The term ‘immersion’ is used frequently by professional video game developers (in both the entertainment and serious/applied industries), academics, journalists, and players. However, this word can refer to a range of different modes of engagement for players and standardisation would improve discussion of the topic. This paper suggests and explains four categories: 1. 'Systems immersion' can be used to describe when players are deeply engaged with the mechanics, challenges, and rules of a game, and is similar to a state of ‘flow’. 2. 'Spatial immersion' is the sense of a player being present in, or transported to, the virtual world, and is linked to the concept of embodiment. 3. 'Empathic/social immersion' describes the connection that a player may develop towards the characters (AI or human) and the social context of a game.4. 'Narrative/sequential immersion' can be used to describe a player’s compulsion to see how a sequence of events continues, typically in a narrative, but this is related to any progression, such as exploring new spaces or evolving gameplay mechanics.
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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.
Video game designers iteratively improve player experience by play testing game software and adjusting its design. Deciding how to improve gameplay is difficult and time-consuming because designers lack an effective means for exploring decision alternatives and modifying a game’s mechanics. We aim to improve designer productivity and game quality by providing tools that speed-up the game design process. In particular, we wish to learn how patterns en- coding common game design knowledge can help to improve design tools. Micro-Machinations (MM) is a language and software library that enables game designers to modify a game’s mechanics at run-time. We propose a pattern-based approach for leveraging high-level design knowledge and facilitating the game design process with a game design assistant. We present the Mechanics Pattern Language (MPL) for encoding common MM structures and design intent, and a Mechanics Design Assistant (MeDeA) for analyzing, explaining and understanding existing mechanics, and generating, filtering, exploring and applying design alternatives for modifying mechanics. We implement MPL and MeDeA using the meta-programming language Rascal, and evaluate them by modifying the mechanics of a prototype of Johnny Jetstream, a 2D shooter developed at IC3D Media.
