Game Design

Le projet annonçait ainsi ses objectifs en 2006 : « Lutin Game Lab, projet de plate-forme de 24 mois, se propose de fédérer les forces de recherche académiques et de développement des entreprises pour faire faire un pas significatif aux méthodologies d'évaluation de la ...

Purpose. This paper focuses on social (informal, interpersonal) relationships and identifies their positive effects on business activity in -a rarely empirically analyzed -the video game industry. Methodology. Given the lack of previous research on the positive business effects of social relationships in the chosen empirical context, qualitative and explorative research was conducted. To address the research goals, seventeen semi-structured in-depth interviews and one focus group interview with six video game developers were carried out. The interviews were analyzed using inductive coding procedure. (2) among the key actors maintaining such relationships are: consumers (i.e., gamers), business partners (investors, contractors, and co-operators), employees (past and current), and competitors; (3) industry-specific social relationships benefits are identified by comparing them with the general social relationships benefits indicated in the literature, detailing them in the chosen empirical context, and addressing the type of actors with which social links are exploited. Practical implications. Game developers can realize with whom to maintain social relations within video game industry to generate particular business benefits, for example, better promotion and higher game sales, building a proper firm's image. Originality: The identification of actors of social relationships diverse in terms of establishing and intentional usage of social relationships, the recognition of the specific business-related benefits of maintaining social relationships by video game developers, and providing empirical evidence of the industry-wide determinants of the benefits of maintaining social relationships. Keywords social/informal relationships, creative industries, gaming communities, VGI, video game developers, qualitative research.

In this paper, for a two graded manpower system, a mathematical model is constructed using a Bivariate CUM policy of recruitment based on shock model approach. The mean time to recruitment is obtained based on the assumptions,(i) the loss of manpower due to the attrition form a sequence of independent and identically distributed exponential random variables (ii) the inter exit times and decision times form an ordinary renewal process and (iii) each grade has two types of threshold namely optional and mandatory thresholds which follow independent and identically distributed exponential random variables. A different probabilistic analysis is used to derive the analytical results.

The development of cooperative serious games has specific challenges related to enabling players to achieve both gaming and learning goals in a cooperative fashion. The complexity of gameplay and learning objectives leads to the lack of guidance for the systematic development of cooperative serious games (SGs). To overcome the challenges, we propose a systematic approach to utilize elements of entertainment cooperative games to foster player engagement in SGs called “Transforming Game Premise” to overcome the difficulties. A three-phase guideline is proposed for transforming an existing cooperative entertainment game into a cooperative SG. To demonstrate the application of the proposed guideline, we developed a game prototype that follows the guided steps. We validate the guidelines by conducting two user studies. The first study aims at validating the game's effectiveness for learning purposes of a game developed according to our guidelines. The study showed that the developed ...

Virtual reality and virtualization are currently used to design complex systems and demonstrate that they represent the functionalities of real systems. However, the design refinement of the virtual environment (VE) and distributed virtual environment (DVE) are still time consuming and costly, as it is mainly based on running experiments and the analysis of data deriving from virtual task execution samples of users. Gaming provides the player with online feedback on his performance communicated to the user through different sensory channels: vision, spatialized audio and haptics. This paper presents a prospective vision and the potential of a novel approach that extends the concept of human-in-the-loop originated form the User-Centred Design to Game-Enhanced VE design. In this concept, the player performance scores are analysed online and used for the optimization of the VE. The dynamic interoperability between the user experience records and the VE properties could shorten the development cycle time and satisfy the requirements of the application domain.

Neste artigo argumenta-se que as simulações numéricas fomentam e exploram relações complexas entre o jogador e o sistema cibernético da máquina que com este se relaciona através da jogabilidade, ou seja, da real aplicação às regras de jogo de tácticas e estratégias usadas pelo participante durante o seu trajecto na aplicação lúdica. Considera-se que o espaço mágico imposto pelo tabuleiro de jogo é mais do que um espaço de confusão entre real e artificial mas antes se apresenta como uma cortina ou interface entre o corpo próprio do participante e a simulação digital inerente ao sistema computacional.

The experiential learning cycle by Kolb is used as a basic framework for connecting abstract concepts like creativity with the design thinking process in a digital online course environment. The students contemplated each step in the learning cycle at least twice in an onward learning spiral. We as teachers completed the cycle on a meta-level, beginning with the abstract conceptualization of the course materials, theories, and methods, and ending with writing this article. The design thinking process applies second-order learning, where the students utilize theories, methods, and actual experiences in the design of their prototype, the testing of which gives new actual experiences, which in turn are reflected upon and finally conceptualised in the concluding exam. Our findings show that despite the challenges of transferring a course from a physical setting to an online environment, teaching and learning, as well as group work are possible.

