The Sightlence Game: Designing a Haptic Computer Game Interface


Nordvall Mathias
2014 DiGRA '13 - Proceedings of the 2013 DiGRA International Conference: DeFragging Game Studies

The haptic modality is currently underutilized and poorly understood as a design material in game design. There are few computer games to draw on for inspiration during design explorations. This design case study explores how to use the haptic modality as a design material for computer game interfaces that requires neither graphics nor audio. The idea behind the case study is that a better understanding of haptic computer game interfaces can increase interface innovation and accessibility by giving game designers a third modality to work with together with graphics and audio. The design problem was approached through design explorations, development of an interface translation method, iterative game development of a haptic translation of Pong, and playtests with 34 people comprised of game design students and professors, adults with and without deafblindness, and children with deafblindness and congenital cognitive disabilities. The results show that computer games can be designed with haptic interfaces that only require standard gamepad¬s rather than expensive or custom-made hardware. This also holds for computer games with time-critical features and complex interfaces with concurrent haptic signals.

 

Playability and Player Experience Research [Panel Abstracts]


Nacke Lennart E. Drachen Anders Kuikkaniemi Kai Niesenhaus Joerg Korhonen Hannu Hoogen Wouter M. van den Poels Karolien IJsselsteijn Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

As the game industry matures and games become more and more complex, there is an increasing need to develop scientific methodologies for analyzing and measuring player experience, in order to develop a better understanding of the relationship and interactions between players and games. This panel gathers distinguished European playability and user experience experts to discuss current findings and methodological advancements within player experience and playability research.

 

Developing a hybrid of MMORPG and LARP using usability methods: the case of Takkar


Christensen Laust Juul Jørgensen Thomas Tae-Yang Jørgensen Anker Helms
2003 DiGRA '03 - Proceedings of the 2003 DiGRA International Conference: Level Up

This paper examines the idea of combining Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) and MMORPG into a hybrid game named Takkar. We developed three versions of Takkar in an iterative fashion. In each iteration we constructed and tested game play and features using principles and ideas drawn from game development theory and usability/Participatory Design such as user interviews and expert reviews. Between iterations we made use of LARP-theory and theories of virtual environments to further develop the concept. Considerations of embodiment, concurrency in actions and rich communication emerge as central factors for the successful transfer between the two parts of the hybrid. Usability methods proved effective during game development giving a better and faster understanding of the needs of the players.

 

Understanding the Contribution of Biometrics to Games User Research


Mirza-babaei Pejman Long Sebastian Foley Emma
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

Utilising biometric data has become an increasingly active area in the video games user research community, and a number of academic papers have been published introducing various biometric based analysis techniques in video games research. This paper aims to quantify the value of biometric methods as an addition to traditional observation-based user research methodologies, and their respective contributions to the production of formative feedback during the development of video games. Our results show that observation-based techniques can expose the majority of issues relating to usability, however the biometrics-based approach enabled researchers to discover latent issues in related to players’ feelings, immersion and gameplay experience and, in certain categories of issue, reveal up to 63% more issues than observation alone.