UserCentred Design in Games

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User-Centred Design in Games

• Penny Sweetser and Penny Drennan
• School of ITEE,
• University of Queensland

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User-Centred Design in Games

• Many games are designed / tested based on
  designer intuition
• Missed opportunities to improve the game
• Aspects that frustrate / confuse the player
• Serious problems with interactions
• Conducting studies with game players to find out
  how games can be better designed to enhance their
  experience

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User-Centred Design in Games

• Methodology
• Focus groups
• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Naturalistic / Ethnographic
• Two projects
• Game Environments
• Non-Player Characters

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Overview

• Game Environments
• Focus Group
• Questionnaire
• Design of Game Environment
• Non-Player Characters
• Questionnaire
• Focus Group / Questionnaire
• Observational Studies

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Game Environments

• Interactions often limited to pre-scripted
  sequences / actions
• Players inconsistent, unintuitive, difficulties
  in learning, limited expression
• Developers each event / object hand-crafted,
  finding / fixing bugs, engine difficult to extend
  / scales poorly
• Find problems and ways to improve

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Game Environments Focus Group

• Four experienced game players
• Rated self as experienced, plays daily, played
  for min 5 years
• 3 male, 1 female 21-25 years
• Some guiding questions
• Discussed experiences and opinions of interacting
  in games

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Game Environment Focus Group

• Consistency objects that look the same act the
  same, objects that behave differently look
  different
• Immersion audio is important (sound effects,
  soundtrack), good introduction, strong narrative
• Interaction and Gameplay variety and
  new/unique interactions, passive scenery, must
  add to game in some way

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Game Environments Focus Group

• Player Expression playing the way they want,
  not the way the designer intended, linearity
• Intuitive using objects in the way they expect,
  problem solving, need to get help
• Physics consistent, gravity, momentum, fire,
  explosions, water

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Game Environments - Questionnaire

• Questions taken from focus group
• How does affect your enjoyment?
• Which aspects of the game environment affect the
  enjoyment of people who play different types of
  games?
• Which aspects affect the enjoyment of people with
  different levels of game playing experience?

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Game Environments - Questionnaire

• Online questionnaire
• 455 participants
• 421 male
• 34 female

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Game Environment Questionnaire

• Physics
• gravity, momentum, water, fire, graphics
• Player Expression Objects
• variety, new/unique ways to use objects
• Player Expression Gameplay
• different ways / own way to solve problems

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Game Environments - Questionnaire

• Intuitive Gameplay
• being able to perform a task, reasonable time
• Intuitive Objects
• using game objects in the way they expect,
  passive scenery
• Immersion Sound
• soundtrack, sound effects
• Immersion Narrative
• introduction, storyline

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Game Environments - Questionnaire

• Rated items on Likert scale (1-9)
• More experienced players rated four factors
  significantly higher than less experienced
  players
• Physics (ß.100, t2.142, p.033)
• Expression (objects) (ß.126, t3.691, p.000)
• Immersion (sound) (ß.146, t2.704, p.007)
• Immersion (narrative) (ß.171, t3.138, p.002)

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Game Environments - Questionnaire

• Sound effects/soundtrack increased the enjoyment
  of FPS players more than RPG players
• F(2,388)2.886, p.057
• Using objects in intuitive ways increased the
  enjoyment of FPS players more than RPG players
• F(2,387)3.920, p.021

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Game Environment - Design

• User-centred studies will inform the design of a
  game physics system
• Aim a physics system that allows intuitive,
  consistent, emergent gameplay
• Simple global rules, interact to give emergent
  behaviour, cellular automata
• Sweetser, P. Wiles, J. (in press) Designing
  Games for Intuitive, Emergent Gameplay. To be
  published in Journal of Game Development,
  Hingham, MA Charles River Media, Inc.

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Non-Player Characters

• Aim to enhance the gaming experience by
  improving interactions with NPCs
• How can we improve NPCs?
• Usually researcher assumptions or developer
  intuition
• Conduct studies with game players to find out
  what aspects make characters more engaging,
  enjoyable and satisfying

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NPCs Questionnaire

• Questionnaire (Sweetser et al, 2003)
• Which aspects of human behaviour are most
  desirable in other players in computer games?

Sweetser, P., Johnson, D., Sweetser, J. Wiles,
J. (2003) Creating Engaging Artificial Characters
for Games. Presented at International Conference
on Entertainment Computing, Pittsburgh, PA, 8-10
May, 2003.
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NPCs Questionnaire

• Intelligent behaviour
• Four items related to ability to create
  strategies, be challenging, improve and adapt
• Social interaction
• Three items related to being fun to interact
  with, being entertaining and social atmosphere
• Realistic behaviour
• Three items related to self-preservation
• Communication
• Three items related to making and executing plans
  together, communicating in natural and shared
  language

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NPCs Questionnaire

• Rated preference for human or computer players
  (1human,7computer)
• Reasons for preferring humans
• intelligent behaviour, social interaction
• more challenging you can gloat
• Reasons for preferring computers
• convenience, individual games, confidence
• computer opponents are always available

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NPCs Questionnaire

• Rated questions related to realistic,
  intelligent, social, communication
• Preference for human players associated with
  higher levels of realistic behaviour, intelligent
  behaviour and social interaction
• Split in community prefer humans / computers
  for different reasons

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Overview

• Game Environments
• Focus Group
• Questionnaire
• Design of Game Environment
• Non-Player Characters
• Questionnaire
• Focus Group / Questionnaire
• Observational Studies

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NPCs Questionnaire

• Looking for general opinions on NPCs
• Asked experienced players to rate general
  qualities of NPCs
• Tactical Intelligence
• Emotional Intelligence
• Reacting and Sensing Abilities
• Open-ended questions
• What do you think of tactical intelligence in
  general?
• Examples of NPCs that have good/bad tactical
  intelligence
• Reason why the NPC has good/bad tactical
  intelligence

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NPCs Initial Results

• Balance
• You dont want the NPC to always beat you (or
  kill all the enemy and leave you none, if the NPC
  is a teammate). Balance is needed an enemy to
  put up a good fight, a teammate to back you up
• Sensory Honesty
• games in which NPCs are omnipotent and can see
  through walls arent fun
• Emotional Realism
• the opponent takes a morale check and if it
  fails, runs away. This makes the opponent appear
  afraid or panicky which is what you would expect

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Future Work on NPCs

• Looking for most engaging characteristics of NPCs
• Online Focus Group
• Large survey, approx. 300 participants
• Observations of players interacting with NPCs
• Online or in a LAN game
• Participant not physically observed, only through
  game interaction

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Conclusion

• Why user-centred design?
• What are the methods?
• What are the applications?
• What is the benefit for developers?