Art and Design Commons^™

What An Interesting Video To Put On The Internet (An Amusing Economic Indicator), Dahlia S. Bloomstone

Theses and Dissertations

My exhibition reconciles representations of domesticity, labor, and morality through the lens of sex-work (SW). It consists of video work, a video game, and free-to-take objects, where donation, the strip club, and the fish tank converge. My work concludes that SW is a timeless construct that will always exist even after reimagining multiple worlds.

Sam's Story, Anna Michelle Reid, Jennifer Vazquez

Computer Science and Software Engineering

We are exploring presenting mental health topics in video games through the eyes of an axolotl named Sam. Sam goes about his day to day life facing many difficult challenges regarding their mental health. This is an educational game to inform about different mental health symptoms and what they may look like.

The Death Of Malls: The Rise Of E-Commerce And Digitally Native Brands, Alexis Montgomery

Theses

Since the mid-2000s, malls and retail brick and mortar stores have been on the decline. Stores not making enough revenue in-person; the rise of online shopping and e-commerce, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rise of digitally native brands have contributed to this. This research aims to figure out how the current consumer atmosphere, as well as how the rise of e-commerce and digital marketing, will impact the mall of the future. This research aims to discover how local malls are faring, if stores are truly closing and if national retail brands are pulling out of malls. This research also aims …

En’S Adventure: Exploring Modern Design Mechanics In Retro Adventure Games, Frank Fasola

Theses

This project focuses creating a small game prototype that can be used to build a full game around. The primary focus is to create a short experience to establish the mechanics and gameplay of the game. Games made in the style of retro games are released every year, but most of these games strive to provide the same experience from the late 1980s. The project is a top down 2D retro adventure game made using modern techniques and learning from game development in the 30 years since these games were released.

The Foreboding Campaign System, Michael Fetters

Theses

This project creates a new campaign setting compatible with the Dungeons and Dragons system utilizing the SRD Open Game License content as a starting point. The campaign setting created establishes mechanics allowing for narrative interaction between the past and present timeline of events in the world of Lunaria. This new system, entitled The Foreboding, utilizes a shift mechanic to alter the player characters in several possible ways, ranging from changes in race or character history to interactions with past time periods and events that alter the present timeline of the narrative. New character options for race and class were also …

Virtual Reality And Video Game Gatekeeping, Autumn Franke

Theses

This thesis focuses on the effects of the video game industry being the only influence on the development of virtual reality technology and the hindrance caused by it. The aim of this thesis is to discuss this flaw and recommend a different route to develop the technology through the education and medical fields instead of the video game industry.

Transforming Character Faces Based On Perceived Personality Traits, Kara Porter

All Theses

The ability to read other human's faces is a crucial part of everyday life. Subconsciously, the human brain analyzes someone's face within the first few seconds of seeing it, making a variety of conclusions ~\cite{FacePerp} such as gathering information about emotional state and assuming character traits this person might possess. The purpose of this thesis is to create a tool that allows a user to alter features of a character's three dimensional (3D) face mesh to look increasingly or decreasingly like the character possesses certain personality traits. Using a sample set of randomly generated faces, a survey is conducted to …

Choice-Based Games And Resilience Building Of Gender Non-Conforming Individuals: An Exploratory Study, Yuri M. Cantrell

Masters Theses

Research on gaming and user experience of the general population has been abundant, but gender non-conforming (GNC) individuals’ experiences had been largely overlooked until recent years. Using a phenomenological approach, the goal of this study is to find deeper understanding of this phenomenon by exploring what gaming experiences shape the identity of the participants. The exploration of gaming and gender non-conforming experiences through interviews can fill a gap in the current literature on gaming culture regarding this specific population. By taking a closer look at this topic, patterns and themes within games may provide insight to potential resilience building activities …

Internet Art: An Interactive Timeline Resource, Laurel Vaccaro

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Link to Interactive Timeline Resource (ITR): https://sites.google.com/view/itr-internet-art/home

The purpose of this study was to first collect and summarize the history of internet art from its inception to current day and, second, to create an interactive timeline resource (ITR) designed for K-12 art application. Current approaches to internet art include recommendations that students engage with social media in the K-12 setting, yet gaps in the literature have neglected to address the actual history of internet art as a feature of a student’s K-12 art experiences. Initial research started from a preliminary hypothesis that highlighted the irony of students using the internet …

