This report started with the guideline project that revolved around two problems in the game industry, the hypersexualization of female characters and their stereotypical designs in games, and a wish to solve these problems. Fashion was chosen as a new approach to solving them and the question formulation for the guideline project was: how can we incorporate fashion in order to strengthen a female characters personality, role and overall design in games? 

Three methods were used; firstly a systematic literature review to gather knowledge about the fashion industry as well as the game industry’s character design process. Secondly, the creation of the guideline, “The design handbook – how to improve female character design”, which would serve by presenting a solution to the problem. Thirdly, qualitative interviews to test whether or not the guideline could serve as a possible solution against the problems of sexist and stereotypical designs and if it could overall improve female character design in games.   

The results of the qualitative interviews deemed the project a success; nine out of ten interviewees answered that it would serve as a solution against the problem of both hypersexualization and stereotypical designs. The results of the guideline project and the interviews answered the bachelor’s thesis’ question formulation about how to improve female character design through fashion in the following way:  

• Be inclusive. The priority should be to design interesting characters, regardless of gender.
•  Know who your character is. Give the character a complex and interesting personality and design with that personality in mind; it should be strengthened through all the other design choices (be it color, silhouette or outfit details).  
• Make it believable. The outfit needs to work like a second narrator and should not contradict the setting, the personality or the character’s role.  

This study investigates the feasibility of enhancing community engagement through gamification, using a prototype third-person 3D adventure game called Harmoni. The research targets international students in Gotland, Sweden, aiming to reduce cultural barriers and promote community involvement. By integrating game elements such as altruistic missions, language learning, and historical exploration, the prototype seeks to motivate real-life participation in community activities. Data collected from pre- and post-surveys and follow-up interviews with a small sample size (n=10) suggest that gamification can positively impact community involvement. Despite the limitations of sample size, the findings indicate that thoughtfully designed gamified experiences can foster a sense of belonging and encourage active participation in community life. The study underscores the potential of gamification in educational and social contexts, offering insights for future applications and improvements in game-based community engagement strategies.

League of Legends (Riot Games, 2009) and Valorant (Riot Games, 2020) are both team-based competitive multiplayer games that do not feature any form of story-based game mode, but both feature a large cast of fleshed-out playable characters, each with their own design, backstory, and set of abilities. This study focuses on comparing both games’ approaches to characterization to understand how they incorporate elements of characterization in theircharacter design. This was done with the hope of informing future developers of multiplayer hero games, as well as identifying similarities in their character design despite how different both games are. This study compared two sets of two characters, one from each game, which featured similarities with each other. These similarities served as this study’s starting point to analyze, and then compare both games’ approach to characterization. Many similarities were found between both games in their approach to characterization, despite their core gameplay differences. But it also found many differences, both gameplay-dependent, and dependent on other factors.

Intäktsgenerering är nu en grundläggande aspekt av att skapa videospel och för närvarande försöker alla utvecklare att använda det i de olika designerna av sina spel. Med tanke på den monetariserade aspekten av videospel har denna forskning sett en lucka i studierna som rör intäktsgenerering ur konsumenternas perspektiv, som också är spelarna och köparna av dessa intäktsgenereringsdesigner. Detta dokument närmar sig monetarisering ur konsumenternas perspektiv för att överbrygga denna lucka. Det syftar till att få insikter i konsumentsinnet genom att initiera en konversation mellan tidigare teorier och aktuella diskussioner för att komma fram till en medelväg om intäktsgenerering i AAA-spel mellan konsumenter och speldesigners. Den uppnår detta genom att använda en onlineenkät och semistrukturerade intervjuer med centrala och tillfälliga konsumenter. Dessutom stöds denna forskning av en diskursanalys på YouTube av spelkritiker och recensenter. Resultaten av studien visade att intäktsgenerering är fördelaktigt för oberoende utvecklare och mobilspel, det är också fördelaktigt i AAA-spel om det överlåts till den del av speldesignen som inte påverkar kvaliteten på spelet. Till exempel kosmetika och DLC:er, så länge dessa DLC:er inte är gated game lore som konsumenter tvingas köpa. Effekten av intäktsgenerering på AAA-spel är en femtio-femtio-fråga från konsumentens och utvecklarens sida. Den ekonomiska påverkan som konsumenter projicerar till utvecklare motiverar skälen till kontinuiteten i modeller för intäktsgenerering oavsett kvaliteten på speldesignen. I framtiden behövs forskning för att bättre förstå konsumenternas perspektiv på monetarisering, särskilt bland konsumenter som har vuxit upp i olika spelepoker. Ytterligare studier med större urvalsstorlekar bör genomföras för att göra giltiga generaliseringar och fånga tonåringars perspektiv. Framtida studier bör också fokusera på spel och spelstudior som har genomfört mikrotransaktioner framgångsrikt, med tanke på speldesignkvalitet, intäkter och kundnöjdhet

Denna uppsats syftar till att presentera nya data och intressanta trender inom den aktuella debatten kring kvinnlig media-representation i spel. Detta genomfördes genom skapandet av en pilotstudie, gjord för att samla mer information om kvinnors åsikter om förbestämda spelkaraktärer, sedan genom skapandet av stiliserade 3D-byster, och slutligen genom utförandet av en huvudstudie, som tjänade till att hitta trender i kvinnliga informanters åsikter kring nivåerna av detaljer, representation och relatabilitet dem tidigare nämnda bysterna. Tidigare forskning redovisas och diskuteras, och anmärkningsvärda samband mellan den tidigare forskningen och uppsatsens resultat presenteras.

