Gameplay Experience Research Articles

Troid: A Real-Time Multiplayer FPS Game

Abstract: Troid is a real-time multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) game designed to be played on a web browser without the need for a high-end PC or dedicated graphics card. The game allows two players to join a room and engage in a fast-paced, action-packed gameplay experience. The purpose of Troid is to provide a high-quality FPS game that can be enjoyed on any device with a modern web browser and an internet connection, regardless of hardware specifications. Unlike most FPS games that require high-end hardware to run smoothly, Troid is optimized for minimal requirements. Troid's front-end is built using a reactive web framework that facilitates the creation of fast and interactive user interfaces, while the game's graphics and animation are created using a 3D graphics library. Real-time communication between players is facilitated using a reliable real-time communication library, and an in-memory data store is utilized to store player coordinates and other in-game data. Overall, Troid exemplifies the potential of creating highquality multiplayer games that can be played on any device with a modern web browser and an internet connection, without compromising on the gameplay experience.

The Game Experience Questionnaire: reliability and validity of the Web-based Revised Arabic Version.

Nowadays, digital gaming occupies a central position in the entertainment industry where it has developed into a cherished kind of entertainment in markets all over the world. Besides that, it provides other sectors with various social and economic benefits. The Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) is a free, quantitative and comprehensive self-report measure, which was developed to assess the player game experience. Despite being a widely used tool by many research projects in the past, it was not adapted into Arabic. Furthermore, several components of the scale proved problematic from a psychometric point of view. Therefore, a modified version of the scale is needed to measure the gaming experience of the Arabic population. Validation and examination of the psychometrics of an adapted Arabic version of the Game Experience Scale in Tunisia. 711 voluntary participants completed an online survey which included an Arabic version of the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ), gaming data and socio-demographic questionnaire. Subjects were randomized in order to complete two phases: exploratory and confirmatory. The exploratory data was acquired from 360 respondents whose mean age was 23.89 ±2.29 (111 females; 30.83% and 249 males; 69.2%). On the other hand, the confirmatory data was obtained from the remaining 411 subjects whose mean age was 21.94 ±1.80 (169 females; 41.1% and 242males; 58.9%). after the elimination of two items, the exploratory and the confirmatory factor analysis provided an adequate factor structure of the Arabic version of the GEQ. In addition, the internal consistency coefficients suggest the reliability of the instrument. Significant differences were revealed for three sub components: Flow by age (p<.001, ES=0.013), gender (p<.05, ES=0.007) and game type p<.001, ES=0.03). For competence and immersion, significant differences were highlighted by the type of game (p<.05, ES=0.017). The discriminant and convergent validity of the instrument were supported respectively by calculating the Extracted Mean Variance (AVE) and comparing the square roots of the AVE to the correlation coefficients. The Arabic adapted version of the GEQ is a valid and reliable version and can be administered to measure the game experience in Arab countries.

Environmental Visualization and Exploration in Mobile Augmented Reality Games: Redefining the Spatial Affordances

While spatiality in desktop and console interface video games has been widely studied, not many approaches have been made in the context of mobile augmented reality (MAR), an environment from which popular games such as Pokemon Go have emerged. On the one hand, this paper retakes the notion of spatial affordance that Janet Murray introduced for digital environments and proposes a reinterpretation of the concept throughout the integration of the MAR features. On the other, it seeks to approach the impact that these characteristics have on the gameplay experience. For this purpose, 46 mobile augmented reality video games of different genres were analyzed. The study reveals that augmented reality is still a superfluous element rather than a central aspect of the gameplay in most MAR video games, although trends involving new hybrid game experiences have been observed. Finally, we propose a tool for classifying MAR video games according to two axes that assess up to what extent physical space is integrated into the gameplay: gameworld spaces (representational layer) and gameplay spaces (interactive layer, interaction with the game rules and mechanics).

Cheer for me: effect of non-player character audience feedback on older adult users of virtual reality exergames.