Hexgen Roguevania, Conrad Garcia

Theses

This project is inspired by procedural generation methods, Metroid, Castlevania, Rogue, and modern roguelikes. This project is structured around the notion of how procedural game content can be experienced when it is tied directly to player progression. The focus of this project incorporates procedurally generated content so that it can be altered during gameplay. In a sense, this idea brings level content to the player, instead of the player travelling to new zones. The resulting game world starts visually coherent, changing into a world that resembles a patchwork of different biomes crafted by the player’s decisions to progress the game’s …

Raid Elite, Wenda Li

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

This game inspiration are the real-time strategy game and raid in MMORPG. In this game, you need to get familiar with and operate five different characters. There are two bosses you can choose to fight. This game use Unity 2020.3.18f2c2 as game engine. All art is hand drawn. The design goal is making a game with certain depth which requires some effort to win. The design challenge for myself is design some interesting boss fights and accomplish a complete game which has good visual feedback.

The Machine Upstairs, Jacob Friedfeld

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

Immersive simulation design, broadly speaking, is a game design philosophy centered around player expression, emergent gameplay, and dynamic narrative. Contrary to what the phrase may imply simply by reading it, immersion in and of itself is not necessarily enough for a game to be classified as an “immersive sim” (or IMSIM for short). Many different types of games can utilize immersion to great effect, but immersive simulations require a level of flexibility and rule/system-based approaches beyond the scope of games that occupy similar genres.

The Machine Upstairs represents an exploration of the immersive simulation philosophy and an investigation into its …

Determining American Sign Language Joint Trajectory Similarity Using Dynamic Time Warping (Dtw), Rohith Mandavilli

Computer Science Senior Theses

As American Sign Language (ASL), the language used by Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HH) Americans has grown in popularity in recent years, an unprecedented number of schools and organizations now offer ASL classes. Many hold misconceptions about ASL, assuming it is easily learned; however due to its rich, complex grammatical construction, it’s not mastered easily beyond a basic level. Therefore, it becomes ever more important to improve upon existing techniques to teach ASL. The Dartmouth Applied Learning Initiative (DALI) at Dartmouth college in coordination with the Robotics and Reality Lab developed an application on the Oculus Quest that helps D/HH individuals …

Entities: A Field Of Imaginary Games, Thrasyvoulos Ioannis Kalaitzidis

LSU Master's Theses

With this body of work, I am looking for visual symbols that help communicate unuttered meanings through storytelling and stimulate an affectual response to the viewer. This exploration is presented in two different forms: a surreal sculptural installation and a board game. The installation consists of large-scale sculptures made from light and soft materials (polyurethane foam, plastic waste, paper) that are available to move inside the gallery, while the board game is presented as a set of 3D prints with instructions on how the participants can play it. The materials used in the installation suggest a way to transform waste …

Female Portrayal In Games Through Costumes: Designing And Creating Appealing Armor For Female Players, Nancey Fang

All Theses

This thesis details the design, development, and creation of variations of more functional female armor designed for games with the female audience in mind.

The goal is to empower female players by designing and creating strong armor that is not sexualized and that women can enjoy. I want to show that women can be portrayed as strong and powerful in games by designing armor that is equivalent to their male counterparts. Due to the gender imbalance in the video game industry and player base, it seems that female players are not catered to when most games are created. Many studies …

For The Kingdom, Jack Conway

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

For The Kingdom is a tabletop board game that I have developed for my thesis. In my thesis, I would like to cover three areas that have been crucial to the development of the game- the guidebook created to support and facilitate the board game, the changes made due to player feedback and testing, and the potential paths to getting the game to the market. Before Talking about those three areas, however, I will first describe the games genre and a bit about my approach to developing it.

Developing A Prototype Of A Playfulness Toolkit, Hanneke Hovels

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Playfulness is the ability to reframe situations, seeing new possibilities. A playful mind-set increases our mental flexibility, resilience, empathy, and our overall well-being. Unfortunately, growing up most of us lose part of our playfulness. How can we facilitate adults to live a (more) playful life? To ignite playfulness in adults’ lives, we first have to raise awareness for the benefits of playfulness, and then help people to develop a playful mind-set and integrate playfulness into their lives. In this project I combine my knowledge of creativity and playfulness with my experience in service and behavior design. I developed a prototype …