Introduction 22 The adoption of the Europe 2020 strategy puts social policy at the core of EU economic strategy for the first time. The EU has set social headline targets for raising the employment rate, reducing early school leaving, 21 The views expressed are those of the authors and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of this paper. 22 This article is based on a literature review on ICT, Employability and Inclusion contracted by EC JRC-IPTS and carried out in 2012 by the Institute of

Software projects teem with choices that have a temporal component – i.e. they involve uncertain future outcomes that are spread in time. In the field of Judgment and Decision Making, such decisions are called “Intertemporal Choice” situations. The board game “Undecided?” simulates a software project through a series of intertemporal choices made by a team decision. It is designed to be educational and fun, but its aim is to provide a platform for cognitive and social studies of decision making in software projects. This paper describes the game and outlines possible research designs. 1. Overview Software projects teem with choices that have a temporal component – i.e. they involve uncertain future outcomes that are spread in time. In the field of Judgment and Decision Making, which draws on psychology, behavioural economics, neuroscience and other fields, such decisions are called “Intertemporal Choice” situations. In software projects, such choices surface in many areas including ...

In The Power of Smell in American Literature, Daniela Babilon argues that realist fiction is characterized by a relative "olfactory silence" wherein smells are either nonexistent or primarily "employed for descriptive purposes." 1 Amid the increasingly deodorized spaces and sensibilities of the Progressive era, literary fiction generally avoided dwelling on olfactory details. 2 Mark Twain's writings are a glaring exception to literary realism's predilection for deodorized atmospheres: across his career, he lampooned the smells of unventilated spaces, racialized bodies, decaying corpses, and flatulence; he meditated on the role of smell in establishing and undoing social boundaries; he wrote entire stories based on olfactory premises, such as a detective with a superhuman sense of smell ("A Double-Barreled Detective Story") and two men stuck in a train car with a pungent block of cheese ("The Invalid's Story"). Frequently, Twain's olfactory writings occur in the context of humor or satire, where smell functions as a sort of return of the repressed-an atmospheric reassertion of carnal truths repressed by discourses of bourgeois respectability. But if Twain was often drawn to smell's humorous capacities, his writings also dwell on nuanced modes of social, corporeal, and spatial experience disclosed by smell. Twain's olfactory works extend realist narrative into the non-representational qualities of atmosphere, not only attuning readers to how air is bound up with social and ethnic boundaries but also reframing bodies and sympathy as more-than-human relationships involving both atmospheric and microbial entanglements. His writings attune readers to the (often smelly) atmosphere as an invisible yet powerful medium that tends to float in the background of realism's visually and psychologically-oriented narration.

General Game Playing aims to create AI systems that can understand the rules of new games and learn to play them effectively without human intervention. The recent proposal for general game-playing robots extends this to AI systems that play games in the real world. Execution monitoring becomes a necessity when moving from a virtual to a physical environment, because in reality actions may not be executed properly and (human) opponents may make illegal game moves. We develop a formal framework for execution monitoring by which an action theory that provides an axiomatic description of a game is automatically embedded in a meta-game for a robotic player--called the arbiter -- whose role is to monitor and correct failed actions. This allows for the seamless encoding of recovery behaviours within a meta-game, enabling a robot to recover from these unexpected events.

General Game Playing aims at AI systems that can understand the rules of new games and learn to play them effectively without human intervention. Our paper takes the first step towards general game-playing robots, which extend this capability to AI systems that play games in the real world. We develop a formal model for general games in physical environments and provide a systems architecture that allows the embedding of existing general game players as the "brain" and suitable robotic systems as the "body" of a general game-playing robot. We also report on an initial robot prototype that can understand the rules of arbitrary games and learns to play them in a fixed physical game environment.