The presence of an audience and its feedback could affect people's performance and experience during an event, especially related to sports such as tennis or boxing. Similarly, in videogames, players' gameplay could be affected if there is an audience and its feedback in response to players' performance in the environment. The inclusion of an audience with non-player characters (NPC) is common in videogames in general. However, there is a limited exploration of the use of an NPC audience in virtual reality (VR) exergames, especially focusing on elderly players. To fill this gap, this work examines the effect of an NPC audience and its associated feedback (with/without) on elderly users of VR exergames. In a user study, we used 120 NPC in a virtual audience. Results showed that the presence of the NPC audience with responsive feedback led to higher performance (with a higher success rate of performing gesture actions, more successful combinations of actions (or combos for short) performed, and more opponent's combos prevented) and better gameplay experience (with higher levels of competence, autonomy, relatedness, immersion, and intuitive controls) of elderly players. Our results can help frame the design and engineering of VR exergames that are targeted at elderly users to help them have an enhanced gameplay experience and improve their health.

Games in Times of a Pandemic: Structured Overview of COVID-19 Serious Games.

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced an urgent need for effective strategies to disseminate crucial knowledge and improve people's subjective well-being. Complementing more conventional approaches to knowledge dissemination, game-based interventions were developed to create awareness and educate people about the pandemic, hoping to change their attitudes and behavior. This study provided an overview and analysis of digital and analog game-based interventions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. As major pandemics and other large-scale disruptive events are expected to increase in frequency in the coming decades, this analysis aimed to inform the design, uptake, and effects of similar future interventions. From November 2021 to April 2022, Scopus, Google, and YouTube were searched for articles and videos describing COVID-19-themed game-based interventions. Information regarding authorship, year of development or launch, country of origin, license, deployment, genre or type, target audience, player interaction, in-game goal, and intended transfer effects was extracted. Information regarding intervention effectiveness was retrieved where possible. A diverse assortment of 23 analog and 43 digital serious games was identified, approximately one-third of them (25/66, 38%) through scientific articles. Most of these games were developed by research institutions in 2020 (13/66, 20%) and originated in Europe and North America (38/66, 58%). A limited number (20/66, 30%) were tested on relatively small samples, using a diversity of research methods to assess the potential changes in participants' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors as well as their gameplay experience. Although most of the evaluated games (11/20, 55%) effectively engaged and motivated the players, increased awareness, and improved their understanding of COVID-19-related issues, the games' success in influencing people's behavior was often unclear or limited. To increase the impact of similar future interventions aimed at disseminating knowledge and influencing people's attitudes and behaviors during a large-scale crisis, some considerations are suggested. On the basis of the study results and informed by existing game theories, recommendations are made in relation to game development, deployment, and distribution; game users, design, and use; game design terminology; and effectiveness testing for serious games.

Investigation of visual and game-playing performance under different genders, display and operation interfaces

Technological progress has led to 3D displays becoming a trend in the market, yet few studies have evaluated 3D techniques in head-mounted displays (HMD) under different topics simultaneously, such as gender and operation interfaces. This study investigated these research issues to examine the effect of gender (male, female), display interface (2D TV, 3D HMD), and operation interface (joystick, keyboard) on usability, accuracy, change of critical flicker frequency (change of CFF), Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), and iGroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ). Thirty participants with no NBA2K15 basketball game-playing experience were recruited in the experiment. The results showed significant effects of gender on accuracy, usability, and change of CFF, where males demonstrated higher accuracy, lower usability, and lower visual fatigue. In addition, display interface had significant effects on usability, SSQ and IPQ. The 2D TV was associated with higher usability and lower SSQ and IPQ. Furthermore, the operation interface had significant effects on accuracy, usability, change of CFF, and IPQ. The joystick led to a higher usability and IPQ but a lower change of CFF. The results provide suggestions to game players that choosing 2D TVs with joysticks generates greater usability. In addition, although they achieved a higher presence, players also had greater visual fatigue when wearing HMDs. This study concluded that males have better performance in accuracy and visual fatigue while females have better usability when playing basketball games.

A Beautiful Game: Interpreting Football Videogame Experiences

The purpose of this study is to explore football videogame playing experiences using a videogame esthetic that draws upon the MDA (mechanics–dynamics–esthetics) framework. In accordance with MDA, videogame esthetics comprises eight aspects—sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression, and submission—derived from game-playing experiences. As a means of collecting and interpreting data, semi-structured interviews and qualitative thematic analysis were used. The study involved 30 interviewees who are both football players and football video game players. In view of the findings of the study, the concept of football videogame as sensual pleasure encompasses a number of attributes—game as make-believe, game as drama, game as a social framework, and game as self-discovery—because these attributes are valued in their relation to pleasure. Moreover, football videogames function as an uncharted medium in the field of football simulation due to their transcendence of time and space. For the esthetics of football videogames, the study proposes two major implications. It is essential to note that the esthetics of football videogames emphasize discovery and sensation, and playing football videogames is another way to consume football.