Vehicular Cloud Computing (VCC) is a contemporary paradigm that includes the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and vehicular networking technologies. VCC offers vehicle-to-device, vehicle-to-infrastructure, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication in which the vehicles can communicate using sensing abilities. VCC is exploiting the IoT environment, cloud architecture, and vehicle resources. However, the energy-efficient privacy of communicators and security of communication are assertive problems in VCC. To accomplish this goal, we present an identity-based authentication scheme for VCC which also uses radio frequency identification (RFID). The security and robustness of the devised scheme are evaluated using informal and formal analysis. The informal analysis shows that our scheme is vigorous to resist various attacks. The formal analysis is done through Random Oracle Model (ROM) which shows that the scheme is secure and efficient. The performance of our scheme is also determined and compared with various related schemes which clearly illustrate the efficiency of the proposed scheme. Thus, our scheme is very efficient for employment in the VCC environment.

Learning to read body language is something we do throughout our whole life. It is a complex non-verbal language that can express more than words. In this study we investigate the possibility to use only body language to portray emotions to the viewer. In a background of a game project we have used a character that has his face covered, therefore, facial expression is not visible during the online survey, which we used as a method for our investigation. As a foundation we have created four character animations to portray anger, frustration, exhaustion and hurt. To find the answer if it is possible to recognize those five emotions in the character animations survey, participants were obligated to name the emotion expressed on each of the video clips. The results of this study show that the characters body language could be sufficient to portray those five emotions. However, it was concluded that body language could be enough to represent the character's emotional state to the viewer; but by including facial expressions we could help to portray the emotion even further.

Representation in RPGs seeks to understand how queer masculinity is represented and performed within the magic circle of a Dungeons and Dragons adventure. By creating our own adventure focused on gender studies and characters with traits and flaws concerning queer representation, we put players within the magic circle to experience and perform according to their characters. Doing this we found out that players feel more safe to explore sexuality and gender within the magic circle. 

Att designa spel kring komplexa känslor och upplevelser kan ses som en svårighet för speldesigners. Därför försökte denna uppsats undersöka hur man förmedlar en individs emotionella tillstånd genom design baserat på en vald upplevelse. Den valda upplevelsen var känslan av ensamhet med koppling till rädslan av förkastelse. Denna uppsats kommer att använda Ruschs (2017) metod för att designa djupa spel som ett sätt för att modellera en upplevelse av ensamhet som uppfattas av en av författarna. Denna modell kommer att baseras på en intervju mellan de två författarna med en som tar rollen av en erfarenhetsexpert och den andra som en lyssnare. Resultaten från denna metod försöker få en katalog med upplevelser och tankar om erfarenhetsexpertens känslor av ensamhet som kan användas för att konstruera metaforer. Dessa metaforer används sedan för att skapa spelmekaniker som kan kombineras med hopp om att uppnå en uppriktig rekreation av den individuella känslan av ensamhet som erfarenhetsexperten uplever. Denna uppsats kommer att gå djupare in på de designbeslut som fattas under produktionen av det djupa spelet som modellerar känslan av ensamhet.

En utforskande diskursanalys utfördes på praxisgemenskapen baserad på Discord, en plattform för snabbmeddelanden. Praxisgemenskapen var en grupp spelare dedikerade till det plattformsoberoende gratisspelet Genshin Impact. En korpus av meddelanden samlades in från gemenskapens offentliga meddelandeloggar, som sträckte sig över en period av tre dagar under lanseringen av Genshin Impacts mest ekonomiskt lukrativa karaktärsbanner. Från korpusen har många teman i spelarnas diskussioner observerats; såsom reaktioner på gachas sannolikhetssystem, visningar av problemspelande, sexualisering av kvinnliga karaktärer och åsikter om intäktsgenerering samt spelets utvecklare. Framtida studier som avser spelarbeteende och gamerkultur kan också använda praxisgemenskaper på plattformar som Discord, för att få insikt i nischa gemenskaper av engagerade användare.

Lootboxes orsakar för närvarande en återkommande debatt inom spelindustrin där diskussionens fokus ofta är kring kopplingen till hasardspel. I detta examensarbete görs ett tillägg till debatten genom en närmre undersökning av Gacha design – vilket är ett designverktyg för inkomstgenerering – genom teori och spelares åsikter. Slutsatserna pekar mot att om Gacha är sett som ett spektrum av styrka kan diskussionen nyttjas för att bidra till en ökad förståelse av alla former av inkomstgenereringssystem inom spel oberoende av deras abstrakta definitioner. Data samlades genom fokusgrupper och analyserades utifrån nuvarande forskning runt de vanligaste ämnen som uppstod under fokusgruppernas diskussioner. Detta examensarbetet fann att den övergripande kunskapen kring Gacha var begränsad och genom att titta på Gacha som en design method öppnade upp för en bredare diskussion med kopplingar till Lootboxes.

This paper features a study about cooperation and how it can be encouraged via level layout.The research team developed a game with a research intent focused on cooperation driven bythe question: How can player cooperation be encouraged through the placement of incentivesand challenges in the level layout of a local cooperative game? To be able to answer thequestion, the research team looked into papers about cooperation, level design, nudge theory,Cooperative Performance Metrics, and design patterns. The research was conducted by usingiterative design, where three iterations were tested with two groups of four players and thedesign was iterated upon after each test. After all playtests were conducted and all data hadbeen analyzed, evidence was found that the placement of the challenges and incentives in alevel can have an effect on cooperation. This paper makes a contribution to the subject of thecorrelation between cooperation and level design.

