Game Mechanics is aimed at game design students and industry professionals who want to improve their understanding of how to design, build, and test the mechanics of a game. Game Mechanics will show you how to design, test, and tune the core mechanics of a game—any game, from a huge role-playing game to a casual mobile phone game to a board game. Along the way, we’ll use many examples from real games that you may know: Pac-Man, Monopoly, Civilization, StarCraft II, and others. The authors provide two features. One is a tool called Machinations that can be used to visualize and simulate game mechanics on your own computer, without writing any code or using a spreadsheet. The other is a design pattern library, including the deep structures of game economies that generate challenge and many kinds of feedback loops.
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Given the considerable heterogeneity in students skills within Physica Education (PE) classes, there is a constant need for differential instruction and modification of games. In this chapter we present the game-based approach and curriculum model Game Insight (GI) and propose the 'game slope' concept. By embedding this concept in the didactical components of the GI curriculum model the PE teacher can design and teach meaningful game activities, in wich players' differing abilities and needs are met.
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Sustainability has become an important blueprint to achieve a better future for all, and as part of this process, nations are called to accelerate an energy transition towards clean energy solutions. However, an often-neglected pillar is educating individuals on the benefits and challenges of energy efficiency and renewable energy, especially among young people. Their support and willingness to use clean energies will be a significant driver in short, medium and long term. However, reality shows that attention from youth on these issues has not been sufficient yet. Formal education settings become therefore a key place to educate youth in the energy transition. In search of innovative approaches, game-based learning is gaining popularity among scholars and practitioners; it can contribute to content development of complex issues by integrating insights from different disciplines in an interactive, fun and engaging manner.In this context, we would like to present “the We-Energy Game” as an innovative educational strategy which makes use of game-based learning to create understanding on the challenges in the provision of affordable energy from renewable sources for an entire town. During the game, players negotiate, from their respective roles, which energy source they want to employ and on which location, with the goal to make a village or city energy neutral. The game has been played by students in higher education institutions in The Netherlands.In addition to introducing the game, a study is presented on the effects of the game on students´ awareness on the energy transition, self-efficacy -the feeling that they can contribute to a sustainable energy transition in their towns by themselves- and collective efficacy -the feeling that they can contribute to a sustainable energy transition in their towns together with their community-. For that purpose, we conducted a survey with 100 bachelor (Dutch and international) students aged between 18 and 30 years old, at Hanze University of Applied Sciences, before and after playing the game. We also conducted a group discussion with a smaller group of students to understand their opinion about the game. From the survey, results reveal an increase in awareness about the energy transition, as well as (slightly higher) collective efficacy compared to self-efficacy. From the group discussion, findings reveal that the game makes students reflect on the complexity of the process and need for collaboration among different stakeholders. It also shows how educational games have still a long way to go to achieve the high levels of engagement of commercial games, despite the fact that students still preferred to have this type of interactive practice rather than a traditional class characterized by a unidirectional transmission of information. Different implications must be taken into account for educators when interested in implementing game-based learning in class, including immediate feedback, appropriate length of gameplay during class, and time for a reflection and critical thinking after playing the game.
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Design and development practitioners such as those in game development often have difficulty comprehending and adhering to the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), especially when designing in a private sensitive way. Inadequate understanding of how to apply the GDPR in the game development process can lead to one of two consequences: 1. inadvertently violating the GDPR with sizeable fines as potential penalties; or 2. avoiding the use of user data entirely. In this paper, we present our work on designing and evaluating the “GDPR Pitstop tool”, a gamified questionnaire developed to empower game developers and designers to increase legal awareness of GDPR laws in a relatable and accessible manner. The GDPR Pitstop tool was developed with a user-centered approach and in close contact with stakeholders, including practitioners from game development, legal experts and communication and design experts. Three design choices worked for this target group: 1. Careful crafting of the language of the questions; 2. a flexible structure; and 3. a playful design. By combining these three elements into the GDPR Pitstop tool, GDPR awareness within the gaming industry can be improved upon and game developers and designers can be empowered to use user data in a GDPR compliant manner. Additionally, this approach can be scaled to confront other tricky issues faced by design professionals such as privacy by design.
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Binnen dit onderzoek is gekeken of het mogelijk is het creatieve denkproces van een hoogbegaafde leerling inzichtelijk te maken voor de leerkracht door middel van het spelen van een digitale game
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Game User Research is an emerging field that ties together Human Computer Interaction, Game Development, and Experimental Psychology, specifically investigating the interaction between players and games. The community of Game User Research has been rapidly evolving for the past few years, extending and modifying existing methodologies used by the HCI community to the environment of digital games. In this workshop, we plan to investigate the different methodologies currently in practice within the field as well as their utilities and drawbacks in measuring game design issues or gaining insight about the players' experience. The outcome of the workshop will be a collection of lessons from the trenches and commonly used techniques published in a public online forum. This will extend the discussion of topics beyond the workshop, and serve as a platform for future work. The workshop will be the first of its kind at CHI, tying together HCI research and Game User Research.
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Collaboratively editing game worlds and the underlying asset version management techniques present us with many challenges when using a traditional Version Control System (VCS). This paper suggests a new method that will aid in the tracking, branching, and selection of asset versions within a game development pipeline. A prototype has been developed which demonstrated im-provements in both productivity and usability providing greater visibility of incremental asset changes and alterations to their relationships which equated to approximately a 30% better user experience when compared to an existing industry VCS.
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Professional playground werpt een blik in de keuken van verschillende spelers in de game-industrie. Verschillende professionals uit deze industrie zijn aan het woord, waardoor een beeld ontstaat van het krachtenveld waar zij mee te maken hebben. Welke kennis van theorieën, concepten, procedures en processen zijn er nodig om het werk in de dagelijkse praktijk goed te kunnen doen?
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A panel discussing the current outcomes of R&D related to the state of video game development, content, and policy in Europe, with a particular interest in how this compares with treatment of 'traditional' cultural mediums.
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This paper addresses the procedural generation of levels for collaborative puzzle-platform games. To address this issue, we distinguish types of multiplayer interaction, focusing on two-player collaboration, and identify relevant game mechanics for a puzzle-platform game, addressing player movement, interaction with moving game objects, and physical interaction involving both players. These are further formalized as game design patterns. To test the feasibility of the approach, a level generator has been implemented based on a rule-based approach, using the existing tool called Ludoscope and a prototype game developed in the Unity game engine. The level generation procedure results in over 3.7 million possible playable level variations that can be generated automatically. Each of these levels encourages or even requires both players to engage in collaborative gameplay.
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