Evaluation of the game development process of a location-based mobile game

There is a growing interest of government bodies and NGOs in using (serious) video games in awareness campaigns. Until now, however, little was known on how to set up such a campaign so as to effectively cater to the needs of different stakeholders including the target audience. Hence designing, developing and translating a game for educational purposes whilst balancing between fun and learning is a complex process, this paper aims to evaluate this by presenting a methodological framework for involving stakeholders in the design and development of a game-based awareness campaign based on a user-centered software design methodology and assesses its effectiveness in a concrete use case: the development of the location-based mobile game City Jam. The goal was to develop a game-based road safety campaign to confront adolescents with road traffic situations with the aim to positively influence road safety attitude and behavior. Mobile technologies offer new opportunities to embed digital game based learning by in different contexts. Given the nature of the road safety campaign, a location-based game format was chosen, aiming to facilitate learning by means of an extended three-way interaction (human interaction, game and context). Different user-centered design methods were deployed throughout several phases of the game development process: In phase one (the opportunity identification) a literature review was performed to investigate relevant fields for the game’s goal. In phase two (the game concept development) expert interviews and a focus groups were conducted with relevant stakeholders and in phase three (the game concept design) co-design sessions and a focus group resulted in a game design document. In phase four (game development and testing) the beta version of City jam was developed and tested in an iterative field testing design and resulted in the final game. Results obtained throughout the game development process provided us the opportunity to evaluate several major aspects. Firstly the impact of stakeholder involvement on the different phases of the design process and the final product resulted in a game that was tailored to the preferences and needs of the target group. Secondly translating the game concept into practice, such as game elements, proposed educational game elements, were evaluated based on the usability, playability principles and social and technological aspects. Benefits and challenges of user-centered design methods are discussed and how budget constraints and differing desired outcomes of different stakeholders challenge but also enrich the process

Customer Involvement in the Game Development Process

The creative industry is a fast developing sector of economy in many countries. Growing competition in this area has led many companies to implement strategy of users' involvement in product development in order to deliver products that are more aligned with customers’ needs. On the other hand, the attempt to align the customers’ expectations with artistic creativity may create tensions. Therefore, the aim of the research is to examine the methods of users’ involvement in product development and real impact of the users on project design. The obtained findings are based on two-year qualitative research project conducted in game development companies.Przemysł kreatywny jest szybko rozwijającym się sektorem gospodarki w wielu krajach. Rosnąca konkurencja w tej dziedzinie skłania wiele firm do wdrażania strategii wykorzystującej zaangażowanie użytkowników w rozwój produktów w celu dostarczania produktów lepiej dostosowanych do potrzeb klientów. Z drugiej strony, próba pogodzenia oczekiwań klientów z twórczością artystyczną może generować napięcia. Dlatego celem tej pracy jest zbadanie sposobów zaangażowania użytkowników w rozwój produktów i rzeczywistego wpływu użytkowników na projektowanie rozwiązań. Uzyskane wyniki są oparte na danych zgromadzonych w ramach dwuletniego projektu badań jakościowych prowadzonego w firmach tworzących gry

Game Development Process

Bakalářská práce se zabývá vývojem videoher a vším potřebným k vytvoření úspěšné videohry. První část práce rozlišuje všechny různé role vývojářského týmu a jejich souvislosti. Druhá část analyzuje časovou osu a cíle různých fází vývoje videohry a zároveň hodnotí pozitiva a negativa práce s vydavatelem. Brány v úvahu jsou také certifikační a hodnotící procesy. Třetí a poslední část nabízí pohled do zákulisí vývoje videoher prostřednictvím rozhovoru s herním vývojářem.The Bachelor thesis focuses on the game development process and everything that is needed to create a successful video game. The first part of the thesis distinguishes all the various roles in a development team and provides context to them. The second part analyzes the timeline and goals for different stages of video game production, while also assessing the positives and negatives of working with a Publisher. Certification and rating processes are also considered. The third and final part offers a look behind the scenes of game development, through an interview with a game developer.