Modeling Learners to Early Predict Their Performance in Educational Computer Games

Data mining approaches have proven to be successful in improving learners’ interaction with educational computer games. Despite the potential of predictive modelling in providing timely adaptive learning and gameplay experience, there is a lack of research on the early prediction of learners’ performance in educational games. In this research, we propose an early predictive modelling approach, called GameEPM, to estimate learners’ final scores in an educational game for promoting computational thinking. Specifically, the GameEPM approach models the sequence of learners’ actions and then uses a limited sequence of the actions to predict the final score of the game for each learner. The findings from our initial trials show that our approach can accurately and robustly estimate the learners’ performance at the early stages of the game. Using less than 50% of learners’ action sequences, the cross-validated deep learning model achieves a squared correlation higher than 0.8 with a relative error of less than 8%, outperforming a range of regression models like linear regression, random forest, neural networks, and support vector machines. An additional experiment showed that the validated deep learning model can also achieve high performance while tested on an independent game dataset, showing its applicability and robustness in real-world cases. Comparing the results with traditional machine learning methods revealed that, in the validation and application phases, up to 0.30 and 0.35 R2 gain is achieved in favor of the deep learning model, respectively. Finally, we found that while the lengths of action sequences influence the predictive power of the traditional machine learning methods, this effect is not substantial in the deep learning model.

Pelimusiikin käyttötavat ja funktiot suomalaisten arjessa

The uses and functions of game music in everyday life&#x0D; The premise of this article is the idea that games and their music do not only relate to playing, but are also part of people’s musical practices outside of the actual gameplay situation. However, so far very little research has been done on the meanings of game music outside of gaming. In this study, we aim for a broader understanding of people’s relationship with game music by examining how game music is used outside of the context of gaming. The empirical analysis of the article is based on two datasets collected in Finland. The primary material consists of written stories (N=183) about personally meaningful game music memories. In addition to this, we use survey data (N=785) concerning people’s activities with their favorite game music outside of the game. In the study, we investigated (1) how varied and common the activities of using game music are, (2) what different types of game music use can be discerned, and (3) what psychological functions of game music are disclosed in the personal stories.&#x0D; According to both datasets, musical practices with game music in people’s everyday life were common. The ways of using game music were also diverse. In general, digital games appear to be a viable resource for engaging in musical practices and acquiring musical experiences. Through cluster analysis, three different types of game music use were outlined from the survey answers: performing/reproducing, reminiscing and appreciating the game experience, which refer to preferences for interacting with game music. Regarding the functions of music, the results imply that the functions of music documented in music psychology literature (mood management, aesthetic pleasure, self-enhancement, memory connection, social bonding) are well suited for analyzing the personal meanings of game music. In all, from the results, it can be established that the aesthetic value of game music for people, at least to some extent, seems to be conditioned by the gameplay experience, even if the music is separated from gaming.

Guidelines of Serious Game Design for Promoting Reframing

Background. Reframing could be considered to represent individual and collective twofold values in social learning. When reframing is promoted, it benefits to generate learning processes involving collective inquiry occurring in inter and outer formal education. Digital games, popular as an application for the young generation, are considered a specific community in which social learning occurs by playing games. Serious games (SG) are a type of digital game involving educational purposes. Hence SG is selected as a suitable educational strategy to promote reframing. The previous research investigated features of a gameplay experience associated with reframing. This study develops further based on these game features to examine if/how they improved reframing capabilities. From an educational perspective, specific guidelines were proposed as the research findings to assist serious games in designing and applying game features to enhance the gameplay experience of reframing. Methods. An expert evaluation was used to assess the guidelines. The seven experts with experience in game design and teaching were chosen to review the designed guidelines. These experts were required to rate the guidelines using a 5-point Likert scale. All experts offered positive feedback on the finding. Results. Research data were analysed and validated via the Content Validity Index. The results showed that a total of 5 guidelines was remained and updated. Conclusion. These guidelines can be applied to assist students, game designers, related educators, and researchers who use games to promote reframing or require evidence to link game features with social learning.

