Snow White Is Missing: An Interactive Locative Story for Dementia Patients

With the increasing prevalence of powerful mobile technology, interactive entertainment is also becoming increasingly mobile. This can also be said for a range of applications including those pertaining to mental and physical health which are also looking to take advantage of the increase in mobile technology to create digital interventions and other treatment based software for mobile devices that can benefit from the mobile deliver form. In this paper we propose a new form of serious game in this vein: therapeutic locative interactive fiction. These are interactive story experiences, read while on the move, that respond to the readers environment and location context, and have therapeutic value. The locative nature of these stories enables therapeutic activities connected with out door spaces, and allows for content to enrich users, the readers of locational context. We present a demonstration of this concept through our own therapeutic locative interactive narrative: Snow White is Missing, and detail both its design from an interactive narrative and therapeutic activity perspectives

Affective level design for a role-playing videogame evaluated by a brain\u2013computer interface and machine learning methods

Game science has become a research field, which attracts industry attention due to a worldwide rich sell-market. To understand the player experience, concepts like flow or boredom mental states require formalization and empirical investigation, taking advantage of the objective data that psychophysiological methods like electroencephalography (EEG) can provide. This work studies the affective ludology and shows two different game levels for Neverwinter Nights 2 developed with the aim to manipulate emotions; two sets of affective design guidelines are presented, with a rigorous formalization that considers the characteristics of role-playing genre and its specific gameplay. An empirical investigation with a brain\u2013computer interface headset has been conducted: by extracting numerical data features, machine learning techniques classify the different activities of the gaming sessions (task and events) to verify if their design differentiation coincides with the affective one. The observed results, also supported by subjective questionnaires data, confirm the goodness of the proposed guidelines, suggesting that this evaluation methodology could be extended to other evaluation tasks

Mobile Game-Based Learning (mGBL) Engineering Model

Mobile game-based learning (mGBL) is a game played on any handheld devices such as mobile phones. It is among the most recent growing research areas whereby its main aim is to use game play to enhance motivation in learning, engage in knowledge acquisition, and improve the effectiveness of learning activities through mobile environment. To fully utilize the potential of mGBL, researchers suggest looking at the most important part, which is the development methodology of mGBL. In relation to this, various game development methodologies have been introduced for different types of game genres and platforms. These methodologies propose different numbers of steps and activities; some focusing only on the learning design; some concentrating on the mobile technologies; and others on the complete life cycle. Although many game methodologies have been introduced, studies show that customized phases and steps to develop games for learning in mobile environment are substantially required. Therefore, the study discussed in this thesis addresses this gap by proposing an mGBL Engineering Model based on a number of games and learning theoretical and developmental foundations. In particular, the study identified the key steps of development methodology to be considered in developing mGBL applications which consist of phases, components, steps, and deliverables. In accomplishing this aim, a design science research methodology was adopted, comprising of five phases; (i) awareness of problem, (ii) suggestion, (iii) development, (iv) evaluation, and (v) conclusion. Subsequently, eight mGBL evaluation dimensions were put forward: visibility, complexity, compatibility, flexibility, clarity, effectiveness, manageability, and evolutionary. Model evaluation was conducted in three phases, namely; expert review, prototype development with heuristics evaluation, and experimental study. Generally, the proposed mGBL Engineering Model was well accepted by the experts contacted in this study. The model was also employed by a game company while developing an mGBL prototype. Here, the findings have implied that the model is useful to follow and it provides an easy guideline for fellow developers. In the experimental study phase, four learning or game methodologies; Analysis-Design-Development-Implementation- Evaluation, Input-Process-Output, Game Life Cycle, and mGBL Engineering Model; were studied and compared by 70 respondents. The findings have indicated that the proposed mGBL Engineering Model scored mean above 7.0 (out of 10) of all dimensions compared to the other three models (scored less than 7.0). The ANOVA results show that there are significant differences between all groups in six dimensions except complexity and compatibility. Although complexity and compatibility dimensions are not significantly different, the scores for the mGBL Engineering Model are higher than the other three models. All these results have demonstrated that the proposed mGBL Engineering Model exhibits useful development indicators for mGBL applications and is indeed a theoretical and practical contribution of the study. In addition, the other significant contributions are the eight evaluation dimensions together with the validated instrument. Furthermore, the artefact produced, which is the mGBL prototype is also a functional contribution

Αξιοποίηση της Επαυξημένης Πραγματικότητας για τη διδασκαλία της Ιστορίας σε αρχαιολογικό χώρο

Η παρούσα έρευνα εξέτασε τη δυνατότητα αξιοποίησης της επαυξημένης πραγματικότητας (Ε.Π.) που στηρίζεται στην τοποθεσία, στη διδασκαλία της Ιστορίας σε αρχαιολογικό χώρο. Στο πλαίσιο αυτό σχεδιάστηκε, αναπτύχθηκε και αξιολογήθηκε, η εφαρμογή Ε.Π. “PlatoAR”. Αυτή αφορά τον αρχαιολογικό χώρο της Ακαδημίας Πλάτωνος και απευθύνεται σε μαθητές Δ΄ Δημοτικού. Τα δεδομένα της αξιολόγησης της εφαρμογής συλλέχθηκαν μέσω παρατήρησης, συνεντεύξεων και ερωτηματολογίων από εκπαιδευτικούς και μαθητές. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν ότι η εφαρμογή είναι εύχρηστη, ενώ φάνηκε να επιτυγχάνεται σε μεγάλο βαθμό η κατάσταση Ροής. Σύμφωνα με τους εκπαιδευτικούς, η εφαρμογή μπορεί να ενταχθεί στη διδασκαλία και να συμβάλλει στην εμπλοκή των μαθητών σε διαδικασίες ιστορικής ενσυναίσθησης. Οι παράγοντες που επηρεάζουν τη χρήση της, σχετίζονται με το φυσικό περιβάλλον, με τεχνικά ζητήματα και με την προετοιμασία των εκπαιδευτικών. Τα αποτελέσματα έχουν εφαρμογή τόσο σε μεθοδολογικό επίπεδο όσο και ως προς τη δυνατότητα των εκπαιδευτικών να αναπτύσσουν τις δικές τους εφαρμογές Ε.Π

Mobile games to foster the learning of history at archaeological sites

This paper presents a system designed to support young students learning history at an archaeological site, by exploiting mobile technology. The approach uses game-play, since it stimulates in young students an understanding of history that would otherwise be difficult to engender, helping players to acquire historical notions and making archaeological visits more effective and exciting. A strength of the system is that, by running on the visitors own cellular phones, it requires minimal investments and small changes to the existing site exhibition