Critical Success Factors to Improve the Game Development Process from a Developer’s Perspective

© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York. The growth of the software game development industry is enormous and is gaining importance day by day. This growth imposes severe pressure and a number of issues and challenges on the game development community. Game development is a complex process, and one important game development choice is to consider the developer’s perspective to produce good-quality software games by improving the game development process. The objective of this study is to provide a better understanding of the developer’s dimension as a factor in software game success. It focuses mainly on an empirical investigation of the effect of key developer’s factors on the software game development process and eventually on the quality of the resulting game. A quantitative survey was developed and conducted to identify key developer’s factors for an enhanced game development process. For this study, the developed survey was used to test the research model and hypotheses. The results provide evidence that game development organizations must deal with multiple key factors to remain competitive and to handle high pressure in the software game industry. The main contribution of this paper is to investigate empirically the influence of key developer’s factors on the game development process

The Placebo Effect in Digital Games

Play-testing of digital games is a crucial part of any game development process, used to gather feedback about the game and correct any existing and potential flaws with the design. However, due to the nature of human subject testing, the feedback being collected in such experiments is prone to biases. Players' expectations play a great role in dictating their gaming experience, which means the information players receive before trying a new game, as well as the knowledge they already possess, may affect their perception and experience of the game. Two studies were conducted in order to evaluate how priming players to expect a game technology can positively influence their experience. The results supported the hypothesis that even basic instructions can change players' perception of the game, and lead to a higher level of perceived immersion when knowing that the game contains an improved feature, the adaptive artificial intelligence (AI), while it is not present in the game

A Digital Game Maturity Model

Game development is an interdisciplinary concept that embraces artistic, software engineering, management, and business disciplines. Game development is considered as one of the most complex tasks in software engineering. Hence, for successful development of good-quality games, the game developers must consider and explore all related dimensions as well as discussing them with the stakeholders involved. This research facilitates a better understanding of important dimensions of digital game development methodology. The increased popularity of digital games, the challenges faced by game development organizations in developing quality games, and severe competition in the digital game industry demand a game development process maturity assessment. Consequently, this study presents a Digital Game Maturity Model to evaluate the current development methodology in an organization. The objective is first to identify key factors in the game development process, then to classify these factors into target groups, and eventually to use this grouping as a theoretical basis for proposing a maturity model for digital game development. In doing so, the research focuses on three major stakeholders in game development: developers, consumers, and business management. The framework of the proposed model consists of assessment questionnaires made up of key identified factors from three empirical studies, a performance scale, and a rating method. The main goal of the questionnaires is to collect information about current processes and practices. This research contributes towards formulating a comprehensive and unified strategy for game development process maturity assessment. The proposed model was evaluated with two case studies from the digital game industry

Maerken: A multiplayer role playing game

The purpose of this project is to develop a base implementation of Maerken using the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a game framework that supports development of 3D games. We describe the game development process that was used to develop Maerken using UDK. The process includes game design, game implementation, and game distribution

Being creative is mandatory:experiences of communication in game development from the perspective of creative employees

Abstract. Although game development is a form of software development, it cannot be compared directly to traditional software development. The audio-visual elements of games and their fundamental requirement to be “fun” make them exceptionally challenging to implement. Traditional software development has been extensively studied for decades, but research on game development is still in its early stages. More research is needed on game development because traditional software development processes and methods may not directly fit the needs of the gaming industry or may even be harmful. This thesis answers the question of how professionals who work in creative jobs in the gaming industry experience communication and feedback in the game development process and what factors they consider to be obstacles to the process. An interview study was conducted with six Finnish game developers as part of this thesis. Many of the interviewees also worked as leaders of creative workers. The interview material was subjected to a qualitative content analysis, and the results were compared with literature. The analysis revealed that creative workers consider communication and its quality to be an important part of their work. It was a source of encouragement and motivation for them, as well as a tool for ensuring the quality of their work and guidance. It was noteworthy that communication difficulties, such as those related to work instructions or feedback, were considered by the interviewees to be obstacles that slowed down the game development process. Other obstacles included poor project management and planning. Good communication is one of the most important pillars of the game development process. It helps ideas to grow by sharing a common vision and navigating through the toughest challenges. If we better understand what game development team members see, experience, and feel, we can help them thrive and persevere in their work. This can produce better games, successful companies, and happier people behind them

Alpha, Beta, Launch: A Newbie\u27s Guide to Educational Video Game Development

This paper details the process we went through to develop an educational video game, which includes: research on implementing video games into the classroom, vendor selection, video game design, and curriculum development. Throughout the video game development process, we faced challenges such as budget, time constraint, and varying areas of expertise. This paper serves as a guideline for similar organizations interested in educational video game development. Play game on desktop or tablet: www.avma.org/videogame Play within browser: https://www.avma.org/KB/K12/videogame/index.htm