This thesis investigates the level of focus a player is displaying while playing a role-playing game. The thesis tries to answer the questions if the level of focus is different while a player is watching an event scene versus during gameplay and if there is a difference in the level of focus displayed by new players versus experience ones. To answer this question a playtest was performed in the role-playing game Final Fantasy XIII and the player’s reaction was recorded and documented. The result suggests that the level of focus a player is displaying is lower during event scenes than during gameplay.

This thesis investigates how the color red can potentially affect the player’s perception of horror game environments. The test was conducted by asking participants to play through a horror level made in Unreal Engine 4 which used realistic-looking assets. The study was performed using a mixed methodology of A/B/C testing with surveys and interviews to gather the data. The A, B, and C versions of the test used the same game-level in all versions however the color of the lighting was different in all of them. Version A used white lights, version B used red lights, and version C used red flickering lights. The results revealed that the players found the version with the white lights to be the scariest and the version with the flickering lights to be the second scariest. This was most likely due to the order in which the players played the levels, the version with white being the first that the players played. The players indicated that the realistic colors in version A added to the sense of immersion, whereas the continuous red lights in version B were perceived by some players as overdone or unnatural and would have been better suited for localized areas associated with supernatural elements. The flickering lights were well received by players and associated with a higher potential for danger and jump scares

Puzzles have always been a central part of games. One of the simplest manifestations of a puzzle in games is an obstruction that prevents the player from progressing and an object that removes the obstruction. The system of unlocking new areas with keys is used in order to provide interesting level design and help build narrative in games. This examination intends to provide knowledge and insight into how this type of system is commonly portrayed visually and thus provide a basis for designers to build upon when creating similar challenges, providing a greater awareness of the design norms that are commonly applied. In the majority of the cases that have been examined during this study, text-based information is used to convey the majority of the essential information given to the players regarding the relationship of the key and the lock. In many cases the graphics serve only to highlight important features of the objects and help the player to quickly tell the different items apart in the inventory.

In the field of Game Design, multiple frameworks have emerged to give an ontological understanding of iterative Game Design and game creation. However, following critique of the MDA framework in regards to how it treats narratives, our group in this paper utilized the alternative DDE framework, as a tool to investigate any of deeper detail in player-game interactions within the game Cities: Skylines II as compared to the MDA framework. The study was done as an inductive narrative analysis of recorded gameplay found on video-hosting websites, such as YouTube where we would discuss the ways the two frameworks operate in terms of narratives.

In recent years, there has been an increased popularity in games with permanent death. This thesis investigates what mechanics makes the player return after continuously losing in permanent death games. The mechanics of four bestselling games featuring permanent death, which implies the complete restart of the game each time the player avatar dies, are played for six hours and analysed. The games analysed are Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Spelunky, Rogue Legacy and Don‟t Starve.  

Based on the mechanics found in the games and using Raph Kosters definition of fun, “if games stop teaching us they become boring”, it is established that a number of different reasons exist to bring a player back, not just necessarily only the mechanics themselves.

Denna uppsats behandlar abstrakt grafik i spel. Huvudsyftet är att ta reda på om abstrakt grafik är tillräckligt för att röra upp känslor bland spelarna. En studie är ihopsatt där spelare av spelet Thomas was Alone får svara på en enkät om hur de upplevde spelet, och även en analys av spelets grafik uförs. Resultatet indikerar att det är narrativet som utgör den störta effekten på spelarna, och inte grafiken. Det framgår av analysen enkätundersökningen bör vidareutvecklas och förslag ges på framtida studier. 

Det här är resultatet av en 10 veckor lång studie om spelares beteenden och om deras valpåverkas av färgerna i deras omgivning. Ett antal personer är tillfrågade att röra sig genom envirtuell miljö, på tid, där de gör höger- och vänsterval baserat på olika färger (röd, grön, blåoch grå). Medan de flesta av valen består av två olika färger så använder några samma färger.Resultatet visar att personerna troligen föredrar en färg framför en annan och att de troligtvisföredrar en icke-neutral färg framför en neutral färg. Med dessa resultat och de intervjuer somgjordes så blir slutsatsen att det är stor sannolikhet att personerna påverkas av färgerna i derasomgivning, men det är svårt att säga exakt hur de påverkas.

Dystopian literature has been gaining popularity during the last decade in accordance with thesocial and political changes around the world. On the same parallel there has also been anincrease in games with dystopian worlds and themes. Dystopias have been serving as tools forsocial criticism since their conception; and with their introduction to games, the question of ifgames serve as a medium for criticism rises. This paper looks at how dystopian games elicitcritical thinking through design and narrative by studying the game BioShock (2007)’s influenceon players by using it as a case study with a qualitative interview method. The discussionscrutinizes the game’s emotional and intellectual impact on players under the umbrella ofnarrative and game design.

This paper seeks to answer the question “How does the tactical layer affect the strategic layer in Master of Orion II.” The goal is to identify the differences in the game when played with the tactical layer and without. This paper seeks to fill a gap in the literature about the relationship between tactics and strategy in video games. The research is performed by playing the game with the tactical layer turned on and off and analyzing the differences. The auto-resolve system is tested to acquire more information regarding the strategy layer without the tactical layer. The main findings of this research were the narrowing of player choice, the inability to design/edit ships, automatic ship upgrades, fewer technologies available, the inability to capture enemy ships, and considerable changes in approach despite similar playstyle, in the absence of a tactical layer.

