Game Development Methodology Research Articles

Systematic RPG Development Maximizes Player Engagement in Global Context

This study presents the systematic development of an Adventure RPG game titled "Tomorrow Will Come" using the ADDIE method, aiming to enhance understanding of RPG game development. Leveraging the Godot Engine and GDscript programming language, the research follows the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation phases. Feedback from beta testers highlights positive gameplay experiences but suggests room for improvement, particularly in gameplay difficulty. The findings underscore the significance of iterative design and player feedback in refining game mechanics. Overall, this research contributes to advancing RPG game development methodologies and emphasizes the importance of innovation and user-centric design in creating compelling gaming experiences. Highlight: 1. ADDIE method enhances structured RPG game development. 2. Player feedback refines mechanics, enhancing overall quality. 3. Godot Engine innovates technical aspects, prioritizing user-centric design. Keyword: RPG game development, ADDIE method, Godot Engine, Player feedback, Iterative design

User-Centered Pipeline for Synthetic Augmentation of Anomaly Detection Datasets

Automatic anomaly detection plays a critical role in surveillance systems but requires datasets comprising large amounts of annotated data to train and evaluate models. Gathering and annotating these data is a labor-intensive task that can become costly. A way to circumvent this is to use synthetic data to augment anomalies directly into existing datasets. This far more diverse scenario can be created and come directly with annotations. This however also poses new issues for the computer-vision engineer and researcher end users, who are not readily familiar with 3D modeling, game development, or computer graphics methodologies and must rely on external specialists to use or tweak such pipelines. In this paper, we extend our previous work of an application that synthesizes dataset variations using 3D models and augments anomalies on real backgrounds using the Unity Engine. We developed a high-usability user interface for our application through a series of RITE experiments and evaluated the final product with the help of deep-learning specialists who provided positive feedback regarding its usability, accessibility, and user experience. Finally, we tested if the proposed solution can be used in the context of traffic surveillance by augmenting the train data from the challenging Street Scene dataset. We found that by using our synthetic data, we could achieve higher detection accuracy. We also propose the next steps to expand the proposed solution for better usability and render accuracy through the use of segmentation pre-processing.

Mā te rongo ka mohio: Māori Pā Wars and Kaupapa Māori Methodology at the Interface of Video Games

This essay reviews Māori Pā Wars (2017), a te reo Māori mobile game developed for mobile devices by independent Māori-led video game company Metia Interactive. Through consideration of the historical struggle for cultural and te reo Māori revitalisation, this essay discusses the use of kaupapa Māori methodology to activate mātauranga Māori through gameplay. Situated within a wider global shift towards ‘indie’ game development and more pertinently ‘Indigenous game development,’ Māori Pā Wars is one of the first games to bring kaupapa Māori methodology to the interface of video game technology. Through analysis of game development methodology, mechanics, game design and the ubiquitous mobile medium, this essay outlines the ways Māori Pā Wars challenges a ‘literature of dominance.’ It concludes that the game borrows from remix and convergence cultures inherent to indie game development, thereby reflecting the way Māori technologies, social and political systems continue to adapt to a changing technological landscape.

Juego serio para entrenar habilidades auditivas en niños con discapacidad auditiva

En este trabajo se presenta el diseño de un juego serio, cuyo objetivo es ejercitar la identificación y la discriminación auditiva en niños con discapacidades auditivas, tanto en aquellos que utilizan implantes cocleares como audífonos. En el diseño se han tenido en cuenta aspectos de diseño emocional, metodologías de desarrollo de juegos serios y las actividades que llevan a cabo los educadores con los niños para trabajar estas habilidades auditivas. Palabras clave: Niños; Discapacidad auditiva; Discriminación e identificación auditiva; Educación; Diseño; Juego Serio.

A Digital Game Maturity Model (DGMM)

Game development is an interdisciplinary concept that embraces artistic, software engineering, management, and business disciplines. This research facilitates a better understanding of important dimensions of digital game development methodology. Game development is considered as one of the most complex tasks in software engineering. The increased popularity of digital games, the challenges faced by game development organizations in developing quality games, and high competition in the digital game industry demand a game development maturity assessment. Consequently, this study presents a Digital Game Maturity Model to evaluate the current development methodology in an organization. The framework of this model consists of assessment questionnaires, a performance scale, and a rating method. The main goal of the questionnaires is to collect information about current processes and practices. In general, this research contributes towards formulating a comprehensive and unified strategy for game development maturity evaluation. Two case studies were conducted and their assessment results reported. These demonstrate the level of maturity of current development practices in two organizations.

A real-time strategy game, “GALLIPOLI WARS,” as a centennial tribute to the Gallipoli Campaign (1915–2015)

The same authors had reported a review of game development processes and methodologies in an earlier paper. In that paper, game design elements, such as the players, story, rules, objectives, procedures, conflict, and challenge, and their effect over gameplay were treated. Technical components in that paper included the render engine and rendering pipeline (fixed function pipeline and flexible pipeline), physics engine and physics-related techniques (collision detection, ray-casting, etc.), game codes (for game mechanics, artificial intelligence, scenario creation, and management) and artwork contents (game level, three-dimensional (3D) models, two-dimensional maps for shaders, skeletal animation, and audio assets) that form a game. Along with their development processes and approaches, all of these technical and artwork components are applied on a case problem and are summarized in this paper. The case problem considered is a small part of Gallipoli or Dardanelles Wars in Ottoman history, as a real-time 3D strategy game.

GAMED: digital educational game development methodology

Development of a game in the form of software for game-based learning poses significant technical challenges for educators, researchers, game designers, and software engineers. The game development consists of a set of complex processes requiring multi-faceted knowledge in multiple disciplines such as digital graphic design, education, gaming, instructional design, modeling and simulation, psychology, software engineering, visual arts, and the learning subject area. Planning and managing such a complex multidisciplinary development project require a unifying methodology and should not be performed in an ad hoc manner. This paper presents such a methodology named GAMED (diGital educAtional gaMe dEvelopment methoDology). GAMED consists of a body of methods, rules, and postulates and is embedded within a digital educational game life cycle. The life cycle describes a framework for organization of the phases, processes, work products, quality assurance activities, and project management activities required to develop, use, maintain, and evolve a digital educational game from birth to retirement. GAMED provides a modular structured approach for overcoming the development complexity and guides the developers throughout the entire life cycle.

Developing game-like simulations to formalize tacit procedural knowledge: the ONT experience

The exceptional success achieved by the Spanish National Transplant Organization (ONT) in recent years has made other countries highly interested in following this organization’s methodologies. A good training program is one of the key elements of the ONT. Until 2012, the ONT training program was a paper-based case teaching method, and the small number of ONT experts limited the audience. In an attempt to improve and increase the attendees in this program, a game-like simulation was developed to represent transplant management procedural knowledge. To maximize the educational value, this game-like simulation was based on representative teaching cases to help students practice with different real situations and different levels of complexity in a risk-free environment. This study presents how an iterative game development methodology has been applied to evolve from a paper-based case teaching method to a game-like simulation, with a special focus on the efforts made to include the ONT experts’ tacit procedural knowledge in the simulation. Apart from increasing the number of students who can access the ONT training, this game-like simulation also helped to achieve a more detailed formalization of transplant management as well as a more comprehensive systematization of a set of relevant teaching cases.