This research, a theoretical construction based on a bibliographic study, aims to discuss the role of the Portuguese Language teacher within the curriculum. It draws from the memory of an experience lived by the author-researcher with students in the Learning Program of the National Service for Commercial Learning of Bahia (Senac - BA) in 2011. At that time, the researcher taught the subject "Communication" and, together with the institution's pedagogical supervision, sought to include orality as a topic of study for young apprentices. By subverting the day’s planned lecture and instead placing the students in a presentation scenario — later providing commentary on their bodily performances — the teacher allowed his theatrical background as an actor to shape the activity. This approach used theatrical dynamics to guide students in the construction of characters through a pedagogical activity focusing on linguistic registers. Methodologically, the professor's experience with his students was revisited during the research through embodied memory and external memories, including lesson plans, evaluation documents, and classroom materials such as texts and workbooks. Drawing on Heidegger’s concept of being-becoming, William Pinar’s perspectives on the curriculum as a “complicated conversation” and as currere, and the researcher’s expertise in linguistics and theater, these memories were developed into an autofictional narrative. This narrative foregrounds the subject and their possibilities. The convergence of these concepts and experiences leads to the notion of the transitive subject. Inspired by syntactic analysis terminology, the transitive subject (human) is understood as someone shaped by historicity, open to exploring and composing other possible selves, and navigating various ways of being. Organized into acts and scenes, the text invites a theatrical reading experience, connecting corporeality to the subject as an actor fully embracing transitivity. This challenges Cartesian dualism, which diminishes the body's role in intellectual spaces. Using theatrical terminology, the research also introduces the concept of curricular staging. It views both theater and curriculum as dynamic processes that take shape through projects, planning, and rehearsals, culminating in encounters with the audience—and in the actors' encounters with themselves. These interactions provoke individual and collective projections, enabling transitive subjects to see themselves in others and simultaneously become other possible versions of themselves. Ultimately, the research argues that within the curricular staging of linguistic formation for transitive subjects, oral performance transcends the practice of speech for interpreting social roles. It becomes an individual endeavor, wherein each learner—whether teacher or student—composes and presents their possible characters.

Cultural heritage is an essential reflection of a society's identity, values, and historical continuity. Its preservation is crucial, not only for maintaining traditions but also for transferring collective memory and cultural knowledge to future generations. However, despite its significance, the conservation of cultural heritage often faces neglect, especially when its value is not widely understood or appreciated by society. In this context, children represent a promising demographic through which awareness and appreciation can be cultivated from an early age. This study explores the potential of game design as a tool to engage children in cultural heritage preservation. Games, being an interactive and non-verbal form of learning, offer a creative and immersive way to introduce heritage elements to young minds. By integrating educational content into entertaining formats, game-based learning can foster curiosity, understanding, and a sense of responsibility toward cultural conservation. The research investigates the effectiveness of games in preserving cultural knowledge and identifies the age group most responsive to such interventions. Despite challenges in data collection due to limited sample size (originally intended to be 300 participants), initial findings suggest that game design holds strong potential as an educational and conservation-oriented medium. Ultimately, this study supports the hypothesis that children, when engaged through thoughtfully designed games, can become active participants in the long-term preservation of cultural heritage.

The development of cooperative serious games has specific challenges related to enabling players to achieve both gaming and learning goals in a cooperative fashion. The complexity of gameplay and learning objectives leads to the lack of guidance for the systematic development of cooperative serious games (SGs). To overcome the challenges, we propose a systematic approach to utilize elements of entertainment cooperative games to foster player engagement in SGs called “Transforming Game Premise” to overcome the difficulties. A three-phase guideline is proposed for transforming an existing cooperative entertainment game into a cooperative SG. To demonstrate the application of the proposed guideline, we developed a game prototype that follows the guided steps. We validate the guidelines by conducting two user studies. The first study aims at validating the game's effectiveness for learning purposes of a game developed according to our guidelines. The study showed that the developed ...

Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGS) and live-action role-playing (LARP) games have recently risen in popularity in the cultural zeitgeist with the advent of popular gaming shows like Critical Roll and The Adventure Zone, as well as popular media like Community and Stranger Things. While some literature exists linking the concepts of roleplaying to theater and psychotherapy in the pursuit of deeper game design, little exists that attempts to bridge the gap by examining the potential of role-playing games (RPGs) as therapeutic tools informed by drama therapy practices and theories. This literature review provides a brief overview of basic RPG terminology, styles, and similarities to psychodrama and theater. It also demonstrates a basic analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of four TTRPGs and LARPs as therapeutic tools through the lens of drama therapy. This literature review is in service of future research into the application of drama therapy practices to role-playing gaming, as well as into clinical game design based in therapeutic goals and structure.