Målet med studien var att fastställa om interaktivitet skulle påverka hur inlevelsefulla och upphetsade studiedeltagarna skulle bli inför skräckmedia med olika nivåer av interaktivitet. Två grupper studiedeltagare blev tillfrågade att antingen spela eller titta på ett virtuellt scenario. Studiedeltagarnas hjärtrytm mättes sedan med ett aktivitetsarmband med inbyggd hjärtmonitor. Studiedeltagarnas ögonrörelser spelades in med hjälp av en Tobii 4C eye tracker. Studien fann att upphetsning ökade när interaktivitet ökade. Inlevelse ökade inte när interaktivitet ökade. Resultaten indikerade att cutscenes kan ha signifikant lägre nivåer av upphetsning, jämfört med interaktiv gameplay.

The Free-to-Play (F2P) business model is as of 2019 the model that brings in the most revenue in the game industry. It's however also the business model that creates the most amount of anxiety within the gaming community. In this paper we have performed a formal analysis on the game AFK Arena in search of answers to the research question, “how do in-game purchases and revenue mechanics in Free-to-Play games affect the player experience?”. The formal analysis concludes that the game forces the player away from the optimal experience and wants the player to use revenue mechanics in order to get back into the optimal experience. What we learned from the formal analysis is that there is a fine line between the amount of money a player has to spend in order to achieve perfect flow in a F2P game. Game designers design inconveniences and problems on purpose which players can only solve by performing microtransactions. 

Museums provide not only audio guides but also video guides. But the video guide production needs a lot of manpower. We have developed a museum guide creation system that facilitates the video guide production for the museums. The video guide creator uploads the script to the server, and the visitor accesses the script with a smartphone application and views it as a CG animation. We use an existing Content Management System - "Wordpress" for the script input. With this system, museum guide creators simply access the blog site by Wordpress and post an article which is in this case a scenario of a museum guide. As for the next step, we plan to make our museum guide creation system open to the public, and will allow many people to create and register movie guide scripts voluntarily just like the Wikipedia. 

We have been studying and developing the real-time Computer Graphics (CG) based virtual museum where a user can walk through to appreciate artworks digitized in high-resolution. Our virtual museum also has a function to automatically create TV program-like CG animations using 3D CG models in the virtual space as it is so that the user can learn about individual works by watching the art shows. The CG animation is produced with TVML (TV program Making Language) engine implemented on the virtual museum. However, the current problem is that it requires a lot of work for a developer to write the complicated TVML scripts manually Therefore, this time we have developed a special tool to help the developer to prepare the TVML scripts easily. With this tool, the developer can produce the TVML-based art program simply by writing out a simple scenario on an ordinary text editor. In order to design this tool, TV art programs actually broadcasted are analyzed to determine the syntax of the simple scenario. Based on the analysis, we have developed the tool with TVML engine working on the Unity game Engine. We have also used this tool to imitate the broadcasted TV program to validate its usability.

We assessed whether the negative association between maternal postpartum depression (PPD) and infants’ development of joint attention (gaze following) generalizes from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) to Majority World contexts. The study was conducted in Bhutan (N = 105, M = 278 days, 52% males) but also draws from publicly available Swedish data (N = 113, M = 302 days, 49% males). We demonstrate that Bhutanese and Swedish infants’ development follows the same trajectory. However, Bhutanese infants’ gaze following were not related to maternal PPD, which the Swedish infants’ were. The results support the notion that there are protecting factors built into the interdependent family model. Despite all the benefits of being raised in a modern welfare state, it seems like Swedish infants, to an extent, are more vulnerable to maternal mental health than Bhutanese infants.

Detta examensarbete ställer frågan om hur unika och olika samhällen kan bildas och främjas på live-streaming plattformen Twitch.tv. Twitch har valts för dess relevans för spelkulturen samt dess höga antal användare jämförelsevist med andra liknande plattformar. Detta görs genom att tillämpa Kontraktualism, en filosofi som bygger på individens förhållande till en styrande stat och varför en person skulle välja att ge upp sin frihet för säkerhet. Filosoferna Thomas Hobbes, John Locke och Jean Rousseau bildar vår teoretiska bakgrund samt påverkar vårt slutresultatet. Tillämpningen av Kontraktualism som ideologi av David Gauthier används även som ett verktyg för att kategorisera och förstå de komplexa relationerna som existerar inom varje gemenskap. För denna studie valdes en netnografiskt metod, där vi som forskare tar en passiv, iakttagande roll genom att se fyra olika ”variety” spelgemenskaper på Twitch. Livestreamarna xQcOW, CohhCarnage, 39daph och Forsen blev valda för vår studie. Vi genomför detta via att vi inte deltar i livestreamens chatt, och vi låter inte heller våra deltagare känna till deras deltagande i studien. En etisk utvärdering gjordes kring detta faktum, och det ansågs etiskt enligt en netnografiskt handlingsram av Robert V Kozinets. Vi engagerade oss i vår forskning genom att fördjupa oss i de listade livestreamerna under två timmar var i maj, samtidigt som vi antecknade om de olika interaktionerna mellan livestreamarna och deras gemenskaper. Detta gjordes för att ge oss den nödvändiga informationen för att bestämma livestreamens sagda samt outsagda regler och hur de tillämpas, så att vi i slutändan kunde kategorisera varje gemenskaps unika samhällskontrakt. Vår metod ansågs vara en succé efter att en analys av vår data gjorde det möjligt för oss att definiera samhällskontraktet som användes i var och en utav gemenskaperna. Detta gjordes genom att se dem igenom filosofernas olika linser samt en jämförelse mellan var och en. Genom att göra detta kunde man se att alla våra fyra livestreamare kunde kopplas till Lockes teori, med ett varierande fokus på samarbete och skydd av egendom. Varje gemenskap hade även olika relationer med sina explicita och implicita regler, som CohhCarnages höga värdering av auktoritet i stil av Hobbes medans Forsen ignorerade Hobbes värdesättningar. Vi tror att denna forskningsmetod lätt kan kopieras av andra, och att vår forskning kan stödja framtida undersökningar inom områdena netnografi, livestreaming-gemenskaper och Kontraktualism på sociala medieplattformar.