Improved Belgian AI Algorithm for Dynamic Management in Action Role-Playing Games

Artificial intelligence in games is one of the most challenging tasks in academia and industry. In action role-playing games, how to manage combat effectively is a key issue related to game development and the player’s experience. The Belgian artificial intelligence (BAI) algorithm is a classic but limited method that is widely used for combat management between the player and enemies. To address the poor adaptability of BAI, this paper proposes an improved Belgian artificial intelligence (IBAI) algorithm with dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA) and implements two systems separately based on BAI and IBAI in Unreal Engine 4. Advantages on 12 parameters—10.086 mean total score greater, and 0.079 standard deviation smaller—demonstrate that the system based on IBAI has higher adaptability and a better player experience by comparing the two systems in different situations and inviting players to participate in gameplay experiences and questionnaires. The robust dynamic management mechanism of IBAI can help game designers and developers achieve the combat system of action role-playing games more efficiently, thus, shortening the development cycle and improving the player retention rate.

Making competency-based predoctoral orthodontics fun: Introducing Dealodontics.

Dealodontics is a card game developed at New York University College of Dentistry for dental students to reinforce and apply basic orthodontic concepts. Dealodontics incorporates clinical photographs and questions to assess students' skills in diagnosis and patient management. The game was designed to be an enjoyable, interactive, and collaborative learning experience, supplementing competency-based instruction. The purpose of this project was to present this novel educational method and to evaluate dental students' engagement and game-playing experience. The survey was modeled after the "Game Experience Questionnaire" and followed the same methodology collapsing 16 survey questions into eight categories. The 5-point Likert scale was collapsed into a 3-point graduated scale (negative, neutral, and positive). Results were tabulated and scored using methods developed by IJsselsteijn et.al. Comparisons were made between two years: 2019 (N=385) and 2021 (N=245). Additionally, students were asked an open-ended question, to list three words to describe the game-playing experience. Response rates declined from 72% in 2019 to 50.2% in 2021. Response trends were similar: Positive gameplay experiences (competence, positive affect, immersion, challenge, and learning) and lack of negative experiences (tension/annoyance, negative affect). In the category of flow, 2021 responses were more positive (42.68%) when compared to the responses in 2019 (38.3%). Open-ended responses were similar with "fun" being the most commonly occurring word. Dealodontics is an effective and engaging tool for learning which can be used to supplement traditional methods.

One Game Fits All: Personalized Content Generation in Mobile Games

Procedural content generation uses algorithmic techniques to create large amounts of new content for games and thus reduces the cost of production. However, this content generation is typically the same for all players and is not used to personalize and optimize the game for players’ characteristics. Thus, the core of our research is the improvement of procedural content generation through personalization. We plan to achieve personalization by using modern machine learning algorithms to learn the characteristics of the player. These characteristics will be then used as input parameters for procedural content generation algorithms to produce personalized content. We expect that personalized procedural content generation will have a positive effect on the user’s gameplay experience.

The aesthetics of speedrunning: Performances in neo-baroque space

Speedrunning describes activities related to the development and performance of strategies to complete games quickly, and is a valuable source of historical and technical information, while producing specialized aesthetic explorations of a videogame’s environment. Most research on speedrunning emphasizes its metagaming or documentary function. However, speedrunning also changes the aesthetic experience of gameplay, both for players and in spectated performance. Aesthetic investigation informed by art historical perspectives, such as Angela Ndalianis’ theory of the Neo-Baroque and H.S. Becker’s study of Art World formations, offers new insights into the experience of speedrunning and how discontinuous and disjointed simulated space is experienced and appreciated as aesthetic phenomena by players and spectators. While Nidalianis has applied her theory to videogames, among other types of contemporary entertainment, further investigating speedrunning performances through this lens extends her analysis and problematizes the idea of a videogame as a singular aesthetic work, instead drawing attention to alternative aesthetic experiences videogames can offer.

