Game Design Research Articles

A Game-Based Cognitive Intervention for Young Learners with Reading Difficulties

The study’s primary contribution is a game-based cognitive intervention tool for young learners with reading difficulties. The second contribution is the game designer's guide tool, which provides a set of recommended design guidelines for designers, developers and researchers that create games for children. The tools were designed and developed in the ReaDi-STANCE project and are accessible on the project’s platform (ReaDi-STANCE platform home page: https://www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/projects/readistance/). The platform has the following main modules integrated: a management support module, an algorithm module to rotate in a predefined order the games the child end-user plays, a prompting stages module to support the child end-user during gameplay, and a data analytics module that researchers can use. Two different groups of experts conducted two evaluations to evaluate: (1) a corpus of game design themes and guidelines for children, extracted from the respective literature, to develop the game designer's guide tool and (2) the extent of application of the design above guidelines in the game-based cognitive intervention tool. We present the intervention impact results and discuss their effect on improving reading skills in poor readers.

Digital geographies of home: parenting practices in the space between gaming and gambling

ABSTRACT This paper advances debates at the intersection of geographies of children, youth and families, digital geographies, and geographies of home. We argue that social, seasonal and limited time are vitally important for understanding the new landscape between gaming and gambling and have wider analytical purchase for geographers. This paper reveals parenting practices connected to the multi-billion-dollar industry of paid-for currency in digital games used to access gambling style systems and chance-based mechanisms such as loot boxes. We use this timely example to develop new digital geographies of home from original interviews with families based in England on their everyday lived experiences of gambling-style systems in digital games as well as data from video ethnographies with children and young people and interviews with international game designers. This paper challenges current understandings by examining how parents make sense of gambling-related harms and demonstrates the spatial and temporal dynamics of purchasing decisions, rules, and associated conflicts in domestic space. We argue these systems in digital games shape and are shaped by family geographies. This paper concludes by outlining its relevance for the social and health sciences at a time of intense legislative interest in the increasingly blurred space between gaming and gambling.

A New Ecological Contract

A New Ecological Contract is a pedagogical framework for design studios that focus on sites of socioenvironmental conflict. Through ecocritical video game design, students engage with situated impacts of large-scale climate issues by working through images of environmental impact assessment reports and baseline studies as archives of landscape transformation. This framework pursued two objectives: first, to awaken a critical and spatial political imagination in the context of a four-year constitutional referendum process that challenged the basis of the Chilean economy and its relationship to the environment from which it derives its riches, and second, to present students with a case for using their representational abilities to engage with situated impacts of large scale climate issues by going through environmental impact assessment reports’ images and baselines studies approaching a design brief otherwise.

CFI: a VR motor rehabilitation serious game design framework integrating rehabilitation function and game design principles with an upper limb case

Virtual reality (VR) Rehabilitation holds the potential to address the challenge that patients feel bored and give up long-term rehabilitation training. Despite the introduction of gaming elements by some researchers in rehabilitation training to enhance engagement, there remains a notable lack of in-depth research on VR rehabilitation serious game design methods, particularly the absence of a concrete design framework for VR rehabilitation serious games. Hence, we introduce the Clinical-Function-Interesting (CFI): a VR rehabilitation serious game design framework, harmonizing rehabilitation function and game design theories. The framework initiates with clinic information, defining game functions through the functional decomposition of rehabilitation training. Subsequently, it integrates gaming elements identified through the analysis and comparison of related literature to provide enduring support for long-term training. Furthermore, VR side-effect and enhancement are considered. Building upon this design framework, we have developed an upper limb VR rehabilitation serious game tailored for mild to moderate stroke patients and aligned our framework with another developed VR rehabilitation serious game to validate its practical feasibility. Overall, the proposed design framework offers a systematic VR rehabilitation serious game design methodology for the VR rehabilitation field, assisting developers in more accurately designing VR rehabilitation serious games that are tailored to specific rehabilitation goals.