It's All Fun And—: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Space In The Pandemic., Erica Von Proctor Lewis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exhibition and document explore spatial rhetoric during the pandemic, utilizing materiality and relational aesthetics to reflect on the different ways in which the public and private are made distinct from one another. In doing so, Lewis addresses new cultural navigations of shared spaces, both digital and corporeal, public and private. In addition, the artist also examines the faulty social and institutional systems that the pandemic brought to light, such as socioeconomic dynamics and voter suppression, while utilizing Kenneth Burke’s concept of the terministic screen. Games are a central theme throughout the exhibition, as they are often coded as “home” …

Fractured Sky: A Procedurally-Generated Tactical Role-Playing Game, Booker Martin

Honors Thesis

Relevant Links:

Game Website: https://fracturedsky.ml

Project Repository: https://github.com/Booker-M/Capstone

Project Description:

Fractured Sky is a tactical role-playing game with a story that hinges on the balance between making moral decisions and pursuing power. This game will be one of the first of its kind to feature fully procedurally-generated levels in which every component of the level can be interacted with by the player.

Each level will be procedurally-generated and, thus, entirely unique and never experienced before by any player. Because each tile and object is placed through procedural-generation, it can act as its own entity independently of the surrounding tiles. As …

Toys Are For Adults, John Wippler

Theses

This paper explores the concept of toys, what they are and for whom they are made. The paper also provides a brief history of designer toys and pop culture, and how pop culture helped fuel the designer toy industry. The psychology of collecting is also referenced, and a direct correlation is made between the act of collecting toys and toy popularity.

The book I wrote is also mentioned and is a vital part of the purpose for the thesis. The book is an introductory guide to resin toymaking and is integral to the expansion of the designer toy community.

Story And Play: Applying Narrative Game Scholarship To Game Design, Rodale Wenger

University Honors Theses

This paper examines the relationship of narrative to computer games from a design perspective. Over the past three decades, the academic discourse on narratives games has evolved considerably while producing a wealth of serious scholarship. However, the process of narrative game design continues to be an underdeveloped area of study. In this thesis, I review influential scholarship on narrative games and the broader topic of interactive digital narrative (IDN) and attempt to analyze its potential application to the process of design. I examine some of the major works on IDN, explore historical and ongoing debates related to narrativity within games, …

Lucid, Gabriela Garcia

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

The PC video game, Lucid, promotes self-reflection and emotional exploration by balancing interactive dream journals with a meditative platform puzzle. Players switch between reflecting on their dreams through dream journals and following the main character’s story as they realize they are in a dream. To finish the platforming portion, the player travels up and around the mountain by completing short puzzles. This is done to deliver the last living flower from the garden to the castle at the top of the mountain.

By building personal dream journals into the game, Lucid highlights how games can be used as tools for …

A Date With Cheemis: Bullying In The Virtual Space, Nicholas Roger Nolasco

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

A Date With Cheemis is an alternative game mode for the social platform VRChat designed in the Unity real-time 3D development platform. The project is an experience where the player meets many non-playable characters (NPCs) and makes decisions based on different scenarios. The game tells the story of a VRChat user named Cheemis who is bullied for the avatar they use and how they interact with other characters. The player must make choices of how to react to the way the NPCs treat Cheemis, whether that be defending him or being a bystander. This experience is only available through the …

Indie Developers And The Queer Content Renaissance In Video Games, 2013-2017, Shane Michael Hansaruk Mr.

Major Papers

Queer content in video games has existed since the 1970s, but as time and technology have progressed, so too have the potential for queer content in video games. During the mid-2010’s, a sudden increase in the number of games with queer content began, lasting between the years 2013 and 2017. This research project examines this period in great detail to determine the cause of this drastic increase. Through examining queer games literature, two queer games databases, and two select titles from this period, I determine that independent, or “indie” developers, have a substantial impact on the increase of queer games …

Metamosque – Envisioning The Mosque As A Virtual Public Space, Alaa Albarazy

Theses and Dissertations

Historically, the mosque was not only a space for a communal prayer but also a place for building a community. Today, however, with conflicts and diseases fragmenting society, people are less able to gather physically in large spaces. Out of necessity, people rely on technology to get together and interact virtually. In this context, my research challenges the notion of the mosque as a physical space, proposing, instead, its extension into virtual space. Recent global events pose the question: Can the metaverse offer an opportunity for the mosque to reassert itself as a public space. I propose that a MetaMosque …