Investigating Students’ Engagement Patterns and Supporting Game Features in a Personalized Computerized Role-Playing Game Environment

Engagement in educational games was conceptualized as four dimensions but few studies have examined the four dimensions together. Additionally, game features vary greatly in different game genres that demand different engagement dimensions. However, engaging game features were studied in general and did not inquire specific game genres in extant literature. This study aimed at filling in this gap by examining students’ engagement patterns as well as what and how game features provided engagement opportunities in a personalized computerized role-playing game environment through the lens of the four-dimension engagement framework. Results showed the instability of engagement and certain engagement dimensions would predominate in different gameplay stages. Students exhibited cognitive engagement both during and after gameplay. Behavioral engagement dominated during gameplay while affective engagement dominated after gameplay. This study also found that gender, age, employment status, and gameplay experience affected engagement during gameplay. All features of personalized computerized role-playing game could engage students but manipulating a fictional world and portraying game characters could best engage students. Implications and future research were also discussed in the study.

You teach me and I’ll teach you: The role of social interactions on positivity elicited from playing Pokémon GO

Augmented Reality video games such as Pokémon GO have a structure that encourages face-to-face social interactions between players, leading to potentially unique benefits for positivity (positive affect). This study investigated how participants’ social interactions while playing Pokémon GO relate to their positivity after gameplay, crucially, after accounting for other non-social factors typically associated with positivity (participants’ satisfaction with their game accomplishments). Participants were 108 Pokémon GO players, consisting of 54 dyads who signed up for the study together. Dyads were asked to play Pokémon GO together for eight sessions over 2 weeks, and to report on their gameplay experiences and positivity after each session. Multilevel modelling analyses revealed that more positive social interactions with their gameplay partner incrementally predicted participants’ greater positivity post-gameplay. The association between positive social interactions and greater positivity was accentuated for participants who reported more frequent noxious mood states (depressive symptoms) at the start of the study. Findings suggest that above and beyond typical contributions such as achieving game accomplishments, there may be affective benefits for Pokémon GO players from the social interactions they have within the game, especially for those with noxious mood states.

Playing distressed art: Adorno’s aesthetic theory in game design

The discussion on games as (not) art has been raging for decades without reaching a consensus. It is argued here that the ontological status of games is irrelevant for the perception and development of aesthetic experiences in videogames. Instead, game design should be regarded as ripe to convey the experience of art according to established aesthetic theories. The essay presents Adorno’s aesthetic theory and highlights its reflections in the games Papers, Please and Observer. It then describes how they were synthesized into a critical gameplay experience in the author’s game Distressed. The latter may be regarded as an example of a method in game studies in which the aesthetic potential of games is explored by creation rather than analysis. Arguably, this reveals the importance of epistemological approaches towards games and art instead of the predominant ontological ones.

Mashing Up History and Heritage in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

This article proposes a new framework for analysing how developers structure – and players experience – history and heritage in historical video games. Drawing on the theory of mashups, this article demonstrates how historical games generate ‘technocultural mashups’ by cutting and pasting aspects of cultural heritage into the gameplay experience and then challenging players to further adapt this. ‘Technocultural mashups’, the article suggests, exploit a cultural precedent in the recombination of art, music and video, but also a Web 2.0 precedent that enables alternative modes of production, communication and consumption based on the affordances of new media. Assassin's Creed Odyssey is used as a case study to better understand the relationship between game design and the simulation of cultural heritage. By looking at fan-made trailers, as well as gameplay, paratexts and player-generated content, this article explores how ‘technocultural mashups’ enable players to participate in a networked historical imaginary.

EEG based stress analysis using rhythm specific spectral feature for video game play