Participatory design of augmented reality games for word learning in autistic children: the parental perspective

The use of participatory design (PD) to inform the design of games and learning technology seems to be appropriate for marginalized groups of people, including children with autism. However, specific traits of the autism phenotype can create a barrier in facilitating participation of autistic children during PD activities, especially when their verbal abilities are limited. Involving parents in PD projects can help address challenges related to the communication abilities of the children. We have facilitated the design augmented reality (AR) games by including four autistic children and 9 parents. We analyzed qualitative data using an inductive approach using affinity diagrams and thematic analysis. We present insights from the parents on the use of AR technology and how it can be incorporated at home to enhance word learning activities. We report on (1) a set of five games based on learning by repetition, learning by classification and learning by association; (2) novel insights and knowledge about learning strategies and (3) tools to support autistic children in learning new words. We conclude our study by discussing the relevance of involving parents of autistic children in PD activities, offering design implications.

Game psychotherapy intervention based on entertainment interactive robots for preventing depression in university students

This study designs an entertainment interactive robot system for gaming psychotherapy intervention and evaluates its effectiveness in preventing depression in students. In terms of the architecture and hardware of the entertainment interactive robot system, the robot adopts high-performance processors and sensors to achieve the ability to quickly respond and accurately perceive user actions. In terms of software, a mathematical model was established based on the structure and kinematic principles of the robot to describe its motion. Preprocess user gesture data by analyzing the features and patterns of user gestures, extracting key action information, and using machine learning algorithms or deep learning models to classify and recognize gestures to determine user intent and action types. Evaluate action recognition and effectiveness, and verify the accuracy and reliability of the gesture interaction module through comparison and testing with actual user gestures. The study designed an entertainment interactive robot assisted game that provides a fun and interactive experience to attract students’ attention and stimulate positive emotions. Through game design and behavioral pattern evaluation, the research team evaluated the preventive effect of entertainment interactive robot assisted games on depression and proposed optimization strategies.

Design and Development of the 3D Game "Catch Banana" Using Scratch 3

The game Catch Banana is designed using the Scratch 3D application as an interactive entertainment medium that educates users in the use of information technology. The game features a main character, a monkey, whose task is to catch as many bananas as possible with only one life. Each banana caught provides additional points, and players must reach a certain score to advance to the next level. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the game as a medium of entertainment and learning for various age groups. The evaluation results indicate that Catch Banana provides an engaging and educational playing experience, successfully enhancing users' skills in using the Scratch 3D application.

A mixed-initiative design framework for procedural content generation using reinforcement learning

Currently, there are a significant and growing number of games and players. Creating digital games becomes a challenging task, as manual game development is costly and time-consuming. A technique known as procedural content generation (PCG) can potentially reduce both the time and production costs of games. It is feasible to automate the creation process by utilizing artificial intelligence techniques and PCG, assisting game designers in their tasks. PCG is not a novel concept, and there is a diverse range of algorithms aimed at automatically generating content in games. However, a significant number of these techniques do not incorporate artificial intelligence. This paper introduces the PCGRLPuzzle framework used to generate procedural scenarios through reinforcement learning agents trained with the policy proximal optimization algorithm. The process of building scenarios poses a challenging problem due to the existence of an exponential number of possibilities. The framework employs a mixed-initiative design, where humans and computers collaborate to create levels for 2D dungeon crawler games. We apply this framework to generate levels for three different games and analyze the results based on their expressive range, evaluating linearity and lenience. The conducted experiments demonstrate that utilizing reinforcement learning in conjunction with procedural content generation and mixed-initiative enables the generation of highly diverse levels.

