Measuring the Impact of Factors Affecting Game Development in Distributed Software Development

A software game is an application that is not only applicable for entertainment purposes but also used in domains like business, education and health care. Software game development is a multidisciplinary process that involves art, sound, artificial intelligence (AI), control systems and human factors which makes it different from traditional software development practice.  Distributed software development (DSD) facilitates decentralized zones for the availability of multidisciplinary human resources at less cost. Past studies explored many influencing factors for game development, however, how these factors majorly affect the game development in Distributed Software Development (DSD) environment yet not been studied as per our knowledge. In this research, we not only identified the most influencing factors for game development in DSD but also gauge a relationship matrix between these factors with games’ technical requirements. In our evaluation, we took twenty-nine top-rated animated games to establish a mapping of these factors present in these games. To calculate the variation in a given project budget, we execute Monte-Carlo simulations between the independent variable (influencing factors) and dependent variable (overall cost) that forecast the valuation of each variable impact on the overall nominal cost of the project. Empirical results of our research conclude that among all identified factors, ‘Physical Resources’ and ‘Freelancers’ have a significant impact on the overall project cost. Our research findings quantitatively assist the software project managers to estimate the cost deviations due to influencing factors in Distributed Software Development (DSD) environment.   &nbsp

GameFlow 2020: 15 Years of a Model of Player Enjoyment

The original GameFlow model was first published in 2005 and in the last 15 years it has seen thousands of citations and hundreds of applications to designing and evaluating games and gameful experiences. Previous work has sought to test and validate the model by applying it to different game experiences to further understand those experiences and to expose any weaknesses of the model. In this paper, we survey over 200 applications of GameFlow over the last 15 years, to understand how, where, and why the model has been applied. We found that the model has been applied to a diverse set of experiences, domains, platforms, audiences, and used in a variety of ways. This work lays the foundations for targeting the next version of the GameFlow model towards the most valuable and appropriate applications and to define how it fits within the broader landscape of player experience tools

Affording Enjoyment in VR Games: Possibilities, Pitfalls, and Perfection

In this paper, we present research that aims to understand affordances and inhibitors of enjoyment in virtual reality (VR) video games. We apply the GameFlow model to analyse VR and non-VR versions of the same games to identify differences in enjoyment in VR games. Our approach involves conducting qualitative analysis on video game reviews, using GameFlow as a theoretical foundation. We report on our analysis of the games Superhot and Skyrim. We find that affordances are largely consistent between VR and non-VR versions of the same games, with a few key differences related to Feedback, Control, Player Skills, and Immersion. We conclude that GameFlow is applicable to VR games, with the addition of a Comfort element to describe player comfort while playing

Understanding Enjoyment in VR Games with GameFlow

In this paper, we report on a work in progress project that aims to understand affordances and inhibiters of enjoyment in virtual reality (VR) video games. We apply the GameFlow model to review and analyse VR and non-VR versions of the same games to identify differences in enjoyment. Our approach includes conducting expert reviews using the GameFlow model, as well as conducting qualitative analysis on video game reviews, using GameFlow as a conceptual foundation. In this paper, we report our initial findings for the game Superhot. Our ongoing work evaluates a selection of games to map opportunities and pitfalls when designing games for VR