This study is about audio design in horror games, by looking at the horror game Darkwood. Its goal is to answer the questions on how the soundscape of Darkwood affects player experience, what sounds Darkwood utilizes, and what emotional registers it evokes. This study’s goal is to figure out the methods of horror soundscapes to be useful for followingattempts at making horror-themed soundscapes by future game developers. The research wasconducted by having five participants play the introductory section of Darkwood, theparticipants would be interviewed afterward with questions regarding the game and horror ingeneral. The gathered data would be analyzed mainly by using the Two Factor Theory of Emotion by Schachter and Singer. The study found that the audio of Darkwood had an impacton the participants’ experience, with players visibly growing uncomfortable by the tense ambiance, but it also discovered that visuals played a large part in it too, thus it recommends future experiments with greater scale and more precise tools for measuring emotional reactions derived from sound.

This report outlines the development efforts towards a digital serious game system called MONITOR ECOTECH and presents the game features, components, and architecture, including the game engine, graphics and visualisations, user testing, game structure, as well as game mechanics and functions. The digital prototype featured in this report is a functional “alpha” version that utilises data generated from the playing of the board game version to create a digitised interface. This interface allows for the monitoring and assessment of the performance of different constellations of ecotechnologies when they are exposed to social and biophysical shocks that amplify nutrient emissions in the BSR.

Under projektet togs två prototyper fram som innefattade tre korta pussel med målet att se hur spelare reagerade vid brutna färgnormer. Sedan sammlades åtta testspelare som ansåg sig ha flera års erfarenhet inom datorspel och iaktog dem under speltestning för att notera den tid det tog för dem att klara varje pussel. Efter detta utfördes också en intervju med resondenterna med målet att se om de identifierade normerna uppfattas existera samt ta reda på varför de agerade som de gjorde.

Enligt de resultat som gavs från speltestningen och intervjun så kan vi se att majoriteten av testspelarna kunde identifiera de färgnormer som valts att testa. "Röd dryck återställer hälsa" och "Färgad nyckel öppnar dörrar med samma färg" är de färgnormer som nästan alla testspelare lyckades identifiera följt av färgnormen "Grön knapp leder till en positiv effekt medans röd knapp leder till en negativ effekt". Här var respondenterna kluvna och endast lite mer en hälften ansåg att den normen existerade. Övriga agerade efter en fjärde färgnorm, "Röd knapp är 'action-knapp'".

Speltestningen visar också att förvirring vid normbrott kan orsaka längre speltid ifall spelaren anser att färgnormen existerar samt agerar efter färg. Anledningen till denna förvirring skulle kunna vara att spelarna tidigare sett ett mönster och till det mönstret en lösning. När den lösningen plötsligt inte fungerar så blir spelaren förvirrade och måste då tänka om. I intervuerna berättade de att de agerar på objektens färg när de avgör hur de ska lösa pusslet och att testspelarna anser sig bli förvirrade när färgnormen bryts.

Denna avhandling strävar efter att utforska konceptet ‘​agency mechanics​’ (mekaniker som manipulerar en spelares olika möjligheter att kontrollera spelet) med syftet att identifiera och presentera vanliga praktiska exempel av dem, samt exempel på aspekter av spelarens kontroll som vanligtvis manipulerades. En formell analys gjordes av en vald grupp av spel inom skräck genren, med dem sju spelen valda för att inkludera ett varierat urval inom både miljö och mekaniker, för att identifiera vilka sorter av ​agency mechanics​ dem använder sig av och vad för effekt dem har på spelarens agens. Dessa mekaniker kategoriserades sedan med hjälp av ‘​Agency Parameter’-​ modellen genom deras associerade parametrar och vilka aspekter av spelarens agens de manipulerade. Genom denna process observerades att de mest vanliga varianterna av ​agency mechanics​ som användes var de som manipulerade spelarens förmåga att samla in visuell information, navigera miljön och att ta sin tid med uppgifter och åtgärder i spelen. 

This study examines and compares internal economy systems in single player role playing games and how they influence the aesthetics and emotional response of the player. This study uses qualitative methods in order to analyse the results from the performed playtests. The chosen games for this examination are The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Once the playtests were conducted, the internal economy systems, the player’s fortune over time, and the emotional responses the systems evoke were analysed and compared between the two games. The results and analysis showed that the internal economy systems follow larger design goals, in this case open world sandbox approach in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, versus more linear story progression in a semi-open world in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This resulted in the internal economy mechanics being perceived differently in each game. The conclusion shows that the majority of internal economy mechanics have been designed towards either the overall goal of creating an open sandbox experience, or story driven experience respectively. 

