Balancing Ethics, Art and Economics: A Qualitative Analysis of Game Designer Perspectives on Monetisation

This article explores the relationship between monetisation models, game design and ethical considerations from the perspective of three different small-scale Norwegian game companies: an indie company, a freemium company and a premium company. The aim is to explore critically how small-scale game companies reason and act in the current economy. Interviews with game designers and CEOs form the empirical basis of the analysis. The motives and practices of the informants are categorised according to three ethical schools, namely, deontology, virtue ethics, and utilitarianism. The informants believe that freemium models and free games have made the computer game industry markedly more challenging to monetise. Their views on what is considered ethical monetisation varies between companies, most distinctly between the freemium company and the two others. Informants from the freemium company downplay ethical responsibilities, with reference to the huge number of existing free games and costumers unwilling to pay for games.

Stroke Rehabilitation

<p>Upper limb rehabilitation after a stroke is vital when bringing a range of motion and strength back to a patient. Treatment for upper limb rehabilitation has come in many diverse methods over the years including the use of modern technology through the use of mirror visual feedback (MVF) and action observation therapy; this thesis digital applications for stroke rehabilitation and how varying visual styles can impact the patients experience in the upper limb rehabilitation process. Within the gaming medium the visual style in a game is an aspect of immersion and appeal that is often neglected by the user. The visual style of a game often reflects the tone a game designer has intended to convey while also catering to the target audiences expectations, with realism potentially appealing to a more mature audience while brighter abstract visuals may appeal to a younger demographic. By utilising two different styles of imagery, both realistic and cartoon based visuals, the level of immersion was observed and the user’s reaction to each form of visuals was analysed. The aim of this thesis is to investigate both realistic and stylized visual styles of computer generated imagery, distinguish the advantages and disadvantages for both realism in comparison to cartoon and finally analyse its effectiveness to assist the rehabilitation of upper limb deficiencies. The application being used for this study was made in collaboration with Victoria University Masters student Nicholas Wellwood, providing me the opportunity to focus solely on producing diverse and engaging visual styles to work in unison with a fully developed framework.</p>

Stroke Rehabilitation

<p>Upper limb rehabilitation after a stroke is vital when bringing a range of motion and strength back to a patient. Treatment for upper limb rehabilitation has come in many diverse methods over the years including the use of modern technology through the use of mirror visual feedback (MVF) and action observation therapy; this thesis digital applications for stroke rehabilitation and how varying visual styles can impact the patients experience in the upper limb rehabilitation process. Within the gaming medium the visual style in a game is an aspect of immersion and appeal that is often neglected by the user. The visual style of a game often reflects the tone a game designer has intended to convey while also catering to the target audiences expectations, with realism potentially appealing to a more mature audience while brighter abstract visuals may appeal to a younger demographic. By utilising two different styles of imagery, both realistic and cartoon based visuals, the level of immersion was observed and the user’s reaction to each form of visuals was analysed. The aim of this thesis is to investigate both realistic and stylized visual styles of computer generated imagery, distinguish the advantages and disadvantages for both realism in comparison to cartoon and finally analyse its effectiveness to assist the rehabilitation of upper limb deficiencies. The application being used for this study was made in collaboration with Victoria University Masters student Nicholas Wellwood, providing me the opportunity to focus solely on producing diverse and engaging visual styles to work in unison with a fully developed framework.</p>

Interview: Acclaimed Game Designer Ryan Kaufman Discusses Telltale Games, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and How Video Games Can Transform Us

Ryan Kaufman—whose rich body of work often centers on video games adapted from movies or TV shows—has had a profound impact on video game designers, writers, and players alike [...]