Empowerment in Virtual Worlds: The Influence of Female Hero Characters on Player Self-Identity

This study examines the influence of female hero characters in virtual worlds on players’ self-identity and empowerment. The research integrates qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys to explore how players’ identification with female protagonists affects their self-concept and psychological empowerment. The study’s sample included 150 participants with diverse demographics and gaming experiences. The results reveal that players who identify strongly with female hero characters report higher self-concept and empowerment scores. These findings are supported by both thematic analysis of qualitative data and statistical analysis of quantitative data, including significant differences highlighted through t-tests. Case studies further illustrate the mechanisms through which these characters influence players’ self-identity and empowerment, providing detailed narratives of personal growth and increased confidence. The study underscores the potential of video games to serve as tools for personal development and social change, emphasizing the importance of inclusive game design that promotes diverse and empowering representations.

Factors affecting the aesthetic experiences in educational games: A qualitative investigation

Aesthetics play a pivotal role in enriching the learning experience and are indispensable for fostering optimal educational environments. This study aims to identify the factors that shape aesthetic experiences within educational gaming contexts. Employing a qualitative methodology, data were scrutinized through inductive content analysis. A review of pertinent literature on aesthetic elements from 1994 to 2022 yielded 250 selected resources. Subsequently, based on purposive sampling, 108 sources were analyzed. These sources were systematically coded and recorded in a table as key phrases pertaining to the key components of elements of game aesthetics. In the final phase, eight faculty members with expertise in educational technology and art, specializing in educational games, evaluated the factors influencing aesthetic experiences. Their collective expertise affirmed the face and content validity of the identified factors. The findings revealed six key factors that significantly shape the aesthetic experience in educational games. These factors are instrumental in fostering player immersion, as they significantly influence attention, visualization, and emotional engagement. The findings also highlight the imperative for game designers and developers to incorporate these factors into future educational games to enhance the quality of game-based learning.

Behavioral design in video games

Game design has an impact on health and well-being. Due to their evolving capacities, young people and children are especially sensitive to the negative and positive impacts of media design choices. To protect vulnerable people, ethical and responsible game design practices are necessary. But what constitutes “ethical” and responsible game design? Defining “behavioral design” as video game design decisions that elicit, either accidentally or purposefully, self-negative or self-beneficial behavior in the gamer, we draw from expertise in public health, game design, and legal scholarship to analyze current game design practices. Our work illustrates the centrality of changing business models with game design and the resulting tension within games. In practice, monetization strategies regularly guide decision-making in game design, facilitating risks for gamer welfare and finances.

Effectiveness of Gamified Cooperation and Competition in Blended Learning Environment for EFL Business Writing in TVET

This research investigated the effectiveness of gamified blended learning environments in fostering EFL writing skills among technical and vocational education and training (TVET) trainees in Saudi Arabia. It compared three distinct learning strategies achieved through gamification design in a blended delivery mode: gamified cooperation, gamified competition, and gamified cooperation-competition. Each strategy leveraged a specific category of gamification features that evoke different goal structure: cooperation, competition, or a combination of both. A quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test was employed. Forty-five trainees were purposively selected and randomly assigned to three groups, each receiving instruction using a different gamified blended learning program for teaching business writing. The findings revealed significant improvement in English as a Foreign Language business writing skills for all three groups. However, a one-way ANOVA and post-hoc Tukey HSD test indicated that the gamified cooperation-competition strategy yielded the greatest improvement compared to the gamified cooperation and gamified competition strategies alone. This suggests that a combination of cooperative and competitive elements within a gamified blended learning environment might be the most effective approach for enhancing English as a Foreign Language business writing skills among Technical and Vocational Training and Education learners.