Accounts of trans people using role-playing games (RPGs) as a safer space to “try out” another way to be gendered can be found in numerous sites – from the memetic, to the anecdotal, to the academic. Using autoethnography andpost-structuralist queer theory of performativity in combination with scholarly perspectives of RPGs as sites for potentially transformative experiences, I consider the ways in which live-action role-playing games (larps) might help trans people express, explore, and embody their subjectivity. I argue that despite there being a relatively small (though growing)number of larps designed to encourage players to consider gender and sexuality norms in society, there remains no larpthat intentionally allows trans people (or those questioning their gender) to consider their gender subjectivity therein. Scholarly perspectives on larps suggest that they might provide a site for the simulation of complex socio-cultural dynamics, a space to adopt different social roles, and the alibi and scaffolding to do so in a way that is validating with a communityof like-minded role-players (Deterding 2018; Bowman and Hugaas 2021). I present examples of larps that, either by design ornot, seem to have provided opportunities for gender role-play and transformative experiences for some trans players. I considerthe possible limitations the embodied experience of larps -- as opposed to digital and table-top RPGs (TRPGs) -- might havein allowing such exploration for some trans players, particularly in potentially transphobic play environments. I argue however, that the embodied nature of larps might also provide an opportunity to explore gender role-play in such a way that allowsfor the validation of more diverse physical and social gender presentations, as well as the rehearsal thereof in a safer space. Ipresent accounts of trans people -- including my own autoethnography -- using role-playing games, larps, and other activities/environments not necessarily consciously designed for the purpose of gender exploration as the basis for how this might bedesigned for intentionally in larps. I conclude by proposing to design a larp that could provide an opportunity to express, explore, and embody non-normative gender, and I pose a series of questions that I believe such a design should seek to answer.

Hidetaka Suehiro’s (SWERY) game, The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories (The Missing) (2018) presents an LGBTQ narrative by initially misdirecting the player with an implied, and quite different, LGBTQ narrative. The game is designed to suggest that the player character’s narrative goal is to seek out another (non-player) character who, it is implied by careful use of metaphor and mechanics, is the player-character’s lesbian romantic partner. This careful construction of game design obscures an eventual reveal that the narrative was rather the dreamlike experience of a transgender (trans) woman’s near-death exploration of her own identity, experience, and trauma. I present an autoethnographic close-reading of the game’s intersectional design features in order to demonstrate how it does this, to consider why, and to examine its potential to achieve the designer’s stated goal; which is to teach the player empathy for trans people (SWERY, 2019). I show how the game’s design demonstrates an awareness of its wider sociocultural context – a context that the game designer is in turn trying to impact with the game. I will show how this context is leveraged, which tropes and conventions the game deploys and subverts, and what presumptions of the player the game relies on to make this misdirect function. I present my analysis of The Missing’s (2018) design misdirect as an “assemblage” (Taylor, 2009) of game elements combined with recognisable LGBTQ narrative conventions (Shaw & Friesem, 2016); all with the goal to provide a specific pedagogical moment, performed partially through this misdirect. I compare my findings to commentaries and reviews by others, presentations and interviews with the designer himself and to some of his other game designs that feature LGBTQ references and representations. I position this reading as an introduction to my wider research into how games might provide an opportunity for the exploration, expression and embodiment of trans subjectivities through videogame-based-learning.

Role-playing games provide the ability to slip out of established social frames and explore identity, whether digital or analog. Thus, these role-playing groups can provide a transformational container: a space for growth within which players feel safe to explore new aspects of their identities within a liminal environment. If the group of players is supportive outside the game, players can feel validated in portraying a new social identity in their daily life and shape a more empowering narrative of their life story. Furthermore, role-playing games open new relationship frames connected to these identities and the fictions surrounding them. Previous work has addressed how players may experience such dynamics as erotic, confusing, or potentially detrimental to existing relationships, particularly as a result of bleed, when aspects spill over from character to player. Through co-creation, players can experience unprecedented intimacy, vulnerability, and connection,which can shake the foundations of players' self-concepts and understanding of relationships. Applying theoretical principles from object relations, psychodynamics, transactional analysis, and attachment theory to role-playing games, this paper explores intimacy within role-playing environments. These theories can help explain how role-playing games can hold space for players to catalyze new relationships, practice interpersonal skills such as flirting and sharing, and experience the magic of limerence through connection. Furthermore, players can transform intimacy in daily life, whether with specific people or within their understanding of their sexual and/or romantic identities, such as queer and polyamorous identities. This paper concludes with recommendations for exploring intimacy with an emphasis on integration, safety, consent, calibration, transparency, and trust.

Game design processes, just like games themselves, are infused with unconscious values which need to be made transparent to ensure a successful outcome. Building on previous studies in educational and queer game design, this paper critically reflects on the values of our game design process with Allied Forces, a game which aims to teach trans allyship to cisgender players. Using a personal account routed in reflective design and standpoint methodology, we describe our involvement as queer subject matter experts assisting in the development of a game focusing on cis education. Our discussion reflects on two dimensions of critical game design which we believe are suited to generate a better understanding of unconscious interpersonal dynamics in politically engaged, social justice-oriented game design. These are (1) external assumptions related to our expertise as queer designers, and (2) the internal labor and hidden costs of working as marginalized creators with and for cis players. Our observations regarding these emergent themes allow us to interrogate and make visible the hidden power dimensions which tend to drive social change-oriented educational game design more generally. Our contribution thus seeks to help marginalized creators identify and calculate the costs and benefits of participating in politically engaged game design, and to develop their own feasible strategies and voices as trans and nonbinary creators in collaborative game design spaces.