Reconhece-se uma fragilidade de materiais e recursos pedagógicos disponíveis para a aprendizagem dos estudantes surdos. A fim de colaborar com a educação de surdos, utilizando a aprendizagem baseada em jogos digitais, tem-se como objetivo propor um framework conceitual para auxiliar no desenvolvimento de jogos  digitais  voltados  para  o  contexto  educativo  de  estudantes  surdos.  Por  meio  da  abordagem  de procedimentos Design-Based  Research(DBR)  a  pesquisa  está  fundamentada  pela  literatura  em  três principais eixos teóricos: Estudos Surdos, Game Designe Desenho Universal para a Aprendizagem (DUA). A construção do framework observou quatro fases: 1) identificação do problema 2) construção da proposta de  intervenção; 3)  ciclos  iterativos  e  4)  reflexões e  perspectivas de  novos  melhoramentos  na  solução implementada. O primeiro ciclo iterativo mapeou e caracterizou jogos digitais para estudantes surdos por meio de uma revisão sistemática de literatura. A primeira versão do framework foi desenvolvida pela caracterizaçãodos jogos ancorada na literatura, durante o segundo ciclo. O terceiro ciclo iterativo envolveu uma equipe multidisciplinar de especialistas, formada por nove participantes que atuaram na validação de conteúdo do framework para o aprimoramento dos itens deforma colaborativa. O produto pedagógico resultante dessa pesquisa é um framework conceitual que visa colaborar para o desenvolvimento de jogos digitais que qualifiquem a experiência educacional de estudantes surdos, em consonância com os princípios pedagógicos bilíngues para surdos e acessíveis ao maior número de estudantes possível.

Serious gaming has become popular in healthcare education as an engaging way to train learners. When coronavirus disease 2019 forced the cancellation of in-person simulation sessions, we designed a serious game to deliver content in an interactive format with no out-of-pocket expense. We describe the design process and game reception so that others may replicate it. We designed an online game using Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (CYOA) and Escape Room concepts. Using online survey software, we presented an interactive story based on an existing simulation scenario and included interactive puzzles as roadblocks to scenario progression. Each puzzle represented a critical care concept, and many contained hyperlinks to prior basic science lecture material to reinforce learning. A postgame survey assessed students' experience. All (N=88) students enrolled in a scheduled simulation session participated in the game, and 75% (66/88) responded to a post-participation survey. All respondents (100%) were able to complete the game. The majority (57.6%) completed the game in 30 minutes to 1 hour. Most students strongly agreed or agreed that the game enhanced their understanding of critical care concepts (93.9-97.0%), and that they were interested in doing more CYOA games (90.9%). The game was well-received, delivered critical care content, and challenged students to apply basic science principles to medical decision-making from the safety of their own homes. The game was self-guided, requiring minimal active facilitator involvement. We plan to expand the use of the game to other settings and explore its use in formative/summative assessment and remediation.

Ranging from purchasing single digital items through bundles to packages that contain several digital objects under one umbrella, microtransactions represent an increasingly popular and yet controversial business model within many video games. A particularly interesting segment of digital content captures those purely cosmetic and esthetically oriented goods that do not provide users with concrete mechanical or technical benefits but are nonetheless valued and pursued by members of the gaming community. Building on in-depth interviews with a group of 20 active video game players residing in France, the present study explores variations in gaming styles and preferences, motivations to engage in cosmetic microtransactions, and perceived benefits associated with the consumption of cosmetic items in video games. We identified various key video game player motivations to engage in cosmetic microtransactions, including personal and achievement goals, social and belonging needs, prestige seeking and status signaling, and the pursuit of novelty. In contrast to the idea that cosmetic items do not hold value above and beyond their hedonic or esthetic appeal, our findings also indicate that even cosmetic items can offer perceived competitive advantages and benefits (e.g., becoming thinner, gaining latency time, or becoming less visible via acquiring certain digital clothes or armors in the game). Through these emergent themes and categories, we construct six video game player personas representing various needs, perceptions, and expectations concerning the valuation of cosmetic microtransactions. Last, we discuss how these findings can inform theory development and guide decision-making around game design.

In this study, we explore the unique role of video games within the realm of transmedia storytelling, a concept initially defined by Henry Jenkins in 2006. Using "Cyberpunk 2077" and its anime counterpart "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" as case studies, we investigate how video games contribute to the narrative universe in a way distinct from traditional media. Specifically, the concept of "narrative dissonance" in games is introduced and analyzed. We find that such dissonance is mitigated and complemented by other forms of media, in this case, anime, enhancing the overall storytelling experience. This offers new perspectives on game design and its integration into broader transmedia narratives, which have both academic and economic implications.

