Playing with data : procedural generation of adventures from open data

This paper investigates how to generate simple adventure games using open data. We present a system that creates a plot for the player to follow based on associations between Wikipedia articles which link two given topics (in this case people) together. The Wikipedia articles are transformed into game objects (locations, NPCs and items) via constructive algorithms that also rely on geographical information from OpenStreetMaps and visual content from Wikimedia Commons. The different game objects generated in this fashion are linked together via clues which point to one another, while additional false clues and dead ends are added to increase the exploration value of the final adventure game. This information is presented to the user via a set of game screens and images. Inspired by the “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” adventure game, the end result is a generator of chains of followable clues.peer-reviewe

Playing an educational game featuring procedural content generation: which attributes impact players’ curiosity?

Understanding which and how attributes impact player experience can contribute to designing more tailored tools, providing concerns on how to improve these. However, there is a gap in the understanding of what impacts learners’ experience when interacting with Educational Games (EG) featuring Procedural Content generation (PCG) as these have been scantly used together. This article presents an empirical study on which attributes impact both math’s and game’s curiosity of players when interacting with an EG that uses PCG. The results show the attributes that led to higher or lower curiosity, as well aswhich of them are associated with it. Hence, advancing the understanding of what drives players’ curiosity, contributing to the design of EG that feature PCG

Multiplayer Game Development Approaches for Student Integration in Universities

Tese de Mestrado. Multimédia. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Proceedings of The Rust-Edu Workshop

The 2022 Rust-Edu Workshop was an experiment. We wanted to gather together as many thought leaders we could attract in the area of Rust education, with an emphasis on academic-facing ideas. We hoped that productive discussions and future collaborations would result. Given the quick preparation and the difficulties of an international remote event, I am very happy to report a grand success. We had more than 27 participants from timezones around the globe. We had eight talks, four refereed papers and statements from 15 participants. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and I can say that I learned a ton. These proceedings are loosely organized: they represent a mere compilation of the excellent submitted work. I hope you’ll find this material as pleasant and useful as I have. Bart Massey 30 August 202

Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author

The question motivating this review paper is, how can computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn- ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory, and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional question driving research in interactive narrative is, ‘how can an in- teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?’ This question derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that, as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency. Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip- ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based on Brecht’s Epic Theatre and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in- teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity

Co-operative coevolution for computational creativity: a case study In videogame design

The term procedural content generation (PCG) refers to writing software which can synthesise content for a game (or other media such as film) without further intervention from a designer. PCG has become a rich area of research in recent years, finding new ways to apply artificial intelligence to generate high-quality game content such as levels, weapons or puzzles for games. Such research is generally constrained to a single type of content, however, with the assumption that the remainder of the game's design will be fixed by an external designer. Generating many aspects of a game's design simultaneously, perhaps ultimately generating the entirety of a game's design, using PCG is not a well-explored idea. The notion of automated game design is not well-established, and is not seen as a task distinct from simply performing lots of PCG tasks at the same time. In particular, the high-level design tasks guiding the creative direction of a game are all but completely absent in PCG literature, because it is rare that a designer wishes to hand over such responsibility to a PCG system. We present here ANGELINA, an automated game designer that has developed games using a multi-faceted approach to content generation underpinned by a co-operative co-evolutionary approach which breaks down a game design into several distinct tasks, each of which controlled by an evolutionary subsystem within ANGELINA. We will show that this approach works well to automate game design, can be ported across many game engines and game genres, and can be enhanced and extended using novel computational creativity techniques to give the system a heightened sense of autonomy and independence.Open Acces

UNLOCKing creative & innovative teaching in higher education extended abstracts

No abstract available.publishe

Design of a serious game as a therapy for depression

Depression is a common illness that affects around 3.8% of people in the whole world. It is known that there is no cure for it, however, there are numerous clinical treatments to help patients live a better life. We, as video game designers can’t do much about it, but what if we could help patients suffering from depression with our skills in designing and developing video games? What if we could create a serious game as a therapeutic asset for those patients? Well, this is what this project is for. The most important therapies for depression from a psychological perspective will be studied in the course of this project. The current state of the serious game market, its value, its main competitors, and the most relevant serious games will be studied. The design and each necessary document (Game Design Document, Technical Design document, the script, and the needed Level Design Documents) will be created during the project’s development Finally, a playable prototype of the game using Unity Engine will be created, in order to test all the design features. By the end, there will be a serious game that will serve as a therapeutic resource to help in the treatment of depression

Languages of games and play: A systematic mapping study

Digital games are a powerful means for creating enticing, beautiful, educational, and often highly addictive interactive experiences that impact the lives of billions of players worldwide. We explore what informs the design and construction of good games to learn how to speed-up game development. In particular, we study to what extent languages, notations, patterns, and tools, can offer experts theoretical foundations, systematic techniques, and practical solutions they need to raise their productivity and improve the quality of games and play. Despite the growing number of publications on this topic there is currently no overview describing the state-of-the-art that relates research areas, goals, and applications. As a result, efforts and successes are often one-off, lessons learned go overlooked, language reuse remains minimal, and opportunities for collaboration and synergy are lost. We present a systematic map that identifies relevant publications and gives an overview of research areas and publication venues. In addition, we categorize research perspectives along common objectives, techniques, and approaches, illustrated by summaries of selected languages. Finally, we distill challenges and opportunities for future research and development