Sound is an important part of a game experience, yet there has not been much research on the topic of how sound affects the play experience of a game. As it is unclear as to what extent music actually has on a player playing a game and that there is a large amount of literature and theories regarding how music can affect a listener, we will attempt to find out how much of these knowledges regarding music is applicable to games and how useful they are in game design. We did this by having 10 participants play a level of Half Life 2 while we played music of varying intensity and interviewed them afterwards to gauge how they felt when playing. Then we analyzed the different themes that were present in their answers and had concluded that not only does music have a profound influence on the game experience but also that these effects can be predicted rather intuitively. However due to the limited size and scope of this research we encourage more researchers to conduct more and similar research to ours as there are still many aspects on how sound and music can affect the play experience that are unclear. 

Respiration rate is an important healthcare indicator, and it has become a popular research topic in remote healthcare applications with Internet of Things. Existing respiration monitoring systems have limitations in terms of convenience, comfort, and privacy, etc. This paper presents a contactless and real-time respiration monitoring system, the so-called Wi-Breath, based on off-the-shelf WiFi devices. The system monitors respiration with both the amplitude and phase difference of the WiFi channel state information (CSI), which is sensitive to human body micro movement. The phase information of the CSI signal is considered and both the amplitude and phase difference are used. For better respiration detection accuracy, a signal selection method is proposed to select an appropriate signal from the amplitude and phase difference based on a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate that the Wi-Breath achieves an accuracy of 91.2% for respiration detection, and has a 17.0% reduction in average error in comparison with state-of-the-art counterparts.

I en bransch där produktionstiderna även ökar för mindre spel, är inverkan av modulära och procedurella arbetsflöden i miljöberättande ett ämne av intresse. Denna studie kommer att ta sig an spelmiljödesign via indexical storytelling. Den använder sig av begränsade resurser samt procedurella och modulära arbetsflöden för att bygga tre olika spelmiljöer. Genom att analysera kvalitativa data och omfattningen av upplevda berättelser, såväl som deras potential i spel där uppmärksamhet på spelmiljön är relevant, framgår det att det finns värde i de utforskade metoderna för miljöberättande i spel, både i större och mindre produktioner.

Game companies are always looking for more ways to increase consumers and their revenue as well as how consumers purchase games. Several business models have been introduced that this thesis will look at, free-to-play, adding downloadable content to existing games, freemium and premium games.

This thesis attempts to provide answers to what business models there are available for game developers and how that would influence the development of the single-player games to lower the point of entry for the consumers.  It will focus on narrative single-player games and will use the business models to try and answer the question.

A survey was handed out that investigated the respondent’s reaction to changes for BioShock Infinite developer by Irrational Games. The models were presented and compared to how the respondents reacted to the questions.

Together with how companies are releasing games now this thesis came to the conclusion that in order to lower the entry point, the games need to be split and released episodically, together with increased downloadable content that added further playability to the game.

The workshop program at the 11th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment was held November 14-15, 2015, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA. The program included four workshops (one of which was a joint workshop): Artificial Intelligence in Adversarial Real-Time Games, Experimental AI in Games, Intelligent Narrative Technologies and Social Believability in Games, and Player Modeling. This article contains the reports of three of the four workshops.

Detta arbete tittar på könsspecifika ojämlikheter vad gäller tillgång till videospel som finns mellan manliga och icke-manliga ungdomar. I undersökningen föreslås en konceptuell workshop som heter SpielRaum, som siktar på att ge tonåringar som tillhör marginaliserade könsgrupper en säker miljö för att därmed göra videospel mer tillgängliga. Genom att samla spel för fritt spelande och kombinera guidade diskussioner med självreflekterande övningar, hoppas workshopen kunna ge ökad kunskap om spel på ett spelfokuserat sätt. Detta gör att den skiljer sig från andra workshop-miljöer för icke-manliga tonåringar, vilket även behandlas i arbetet. Vad som upptäcktes var att de tenderar att varautvecklingsorienterade.

Under arbetet med workshop-designen sattes skillnaderna runt speltillgänglighet i fokus: det fastställdes att implicit och explicit uteslutning av icke-manliga spelare leder till en ond cirkel av icke-deltagande och icke-representation. Detta bidrar sedan till den sociala uppfattningen att spel är ett medium för män och att icke-män är missgynnade vad gäller spel. Dessutom är kunskap om spel nödvändigt om man ska kunna delta i spel, och kan användas som ett sätt att försvara sig själv mot marginaliserande innehåll i spel. Detta är anledningen till att SpielRaum siktar på att öka icke-mäns medvetenhet för sin egen marginalisering och för att visa att de kan delta i spelvärlden utan att be om lov först.

This thesis explored the usability and user experience of two input devices used for video games based on Kirakowski and McNamara’s (2006) three-factor model for input devices. The input devices were keyboard & mouse and touchscreen with gyroscope, and they were tested in the context of a first-person shooter prototype game developed for this study that tracked user performance. The purpose of the study was to compare the two input devices and discover what attributes were favourable in terms of user experience. Test participants were required to answer a pre-test survey, play the prototype game with one of the input devices and then answer a post-test survey. The data was then analysed using quantitative data analysis methods such as analysis of variance (ANOVA). Finally, this study presents the findings and highlights some new aspects and attributes to consider when evaluating or developing input devices for video games. 