Exploring the Effects of Instruction and Game Design on Youth Soccer Players’ Skill Involvement and Cooperative Team Behaviour

ABSTRACT Objectives: The relationship between task constraints and player behaviors is of interest to coaches tasked with designing practice to optimize learning. This study aims to compare the skill involvements and cooperative team behavior of teams of youth soccer players engaged in a goal exaggeration and/or a prescriptive coach instruction condition compared to a free-play control condition. Methods: Twenty male soccer players aged 12–15 participated in small-sided games under four conditions: free-play, goal exaggeration, prescriptive coach instruction, and combination over four weeks. Using video footage, teams’ collective skill involvements (shot, pass, dribble) and passing network characteristics (closeness, density, and betweenness) were measured for each game. Results: A Friedmans rank test identified that playing conditions resulted in significant differences in attempted dribbles (p < .001), goals scored (p < .001), network density (p = .001), closeness (p < .001) and betweenness (p = .002). Teams attempted to dribble the most in the free-play and goal-exaggeration conditions, and the most goals were scored in the goal-exaggeration and combination conditions. Additionally, teams exhibited more well-connected passing networks (i.e. higher density, higher closeness, and lower betweenness values) in the combination condition and higher network density in the explicit instruction condition. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that coach instruction may be more associated with cooperative team behavior, whereas free-play or manipulating task constraints in the absence of instruction may be associated with players attempting more individual actions.

PERANCANGAN GAME VISUAL NOVEL SEBAGAI SARANA EDUKASI BENCANA TSUNAMI

Educational games about early warning against tsunami disasters can be of interest to school children at an early age to expand information about prevention or develop an early warning system for tsunami disasters. This research aims to make a visual novel role-playing game as a means of educating about the tsunami disaster and finding out the usefulness of games in providing information about the tsunami disaster. Using Ren'py software, the tsunami disaster educational Visual Novel Game was developed and built intelligently, resulting in an application that runs on Windows and Android-based devices. With an average score of 86.1, the System Usability Scale test findings. The design of a Visual Novel Game as a means of educating about the tsunami disaster is considered very good.

Innovative Learning Approaches: Quantum Chemistry Board Games for Education and Computational Thinking Strategies

Computational thinking (CT) learning is becoming increasingly important in today's education in developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The development of board games is one of the techniques used to hone problem-solving skills by integrating CT into the learning process. Through this innovative learning approach, abstract concepts in atomic structure and the periodic system of elements are integrated into components of the game. The research aims to improve students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills in challenging chemistry content such as quantum numbers. This research includes the design, development, and implementation stages of board games in learning. The N-gain score of 0.7 is achieved, indicating an improvement in the effectiveness of learning chemistry subjects on atomic structure and the periodic system of elements through the designed board games. In addition, students provide positive feedback regarding engagement and interest in learning through this interactive approach. These results indicate that the use of CT-integrated board games can be an effective tool for teaching chemistry materials at the high school level while promoting students' CT skills. Well-designed board games can be used as effective learning tools to improve student's critical thinking and problem-solving skills in quantum numbers.

Face Warping Deepfake Detection and Localization in a Digital Video using Transfer Learning Approach

Generative AI (GenAI) can generate high-resolution and complex content mimicking the creativity of humans, thereby benefiting industries such as gaming, entertainment, and product design. In recent times, AI-generated fake videos, commonly referred to as deepfakes, have become more commonplace and convincing. An additional deepfake technique, face warping, uses digital processing to noticeably distort shapes on a face. Tracking such warping in images and videos is crucial and preventing its use for destructive purposes. A technique is proposed for detecting and localizing face warped areas in video. The input video is extracted to perform various image pre-processing techniques that refine the video into a format that is more likely to classify the classes efficiently. Transfer learning is employed, and the pre-trained model is adopted to train using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with the source videos to identify face warping. Based on the experimental results, it was determined that the proposed model detects and localizes the warped areas of the face satisfactorily with an accuracy of 89.25%.