In recent years, studies have focused on exploring the use of colour in audio-visual language, which has mainly been approached from the context of cinematography. However, research related to colour as a communicative element in the visual narrative of video games is not yet consolidated, and there is a shortage of bibliographies related to this subject. This research investigated the identification of strategies for applying colour as a communicative and interactive element in the visual narrative of video games. The starting point was recognizing the role of colour in audio-visual language from various authors related to film studies, and the identification of main visual narrative strategies related to colour in cinematography. Then, using these strategies, an analysis was carried out on ten case studies of selected video games, in which colour is a fundamental element in the art direction. In each video game, the scenario, characters, and mechanics were analysed. The main results of the research indicated a general coherence between the ways of using colour as a communicative element in both media, cinema, and video games, through the identification of different applied techniques. However, the interactive nature of the video game differentiates it from cinema and implies additional complexities and possibilities for colour as a communicative resource, which can play a relevant role in the interaction with the player and the development of the narrative and plot.

This article examines the co-evolution of players ’ individual performance and their interaction network in a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). The objective is to test whether the application of theories from the real world is valid in virtual worlds. While the results indicate that the structural effects and demographic variables active in the real world influence the evolution of the players ’ interaction network in MMOGs (e.g. transitivity, reciprocity, and homophily), they do not provide evidence that players ’ structural embeddedness in the interaction network influences player performance. These findings have important implications for researchers and practitioners who need to understand social processes in MMOGs (e.g., when launching marketing campaigns in MMOGs) or who study MMOGs and then use their findings to draw conclusions about the real world (e.g., when analyzing the relationship between employee performance and network structure).

e incansável orientadora (de tantos anos!), que sempre me inspira e a quem admiro tanto. Às professoras Rita Lenira Bittencourt e Eliana Inge Pritsch, pelas sugestões que tornaram esta tese melhor. Aos meus colegas professores, pelas contribuições e palavras de incentivo. Aos meus colegas pesquisadores, pelo compartilhar do conhecimento. À minha família, em especial ao meu irmão, que gentilmente me ajudou com os vídeos. Aos meus amigos, pelo apoio. Aos moradores da Restinga, cujas vozes ressoam neste trabalho. Um agradecimento especial ao Beleza, um herói, um homem que sabe dizer as coisas, e à Leonor, pela generosidade com que sempre abre as portas de sua casa.

e incansável orientadora (de tantos anos!), que sempre me inspira e a quem admiro tanto. Às professoras Rita Lenira Bittencourt e Eliana Inge Pritsch, pelas sugestões que tornaram esta tese melhor. Aos meus colegas professores, pelas contribuições e palavras de incentivo. Aos meus colegas pesquisadores, pelo compartilhar do conhecimento. À minha família, em especial ao meu irmão, que gentilmente me ajudou com os vídeos. Aos meus amigos, pelo apoio. Aos moradores da Restinga, cujas vozes ressoam neste trabalho. Um agradecimento especial ao Beleza, um herói, um homem que sabe dizer as coisas, e à Leonor, pela generosidade com que sempre abre as portas de sua casa.

Games to teach or Games to learn elaborado por Yan San Chee, es un libro que todo investigador de la educación y las tecnologías deberían leer, especialmente los que realizan trabajos relacionados con los juegos y el aprendizaje. Se encuentra estructurado en ocho capítulos y divididos en lo que hemos identificado como cuatro apartados importantes de analizar: en el primer apartado se establece la diferencia entre los juegos diseñados para enseñar y los juegos para aprender; en el segundo apartado el autor desarrolla argumentos pedagógicos que sustentan los juegos para aprender; en el tercer apartado argumenta el modelo teórico que sustenta los juegos para aprender y en el cuarto apartado proporciona ejemplos de cómo han sido implementados los juegos para aprender en algunas disciplinas como la química, la electricidad y la política.Por lo que la presente reseña se centrará en estos cuatro apartados que hemos identificado como ejes del libro y a los que haremos referencia en este doc...

