitaitoja. Lisäksi kaupalliset applikaatiot keskittyvät lähinnä kieliin, joilla on suuret markkinat ja eivätkä tue pienempiä kieliä kuten Koreaa.
Tämän opinnäytetyön päämääränä on tutkia kielten oppimisen ja vieraan kielen omaksumisen teoriaa sekä niiden käytännön sovelluksia ja löytää opetusmenetelmiä, jotka soveltuvat parhaiten käytännöllisen Korean kielen taidon opiskeluun. Työn tuloksena löytyi sosiokulttuurilliseen ja ekologiseen kielten omaksumisteoriaan pohjautuvia menetelmiä, jotka integroitiin osaksi opinnäytetyön osana suunniteltua oppimispelikonseptia.
Tämä opinnäytetyö havainnollistaa, että pohjimmiltaan sekavan digitaalisten kieltenopiskelupelien suunnitteluprosessin pohjaaminen kieltenoppimisteoriaan on paitsi mahdollista myös erinomainen lähtökohta suunnittelutyölle. Työn päälöydökset osoittavat, että suunnittelijoiden tulee tunnistaa tavoitellut oppimistavoitteet, oppimiskokemukset ja pelikokemukset ajoissa, jotta suunnittelutyö etenisi tehokkaammin. Lisäksi tämä opinnäytetyö korostaa, että digitaalisten kieltenopiskelupelien suunnittelijoiden tulee perehtyä syvällisesti sekä opiskelun kohteena olevaan kieleen että pelisuunnitteluun
Designing a persuasive game for children's safety awareness
Children encounter many dangers at home and in their surroundings during their daily lives. Safety education before the school age is important for the children to form safe behaviors already early in their live, but a persistent problem for reaching young populations has been the lack of engaging materials. Hence, there is a need for developing engaging, interactive materials, such as games, to help children adapt necessary safety behaviors effectively.
The purpose of this study is, through constructive research, to examine 1) how can a persuasive game be designed to increase children's safety awareness in their early childhood, and 2) which good practices and guidelines can be derived from the design process.
In collaboration with Tukes, the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency and Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, a mobile game was developed with the agenda of increasing children's safety awareness. Action Design Research (ADR) methodology is used to describe the design process, containing four phases: Problem Formulation, Building, Intervention and Evaluation, Reflection and Learning, and Formalization of Learning. As the theoretical background, the concept of procedural rhetoric and the prior research knowledge on children 's user-centered interaction design were adapted. The resulting game was evaluated through playtesting with the co-discovery method and a feedback survey.
During the project, a functioning persuasive game was designed through an iteratice process. The reflection and learning upon the design process also resulted in a process model for persuasive game design and set of guidelines to help guide children's persuasive game projects in the future.
The study was limited by the fact that the long-term effects of the game intervention on children's safety awareness were not monitored. Future research on the topic should address the measurement of long-term effects of persuasive games, as well as study their design and implementation in different contexts, environments, and user groups
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