Utilizing the game design factor questionnaire to develop engaging games for adaptive learning in the serious educational game: the Ma'had

This study explores the unique mandatory residence, Ma'had Sunan Ampel Al Alyi (MSAA), at the State Islamic University (UIN) Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, aiming to develop Quranic reading competence in new students. The varying educational backgrounds of admitted students lead to differences in their Quranic reading capabilities, highlighting the need for adaptive learning. In response to this diversity, adaptive learning using artificial intelligence is employed, implemented through the serious education game "The Ma'had." Survey results from expert individuals using a Game Design Factor Questionnaire reveal the game's substantial potential. The results show high agreement (100%) on clear goals, engaging gameplay, and a sense of freedom, with 67% strongly agreeing on improved understanding. Challenges are motivating, and the game successfully sparks curiosity. "The Ma’had" Game proves effective, but further research is recommended to explore variations in player engagement and compare results with expert test subjects, employing alternative quantitative testing methods for a comprehensive analysis.

Unlocking the potential of play: A TF-IDF analysis of ‘MapleStory’ as a serious game for cognitive enhancement in seniors

This research explores the potential of adapting ‘MapleStory’, developed by South Korea’s Wizet, into a serious game for the elderly, considering the demographics’ growing numbers and technological advancements in healthcare. The study highlights an increased demand for digital content tailored to seniors, particularly following the rise in smartphone usage among this group since 2016 [17]. Although serious games are recognized for enhancing health and cognitive abilities, there is a notable gap in research on converting existing games for elderly users. Employing Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, specifically TF-IDF, the research analyzes community text data to extract keywords that suggest cognitive benefits, in alignment with the ‘Guidelines for Serious Games Design’[16]. The methodology involves collecting and filtering text data to pinpoint keywords related to essential cognitive functions like memory and reaction speed. The findings indicate that ‘MapleStory’ holds substantial potential as a cognitive enhancement tool for seniors, with 52% of the results affirming its effectiveness in improving cognition. This supports its utility in enhancing memory and reflexes, suggesting a viable direction for game development focused on promoting healthy aging and meeting the unique needs of the elderly demographic.

Design Game Design "Introduction of National Hero Figures For Children”

This research aims to design an attention-grabbing and educational design game about National Hero Figures, Hero Figures including in history lessons where now history is a compulsory subject that needs to be studied by all children. By studying history, it is hoped that students can know history and appreciate the services of previous heroes and draw subjects from the values contained in it. Through history, values and social skills can be developed for students in the form of democratic values, nationalism, patriotism, responsibility, independence and the importance of education for the progress of a nation. On the other hand, games for children are able to accelerate the occurrence of myelination which can improve cognitive and motor skills and can provoke interest in learning. Researchers designed educational games accompanied by interesting audio, animation and graphics to increase interest and help children learn to get to know national heroes. This design game was designed using Luther Sutopo's multimedia method. The luther sutopo multimedia method consists of several stages, namely concept, design, material collecting, assembly, testing, and distribution. The results obtained in the assessment through a questionnaire that has been tested at Mis Azrina, Jalan Marelan Raya No. 287 B, Rengas Pulau, Kec. in learning to get to know national hero figures that have been proven in the results of the pre-test and post-test.

Cyberscape: Designing an Escape Room Game with a Computer Network Security Theme to Encourage Understanding of Network Security Concepts Interactively

Network security is a crucial aspect in the IT world, especially the increasing activity of crecker in carrying out attacks without responsibility. cyberscape is an educational game that will be designed to provide a fundamental understanding of the importance of overcoming crecker attacks on the network. The method used in designing this game is the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) approach. In the analysis stage, needs collection and determination of learning objectives are carried out. The design stage includes storyboarding and game design. Characters and other visual elements are designed using pixil art techniques to provide a unique and attractive appearance. The development stage involves creating game content, initial testing, and code implementation using Unity Game Engine integrated with C# programming language. The implementation stage includes the deployment of the game to users. The results showed that "Cyberscape" was effective in improving players' understanding of basic network security concepts. Users reported a significant increase in their knowledge of how to identify and overcome cracker attacks after playing the game. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations showed a high level of satisfaction among users, as well as an increased awareness of the importance of network security. With this approach, it is hoped that "Cyberscape" can be an effective tool in network security education and help reduce vulnerability to cracker attacks.