This research presents a novel 3D audio playback method in which real-time head-tracking is maintained with an unlimited number of simultaneous sound sources. The method presented relies on using a 500-900MByte sound buffer which contains binaural data for 385 head orientations and a processing platform with two hard disks in a RAID 0 configuration that can stream data at a rate of 80-100 MBytes/s. We discuss issues related to how the number of head-orientations influences a smooth presentation, how the window length influences smooth transitions between different head-orientations and the file format used for storing the sounds. The new 3D audio playback method was incorporated into a 3D audio playback engine (3DApe) which can: play a 3D audio soundtrack consisting of an unlimited number of simultaneous sound sources, switch between different 3D audio soundtracks, play back up to 8 simultaneous and instantaneous sound sources on command, use a head-tracker interface via the virtual reality peripheral network (VRPN), supply 3D audio communication using voice over IP, and interface with a Virtools graphical software engine. 3DApe was demonstrated as part of an interactive 3D cinematic artwork, entitled Conversations, that was on display at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney in December 2004 .

Games currently feature simple models of morality and moral reasoning. These typically take the form of a simple binary opposition between good and evil, in which game actions are sorted into these categories, and reputation systems that track the reputation of players (and sometimes NPCs) with ingame factions based on the actions taken. This paper presents a more sophisticated model of moral reasoning based on Lakoff’s metaphorical family models: the strict father and nurturant parent morality. This model utilizes more rapid, surface level categorization of different situations in moral categories, and deeper reasoning that characterizes situations in terms of their relationship to moral virtues as determined by the metaphor value system. This model is used in the experimental prototype Argument Box (AB), a social argument simulator where the player argues with clients visiting the shop. Arguments in AB center around the moral virtues and vices of simulated characters in the social...

This paper addresses the implications of combining learning analytics and serious games for improving game quality, monitoring and assessment of player behavior, gaming performance, game progression, learning goals achievement, and user's appreciation. We introduce two modes of serious games analytics: in-game (real time) analytics, and post-game (off-line) analytics. We also explain the GLEANER framework for in-game analytics and describe a practical example for offline analytics. We conclude with a brief outlook on future work, highlighting opportunities and challenges towards a solid uptake of SGs in authentic educational and training settings.

La sperimentazione dei videogiochi a supporto dei musei rappresenta un'interessante frontiera nell'ambito della valorizzazione culturale e dell'educazione visiva. Negli ultimi anni, diversi istituzioni museali hanno iniziato ad adottare soluzioni videoludiche per coinvolgere i visitatori in modo innovativo, contribuendo così a un'esperienza più immersiva e interattiva. In un'epoca in cui le tecnologie digitali permeano ogni aspetto della vita quotidiana, l'integrazione dei videogiochi può modificare radicalmente il modo in cui le opere d'arte e i reperti storici vengono percepiti e interpretati.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and games set a new domain in understanding people’s motivations in gaming, behavioral implications of game play, game adaptation to player preferences and needs for increased engaging experiences in the context of HCI serious games (HCI-SGs). When the latter relate with people’s health status, they can become a part of their daily life as assistive health status monitoring/enhancement systems. Co-designing HCI-SGs can be seen as a combination of art and science that involves a meticulous collaborative process. The design elements in assistive HCI-SGs for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients, in particular, are explored in the present work. Within this context, the Game-Based Learning (GBL) design framework is adopted here and its main game-design parameters are explored for the Exergames, Dietarygames, Emotional games, Handwriting games, and Voice games design, drawn from the PD-related i-PROGNOSIS Personalized Game Suite (PGS) (www.i-prognosis.eu) hol...

Parkinson's Disease • Is one of the commonest neurodegenerative diseases • Affects 1% of individuals over 60 years; 4% over 75 years • Is progressivehas Subtle symptoms that go unnoticed • Diagnosis may take 10 years after disease onset and has many symptoms: • Prodromal PD ( Hyposmia / Sleep disorder / Excessive day time sleepiness / Anxiety ) • Motor symptoms: Movement → Tremor, Bradykinesia Walking → Freezing of gait Eating → Obesity Talking → Hypophonia Writing → Micrographia Sleeping → REM behaviour disorder Mood → Depression Expression → Hypomimia Results on "Development set" Main Objectives The i-Prognosis selfie photo analysis system 1 2 3 4 Hypomimia, i.e. reduction in the expressiveness of the face, is a cardinal sign of the Parkinson Disease, often present at its early stages. Within the EU-funded i-Prognosis project (), early and unobtrusive Parkinson's disease detection tests are developed based on the interaction of users with everyday technological devices. The selfie analysis module translates facial expression features into an index reflecting the severity of PD hypomimia symptoms that affect the variability of patients' facial expressions. Monitoring of such an index over time holds the promise to detect the onset of hypomimia symptoms in an unobtrusive way.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and games set a new domain in understanding people’s motivations in gaming, behavioral implications of game play, game adaptation to player preferences and needs for increased engaging experiences in the context of HCI serious games (HCI-SGs). When the latter relate with people’s health status, they can become a part of their daily life as assistive health status monitoring/enhancement systems. Co-designing HCI-SGs can be seen as a combination of art and science that involves a meticulous collaborative process. The design elements in assistive HCI-SGs for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients, in particular, are explored in the present work. Within this context, the Game-Based Learning (GBL) design framework is adopted here and its main game-design parameters are explored for the Exergames, Dietarygames, Emotional games, Handwriting games, and Voice games design, drawn from the PD-related i-PROGNOSIS Personalized Game Suite (PGS) (www.i-prognosis.eu) hol...