This essay is about side health indicator in FPS, why they look like they do and what function they provide in FPS and their existence in modern FPS. The essay also contains information about traditional health indicators, psychology in colors, the crosshair focus area and research about FPS in modern times. The author research of 44 FPS games is find out the amount of side health indicators against the more traditional types and the reasons a developer would include a side health indicator instead of the others. In his research he found out that in the selected games, a fair amount of them did include only a side health indicator but a far larger amount of the combination type, using a traditional type as a primary health indicator and a side health indicator when an avatar takes too much damage or nearing death. The author also found out a type he had not thought of, called full screen health indicators, which affects the whole screen to indicate the avatars state of health.

In this thesis we explore the various challenges of conveying environmental narratives in a fast-paced first-person game. The study is set within the context of our game Project Chaser, a fast-paced first-person 3D platforming game in which the player is constantly chased by an artificial creature, leaving little room for slowing down. Through this game, we aim to investigate the use of visual attention frameworks and environmental storytelling techniques, such as indexical storytelling and semiotics of architecture, to tell a story without disrupting the fast-paced nature of the game. Using iterative design and qualitative research methods we aim to identify effective techniques for capturing the players' attention and facilitating good narrative comprehension. In this study, we discuss the use of contrasting colors, lighting, and architectural connotations to direct the players' attention with the goal of implicitly telling a narrative without the use of text or cut scenes. Our findings suggest that careful design choices can have a meaningful impact on the player’s comprehension of the narrative while not compromising the pacing of the game. However, if the narrative elements are poorly placed or do not communicate the intended narrative, the fast-paced nature of the game can prevent the player from arriving at the correct conclusion, should the narrative elements be misunderstood at the beginning of the game.

This theoretical thesis employs critical discourse analysis to scrutinise the construction of video game addiction in Swedish press from 1991 to 2017, and examines its potential contribution to a moral panic. Our research is based on the assumption that media discourse influences societal norms, which in turn, can profoundly affect individuals and groups.

Our primary results suggest that a small group of moral entrepreneurs, mainly treatment providers for gambling disorders, were given an ideological near-monopoly over the conceptualization of video game addiction in the Swedish press. They popularised diagnostic criteria and screening tools by paraphrasing those developed for substance addiction, thus implying that this new disorder was just like substance addiction and therefore warranted similarly aggressive interventions and possibly clinical treatment.

Additionally, we found that the often alarmist concerns over players' health, education, social life and other presumed harms of video game addiction were not primarily rooted in the games themselves. Our sample shows that the discourse seamlessly expanded to incorporate new sources of addiction, treating video games, the Internet, computers, social media, smart phones, and, most recently, screens as functional synonyms. 

Our analysis suggests that the moral panic might be a manifestation of deeper societal factors, including traditional patriarchal family values, prejudice against youth, expectations of neuro-normativity, and conservative views on digital media. Recognizing the influence of these underlying factors may help parents, teachers, social workers and gamers themselves navigate the still-ongoing media trend of using pop psychology and amateur neuroscience to justify patriarchal and capitalist morality tales.

Kommunikation av design är i många avseenden en invecklad process. Design av spel innebär inte enbart riktlinjer för utseende och känsla, utan också intentionalitet. En beprövad metod för att uttrycka design och intentionalitet är skapandet av ett gemensamt vokabulär. Game design patterns är ett försök att upprätta och formalisera just ett sådant vokabulär inom speldesign. Game design patterns är ett debatterat verktyg och detta arbetet ämnar undersöka den praktiska tillämpningen av ett pattern genom en kvantitativ studie för att stärka potentialen för en mer sammanhängande definition av termen. Detta utförs genom att först etablera ett game design pattern med hjälp av observation av RTS-spel. Sedan studeras det genom implementation i tre kommersiella RTS-spel. Resultatet fokuseras på kvantitativ data relaterat till pacing som insamlas från matcher mellan två AI. Genom analys av AI-matcherna kan det anses att game design pattern i en kontextualiserad inramning stöder teorin att använda design patterns som ett formellt designverktyg. Vidare drogs slutsatsen att användandet av AI också innebär begränsningar i hur tillämplig den insamlade datan är i den övergripande designen av spel. Fler studier med kvantitativ data ihop med kvalitativa observationer kan ytterligare stödja idén om game design pattern som ett användbart verktyg för både forskare och utvecklare inom spel.

The connection that players can feel toward their characters in pen-and-paper roleplaying games is a known phenomenon that has been previously studied and is recognized among roleplaying enthusiasts. Pen-and-paper roleplaying games are a complex form of games, with three distinct frames which are ludological, social, and diegetic (also called narrative). The frames are different aspects of the game as well as the base of different motivations for players, who value the frames in a varied degree. The goal of this thesis is to examine if in-game choices based on the diegetic frame in contrast to the ludological frame are correlated with the player/character connection.

The method used for data collection is distribution of a quantitative questionnaire on the internet, spread to Swedish roleplayers through social media and associations tied to SVEROK. With their answers, the analysis identifies correlations between the player/character connection and the three frames of pen-and-paper roleplaying games, as well as other correlations noted in the data analysis. The literature revolves around the two core concepts; the player/character connection and the three frames of roleplaying games. The result shows that diegetic choices in contrast to ludological are weakly correlated with the player/character connection.