Background and objective:For the emerging significance of mental stress, various research directives have been established over time to understand better the causes of stress and how to deal with it. In recent years, the rise of video gameplay has been unprecedented, further triggered by the lockdown imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several researchers and organizations have contributed to the practical analysis of the impacts of such extended periods of gameplay, which lacks coordinated studies to underline the outcomes and reflect those in future game designing and public awareness about video gameplay. Investigations have mainly focused on the “gameplay stress” based on physical syndromes. Some studies have analyzed the effects of video gameplay with Electroencephalogram (EEG), Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), etc., without concentrating on the relaxation procedure after video gameplay. Methods:This paper presents an end-to-end stress analysis for video gaming stimuli using EEG. The power spectral density (PSD) of the Alpha and Beta bands is computed to calculate the Beta-to-Alpha ratio (BAR). The Alpha and Beta band power is computed, and the Beta-to-Alpha band power ratio (BAR) has been determined. In this article, BAR is used to denote mental stress. Subjects are chosen based on various factors such as gender, gameplay experience, age, and Body mass index (BMI). EEG is recorded using Scan SynAmps2 Express equipment. There are three types of video gameplay: strategic, puzzle, and combinational. Relaxation is accomplished in this study by using music of various pitches. Two types of regression analysis are done to mathematically model stress and relaxation curve. Brain topography is rendered to indicate the stressed and relaxed region of the brain. Results:In the relaxed state, the subjects have BAR 0.701, which is considered the baseline value. Non-gamer subjects have an average BAR of 2.403 for 1 h of strategic video gameplay, whereas gamers have 2.218 BAR concurrently. After 12 minutes of listening to low-pitch music, gamers achieved 0.709 BAR, which is nearly the baseline value. In comparison to Quartic regression, the 4PL symmetrical sigmoid function performs regression analysis with fewer parameters and computational power. Conclusion:Non-gamers experience more stress than gamers, whereas strategic games stress the human brain more. During gameplay, the beta band in the frontal region is mostly activated. For relaxation, low pitch music is the most useful medium. Residual stress is evident in the frontal lobe when the subjects have listened to high pitch music. Quartic regression and 4PL symmetrical sigmoid function have been employed to find the model parameters of the relaxation curve. Among them, quartic regression performs better in terms of Akaike information criterion (AIC) and R2 measure.

Feasibility and Usefulness of Evidence-Based Gaming to Deliver Health Messages to Tweens in a Classroom Setting

Background Our interdisciplinary team developed a publicly available online game—Eat and Move as I Like (EAMAIL)—for tweens based on the MyPlate evidence-based representation of the Dietary Guidelines. Objective We aimed to test the feasibility of using EAMAIL in a classroom setting to promote engagement and self-awareness and motivate healthier diet behaviors in tweens. Methods Teachers in one middle school offered EAMAIL on school Chromebooks (institutional review board–approved). The researcher introduced EAMAIL’s login instructions, including nonidentifiable usernames, basic demographics, and home zip codes. Children were instructed to enter EAMAIL’s Story Mode, which had 5 MyPlate-food group levels; children caught healthy foods in color-matching buckets and avoided sweets. Each level delivers informational and motivational messages, asking users to report liking or disliking food groups and making dietary improvements on 7-point facial hedonic scales (from Love it to It’s okay to Hate it). At game completion, children rated the game based on whether it made them want to eat better and play again. Aligned with the Design, Play, and Experience Framework, the researcher made observations to assess child engagement, feelings about the game and the messages, and the motivation to make dietary improvements. Children were encouraged to complete the Story Mode before advancing to Free Play Mode, which had greater game challenges and 15-second interruptions every 2 to 3 minutes to deliver physical activity and health messages. Finally, each child completed a 13-item online survey to assess game-playing experiences, the desire to play again, new knowledge learning, and whether the game motivated healthier behaviors. Results EAMAIL was administered to five 30-minute classes involving 54 children (age: mean 11.6 years; female: 75%; White: 58%) and 105 users, and 1187 games were played. By the highest user level reached in Story Mode, 10% of users completed level 1 (Grains), 14% completed level 2 (Vegetables), 11% completed level 3 (Healthier Protein), 17% completed level 4 (Fruits), 15% completed level 5 (Dairy), and 31% completed all levels. Across users’ highest levels, Healthier Protein, on average, was the most liked, and Vegetables was the least liked. Most reported at least Like it to eating more fruits and vegetables (82%), vegetables (73%), healthier protein (79%), fruits (84%), and dairy (80%). All users responded to end-game questions; 64% reported at least Like it to “The game made me want to eat better” and “I would like to play the game again.” These responses were unchanged for most users who completed Story Mode and entered Free Play Mode (n=24); 6 reported worse and 3 reported better. From the postgame online survey, somewhat agreed to strongly agreed was reported by 76% of children with regard to learning about healthy eating and by 50% with regard to the game being fun, the game having positive attributes (pace, challenge, and flow), and whether they would share their game experiences. Researcher observations were consistent with children’s online responses. Conclusions EAMAIL appears feasible for teaching tweens in classroom settings about MyPlate, encouraging self-reflection, and motivating healthier eating, with Story Mode maximizing health promotion messages and engagement. Conflicts of Interest None declared.