Digitalisation permeates all areas of social life. The use of digital games in research settings to analyse social phenomena is thereby no exception. However, games that can successfully achieve research objectives and at the same time create an engaging experience require thoughtful balancing. When investigating decision-making, for example, asking players directly about their reasoning in the game is breaking the game flow and prone to distorting influences from the game experience. This paper presents the design science (DS) process of a quest-based game-frame (QGF) oriented on the investigation of privacy decision-making. The design-empirical cycle of the QGF is outlined and applied to design two privacy decision scenarios for investigating reflection tendencies. The conducted binational experiment reflects the behaviour of 78 educators, university students and high-school students from Austria and Norway in online ordering security and fake news sharing while monitoring the game flow. Results demonstrate the potential of the QGF for unobtrusively investigating privacy decisions while maintaining high fluency of performance. Significant differences between educators and high-school students are found in time spent for reflection before making online security decisions. Additionally, Norwegian high-school students show a low awareness when deciding on real/fake news sharing.

Education is rapidly evolving from co-located settings to remote and online learning. However, many proven educational tools are designed for collaborative, co-located classroom work. Effective sketching and ideating tools, such as card-based workshop tools, cannot be applied in remote teaching. This paper explores how the paper-based card and playboard metaphor can be digitized for remote student co-creation via video call sessions. Therefore, a cardbased toolkit for co-creating educational games is transformed into a digital representation for remote application. In a between-subject trial with two university student groups (n = 61), it is investigated how users perceive ideation/balancing support and applicability of the technology-enhanced card toolset compared to the paper-based variant. Both groups thereby created an analytic game concept for privacy education. The results remarkably revealed that remote co-creation using the technologyenhanced card and playboard in video call sessions was perceived as significantly more supportive for ideation and game concept balancing. Students also felt more confident to apply the digitized card toolset independently while being more satisfied with their created game concepts. The designed educational game concepts showed comparable patterns between the groups and disclosed the students' preferences on how games for privacy education should be designed and when and where they would like to play them. Conclusively, design implications for digital card ideation toolsets were synthesized from the findings.

With advancing digitalisation and the associated ubiquitous data processing, people face frequent privacy decisions. As personal data is often collected and processed in non-transparent ways, decision-making is tedious and regularly results in unthoughtful choices that resign privacy to comfort. Serious Games (SG) could be instrumentalised to raise awareness about privacy concerns and investigate how better privacy decisions can be encouraged. However, creating a SG that can research and promote better privacy choices while providing exciting gameplay requires carefully balanced game design. In this study, we interviewed 20 international experts in privacy, psychology, education, game studies, and interaction design to elicit design suggestions for analytic Serious Games that can be applied to research and improve privacy decision-making. With a mixed-method approach, we conducted a qualitative affordance analysis and quantified the findings to determine each expert groups' perceptions of how to investigate and educate privacy decision-making with games while keeping an engaging experience for players. The findings suggest that privacy decision-making is best analysed by storytelling that extends to a real-world context and engages the player with curiosity. Decision-making investigation is suggested to either apply unobtrusive in-game monitoring with story-aligned character interrogation, switching to a meta-context or include personal data and devices from daily routines. Conclusively, design implications for analytic SG targeting privacy are synthesised from the experts' suggestions.