An Analysis of Game Difficulty in ˋˋGame Panjol''

“Game Panjol” is an educational game that was developed by the researchers of this study. The educational theme discussed in this game is the diversity of ethnic groups and cultures in Indonesia for fourth grade elementary school students. This adventure game has a mission to save friends from different tribes and cultures. The purpose of this study was to determine the difficulty of this game. First the game difficulty was identified from the point of view of the game designers. Next, the game was tested with respondents and its difficulty was analysed from the players’ perspective. From the point of view of the game designer, this game is divided into 3 levels, which are easy, medium, and hard. The difficulty levels is based on the number and weight of obstacles in the game. From the point of view of the game player, the difficulty level is determined by the number of times their attempts are successful, how long it takes to finish, how many coins are earned, and how many friends are saved. For the 14 respondents, the success of the rescue mission at each level was 100%, while the collection of coins at easy, medium, and hard levels was 88.124%, 89.881%, and 80.382% respectively. Based on the comparison between the average number of trials and the maximum number of trials, each level is 20.476%, 28.151%, and 30.357%. Keywords: adventure, education, game

The Musings of ‘Evil Bastards’: Perspectives from Social Casino Game Professionals

Technology has blurred the lines between gambling and gaming. While the convergence can be witnessed on many different levels, social casino games on social networking sites and mobile apps illustrate just one example. Much of what we currently know about social casino games focuses on player behaviour, with little understanding about this genre from the perspective of social game professionals. This paper aims to fill the gap in our understanding of social casino games through interviews with the professionals who design them. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 professionals from the social casino games industry. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings illustrate tensions that exist between the two fields of gambling and gaming; however, both are trying to separate themselves from the stigmatized ‘dirty secret’ that is gambling. Further, as a result of social casino games residing, for the most part, in an unregulated ‘grey area,’ findings illustrate the ethical struggle felt by social casino game professionals. This convergence has significant consequences, not only for players, but for game developers, designers, and researchers, and highlights the importance of game designer education.

Development of Rubric to Measure Children’s Creativity in Game Design

Today’s Alpha generation have high competency playing digital games. This privileged ability demands creativity in terms of cognitive and higher order thinking skills when it comes to designing and developing digital games. Therefore, this study aims to delineate the process of developing a rubric to measure primary school children’s (age 7 to 12) creativity when creating games as a digital game designer. The constructs of the rubric were enthused by Torrance Creativity Theory which highlighted on originality, fluency, flexibility and elaboration that adapted to fit the concept of the game design process. The development of the rubric underwent three distinctive phases; i) library research; ii) feasibility study; and iii) expert evaluation. Cohen’s Kappa Coefficient formula was used to validate with average value κ = .81 (excellent) and the reliability was measured by Cronbach’s Alpha formula with value α = .88 (excellent). Researchers found that by adopting the concept of game-based learning specifically through game design activity, children’s creativity was significantly enhanced. The rubric of children’s creativity would be essential for sustainable performance of quality education to produce a generation of critical thinkers, problem solvers while celebrating children’s uniqueness and diversity in line to develop creative personality towards digital generation.

The Limits of Memory in Disavowed: Interference, Military Execution, and the Dishonored Dead

In looking at the history of U.S. military execution during World War II, this article explores the relationship between memory and psychological interference in the browser-based game Disavowed (2021). As an interesting example of the palimpsestuous negotiation between individual identity, narrativity, and cultural memory, Disavowed structures itself through the misremembering of an actual historical encounter. In such a way, it reconstructs a false history of events misconstrued within the memory of the game designer, put into dissonance with historical documentation of what “really happened” – an execution witnessed by tens of thousands of soldiers, but that seems largely erased from the record. The result is an interplay between the memories of veteran Theodore “Ted” Eaker, the public awareness of Private Eddie Slovik’s execution, and the journey to piece together what is a fractured, unreliable and racially problematic history of the practice of military execution.

Designing Strategic Games with Preestablished Nash Equilibrium through Artificial Inference and Global Learning

This work presents novel results obtained by the application of global optimization techniques to the design of finite, normal form games with mixed strategies. To that end, the Fuzzy ASA global optimization method is applied to several design examples of strategic games, demonstrating its effectiveness in obtaining payoff functions whose corresponding games present a previously established Nash equilibrium. In other words, the game designer becomes able to choose a convenient Nash equilibrium for a generic finite state strategic game and the proposed method computes payoff functions that will realize the desired equilibrium, making it possible for the players to reach the favorable conditions represented by the chosen equilibrium. Considering that game theory is a very useful approach for modeling interactions between competing agents and Nash equilibrium represents a powerful solution concept, it is natural to infer that the proposed method may be very useful for strategists in general. In summary, it is a genuine instance of artificial inference of payoff functions after a process of global machine learning, applied to their numerical components.