ABSTRACT
Psychophysiological measurements have so far been used to express player experience quantitatively in game genres such as shooter games and race games. However, these methods have not yet been applied to casual video games. From a development point of view, games developed in the casual sector of the games industry are characterized by very short production cycles which make them ill-suited for complex and lengthy psychophysiological testing regimes.
This paper discusses some methodological innovations that lead to the application of psychophysiological measurements to enhance the design of a commercially released casual game for the Apple iPad, called 'Gua-Le-Ni'; or, The Horrendous Parade'. The game was tested in different stages of its development to dry-run a cycle of design improvements derived from psychophysiological data. The tests looked at the correlation between stress levels and the contraction of facial muscles with in-game performance in order to establish whether 'Gua-Le-Ni' offered the cognitive challenge, the learning curve, and the enjoyment the designers had in mind for this product. In this paper, we discuss the changes that were made to the game and the data-analysis that led to these changes.
- Boyes, E. Are casual games the future? GameSpot, GDC '08, Feb 18, 2008. Accessed May 3, 2008.Google Scholar
- Cacioppo, J. T., Tassinary, L. G., & Berntson, G. G. Handbook of psychophysiology, New York: Cambridge University Press (1990).Google Scholar
- Dawson, N. E., Schell, A., and Filion, D. The Electrodermal System. In J. T. Cacioppo, L. G. Tassinary & G. G. Berntson (Eds.), Handbook of Psychophysiology, New York: Cambridge University Press (2007), 159--181.Google Scholar
- Double Jungle SaS, Gua-Le-Ni; or, The Horrendous Parade. iPad (2011).Google Scholar
- Drachen, A., Nacke, L., Yannakakis, G., and Pedersen, A. L. Psychophysiological Correlations with Gameplay Experience Dimensions (2010). http://arxiv.org/abs/1004.0243Google Scholar
- Frijda, N. H. The laws of emotion. American Psychologist, 4 (1988), 349--358.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Gualeni, S. Gua-Le-Ni; or, The Horrendous Parade. Game Design Document v. 6.1, (March, 2012).Google Scholar
- Juul, J. A Casual Revolution. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press (2009).Google Scholar
- Kivikangas, J. M. et al. Review on psychophysiological methods in game research. Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research, Aalto University, (2010).Google Scholar
- IJsselsteijn, W. A., de Kort, Y. A. W. & Poels, K. (in preparation). The Game Experience Questionnaire: Development of a self-report measure to assess the psychological impact of digital games. Manuscript in preparation. http://www.citeulike.org/user/mjparnell/article/4934050Google Scholar
- Mandryk, R., Inkpen, K., Calvert, T. Using Psychophysiological Techniques to Measure User Experience with Entertainment Technologies, Behaviour and Information Technology (Special Issue on User Experience, vol. 25 no. 2 (2006), 141--158. <doi:10.1080/01449290500331156>Google Scholar
- Mandryk, R. L. and Atkins, M. S. A fuzzy physiological approach for continuously modeling emotion. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 65 (2007), 329--347. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Nacke, L. E. Affective Ludology: Scientific Measurement of User Experience in Interactive Entertainment. Ph.D. Thesis. Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden, 2009. Available online at http://phd.acagamic.comGoogle Scholar
- Nacke, L. E., Drachen, A., Kuikkaniemi, K., Niesenhaus, J., Korhonen, H. J., Hoogen, W. M. v. d., Poels, K., IJsselsteijn, W. A. and Kort, Y. A. W. d. Playability and Player Experience Research. In Proceedings of DiGRA 2009: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory (London, UK). Di-GRA, 2009.Google Scholar
- Nacke, L. E., Grimshaw, M. N., Lindley, C. A. More than a feeling: Measurement of sonic user experience and psychophysiology in a first-person shooter game. Interacting with Computers, 22 (2010), 336--343. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Panee, C. D. and Ballard, M. E. High Versus Low Aggressive Priming During Video Game Training: Effects on Violent Action During Game Play, Hostility, Heart Rate, and Blood Pressure. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 32, 12 (2002), 2458--2474.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Ravaja, N. Contributions of Psychophysiology to Media Research: Review and recommendations. Media Psychology 6 (2004), 193--235.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Ravaja, N., Saari, T. M., Salminen, M., Laarni, J., Kallinen, K. Phasic emotional reactions to video game events. A psychophysiological investigation. Media Psychology, 8, (2006), 343--367.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Rowe, D. W., Sibert, J., and Irwin, D. Heart rate variability: indicator of user state as an aid to human-computer interaction. Proceedings CHI'98, ACM Press. (1998), 480--487. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Segal, K. R. and Dietz, W. H. Physiologic responses to playing a video game. American Journal of Diseases of Children (1960) 145, 9 (1991), 1034--1036.Google Scholar
- van Reekum, C. M., Johnstone, T., Banse, R., Etter, A., Wehrle, T., and Scherer, K. R. Psychophysiological responses to appraisal dimensions in a computer game. Cognition & Emotion 18, 5 (2004), 663--663.Google ScholarCross Ref
Index Terms
- How psychophysiology can aid the design process of casual games: a tale of stress, facial muscles, and paper beasts
Recommendations
Casual games discussion
Future Play '07: Proceedings of the 2007 conference on Future PlayDigital games have become a remarkable cultural phenomenon in the last ten years. The casual games sector especially has been growing rapidly in the last few years. However, there is no clear view on what is "casual" in games cultures and the area has ...
Biometric design for casual games: a case study on measuring facial responses in casual games
ACE '11: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment TechnologyThe paper discusses the results of a case study on the effect of players' facial responses when playing a casual game. In order to do so, it measures the facial responses in casual games by recording facial EMG and analyzing players' facial expressions ...
Hardcore casual: game culture Return(s) to Ravenhearst
FDG '09: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Foundations of Digital GamesScholarly attention to game culture has mostly focused on games that cater to gamers that the literature has deemed 'hardcore,' 'heavy' or at least 'mainstream,' games. Researchers doing so have explored how those who put in large amounts of time ...
Comments