The increasing digitalisation of daily routines confronts people with frequent privacy decisions. However, obscure data processing often leads to tedious decision-making and results in unreflective choices that unduly compromise privacy. Serious Games could be applied to encourage teenagers and young adults to make more thoughtful privacy decisions. Creating a Serious Game (SG) that promotes privacy awareness while maintaining an engaging gameplay requires, however, a carefully balanced game concept. This study explores the benefits of an online role-playing boardgame as a co-designing activity for creating SGs about privacy. In a between-subjects trial, student groups and educator/researcher groups were taking the roles of player, teacher, researcher and designer to co-design a balanced privacy SG concept. Using predefined design proposal cards or creating their own, students and educators played the online boardgame during a video conference session to generate game ideas, resolve potential conflicts and balance the different SG aspects. The comparative results of the present study indicate that students and educators alike perceive support from role-playing when ideating and balancing SG concepts and are happy with their playfully co-designed game concepts. Implications for supporting SG design with role-playing in remote collaboration scenarios are conclusively synthesised.

Educational institutes are currently facing the new normality that an ongoing pandemic situation has brought to teaching and learning. Distributed learning with content that blends over several platforms and locations needs to be created with didactic expertise in a feasible manner. At the same time, the possibilities for creating and distributing digital content have developed rapidly. Advanced computing supports the creation of artificial images, natural speech, and even natural-looking but non-existent persons. Since such generative content is often also published under a Creative Commons license, it presents as viable option for designing learning content, assignments, or instructions for tasks. However, there is still limited evidence on how, for example, generated pedagogical agents (tutors) influence behaviour and decisions. This study investigated the influences of artificially generated tutor personas in a decision-making task distributed internationally on the Google Play store. The field experiment extended the balloon analogue risk task (BART) with instructions from generated persona photographs to evaluate potential influences on risk-taking behaviour. In a between-subject design, either a female tutor, a male tutor, or no tutor picture at all was presented during the task. The results (N=74) show a higher risk propensity when displaying a male artificial instructor compared to a female instructor. Participants also proceed with greater caution when instructed by a female tutor as they reflect longer before initiating the next step to pump up the balloon. Further lines of research and experiences from the distribution of an investigative instruction app on Google Play are summarised in the conclusive implications.

The increasing digitalisation of daily routines confronts people with frequent privacy decisions. However, obscure data processing often leads to tedious decision-making and results in unreflective choices that unduly compromise privacy. Serious Games could be applied to encourage teenagers and young adults to make more thoughtful privacy decisions. Creating a Serious Game (SG) that promotes privacy awareness while maintaining an engaging gameplay requires, however, a carefully balanced game concept. This study explores the benefits of an online role-playing boardgame as a co-designing activity for creating SGs about privacy. In a between-subjects trial, student groups and educator/researcher groups were taking the roles of player, teacher, researcher and designer to co-design a balanced privacy SG concept. Using predefined design proposal cards or creating their own, students and educators played the online boardgame during a video conference session to generate game ideas, resolve...

Digitalisation permeates all areas of social life. The use of digital games in research settings to analyse social phenomena is thereby no exception. However, games that can successfully achieve research objectives and at the same time create an engaging experience require thoughtful balancing. When investigating decision-making, for example, asking players directly about their reasoning in the game is breaking the game flow and prone to distorting influences from the game experience. This paper presents the design science (DS) process of a quest-based game-frame (QGF) oriented on the investigation of privacy decision-making. The design-empirical cycle of the QGF is outlined and applied to design two privacy decision scenarios for investigating reflection tendencies. The conducted binational experiment reflects the behaviour of 78 educators, university students and high-school students from Austria and Norway in online ordering security and fake news sharing while monitoring the game flow. Results demonstrate the potential of the QGF for unobtrusively investigating privacy decisions while maintaining high fluency of performance. Significant differences between educators and high-school students are found in time spent for reflection before making online security decisions. Additionally, Norwegian high-school students show a low awareness when deciding on real/fake news sharing.

With advancing digitalisation and the associated ubiquitous data processing, people face frequent privacy decisions. As personal data is often collected and processed in non-transparent ways, decision-making is tedious and regularly results in unthoughtful choices that resign privacy to comfort. Serious Games (SG) could be instrumentalised to raise awareness about privacy concerns and investigate how better privacy decisions can be encouraged. However, creating a SG that can research and promote better privacy choices while providing exciting gameplay requires carefully balanced game design. In this study, we interviewed 20 international experts in privacy, psychology, education, game studies, and interaction design to elicit design suggestions for analytic Serious Games that can be applied to research and improve privacy decision-making. With a mixed-method approach, we conducted a qualitative affordance analysis and quantified the findings to determine each expert groups’ percepti...