Game Design Commons^™

World Of Golf: A Socially Relevant Simulation Game, Ramin Tadayon, Winslow Burleson, Ashish Amresh

Ashish Amresh

Adventures In The Classroom Creating Role-Playing Games Based On Traditional Stories For The High School Curriculum, Csenge Virág Zalka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to develop a template for turning traditional stories into role-playing games for the high school curriculum. By developing 3 sample games based on Greek mythology, Arthurian legends, and a widespread folktale type, I explored the process of creating games that fit the limits of secondary classrooms and can be used to address specific educational standards. The sample games were tested with groups of high school and college students, and the results of the testing sessions evaluated in a narrative case study format. Feedback from the testing sessions was incorporated in the template, the final …

Positive Media: An Introductory Exploration, Meghan B. Keener

Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Capstone Projects

Media has become an increasingly large part of our lives, and therefore plays a crucial role in our well-being. Positive psychology, the science of well-being, can be complemented through the new potentialities of media, which in many ways also seeks to improve the human experience. I create the context for a new dialogue about what "positive media" might be. By adopting a positive lens and discussing exemplars in different formats, this paper explores the ways media effectively incorporates elements of well-being. Through this positive approach, we gain an appreciation for what media does well. The paper also recommends ways that …

Women And Video Games: Pigeonholing The Past, Allison Perry

Scripps Senior Theses

Academic work dealing with the overlap between video games and female representation is limited in both volume and proper research. Most texts agree on three supposed flaws with video games: they alienate female participants, there are no games for female players, and female players cannot relate to female characters. This thesis sheds light on these points, not only citing specific counter-examples, but also showing how many of these issues reflect on a larger societal problems.

Minecraft As Web 2.0: Amateur Creativity In Digital Games, Greg Lastowka

Greg Lastowka

This book chapter considers how the digital game Minecraft has both enabled and benefited from various Web 2.0 practices. I begin with an explanation of the concept of Web 2.0 and then consider how that concept applies to the space of digital games.

"We Should Have Brought The Tank": Hypermediated Interactivity In Red Vs. Blue, Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

Machinima, the practice of adapting recorded video game play into short films, highlights an often unacknowledged but significant shift in the consumption of video games and represents a key and underexplored intersection between the two leading theoretical camps. Considering the landmark series Red vs. Blue through the lens of Bolter and Grusin's propositions about "new" media's relationships with other forms offers an entry point for theorizing not only machinima but also the intersections between the ludology and narratology positions in games studies.

Accurate Player Modeling And Cheat-Proof Gameplay In Peer-To-Peer Based Multiplayer Online Games, Daniel Everett Pittman Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We present the first detailed measurement study and models of the virtual populations in popular Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). Our results show that, amongst several MMORPGs with very different play styles, the patterns of behaviors are consistent and can be described using a common set of models.

In addition, we break down actions common to Trading Card Games (TCGs) and explain how they can be executed between players without the need for a third party referee. In each action, the player is either prevented from cheating, or if they do cheat, the opponent will be able to prove …

Systems At Play: The Construction Of International Systems In Social Impact Games, Jorge Albor

Master's Theses

This thesis explores how game makers conceive of and navigate the intersection between digital systems and real world systems by asking, how can social impact game designers shape procedural rhetoric to effectively address complex real world systems with digital systems? By examining three game case studies, I reach four significant findings regarding player agency, subversive play, design approaches to scale, and game difficulty in regards to systems fluency.

Texture Mapping With Mudbox And 3ds Max, Joshua Holland

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to determine the intuitiveness of texture mapping and compressibility of files generated using Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 versus Autodesk Mudbox 2012. This will be used by anyone starting to learn how to texture map and who is comparing programs that have the capability to do so. This will save users time in researching which program is better suited for their needs.

This study investigated how Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 and Autodesk Mudbox 2012 compared in mapping textures to 3D models. A basic computer skills assessment test and an intuitive test was administered to twelve …

Socially Relevant Simulation Games: A Design Study, Ramin Tadayon, Ashish Amresh, Winslow Burleson

Ashish Amresh

Engaging Game Design Students Using Peer Evaluation, Amber Settle, Charles Wilcox, Chad Settle

Amber Settle

Computational Thinking In A Game Design Course, Amber Settle

Amber Settle

Possible Symbolics 33, Stephen Andrade

Computer Graphics Department Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Professor Steve Andrade is continuously experimenting in a wide range of visual arts and technology. He is an avid researcher in the areas of interactive technology, gaming, modern visual metaphor, archeology, fine arts, Western geology and the sociology of technology space.

When he is not teaching or conducting projects at the University, Professor Andrade can be found traveling or working in his studio (pictured here). His artwork includes digital imaging, graphic art posters, virtual space planning, information graphics, 2d and 3d sculpture, representational sketching, realism, video and his current passion - abstract modern painting with a hint of allegory. He …

Evolution Of Flow In Games, Paul J. Tunison

Honors Theses

Every one wants to play a fun game, but ”fun” is a subjective quality. Flow, a psychological theory to define what ”fun” is, states that, for an activity to be considered fun, the chal-lenge it presents must correlate with that participant’s abilities such that the activity is neither too easy or too difficult. One of the biggest problems for game designers is balancing the difficulty of its content in such a way that it appeals to the largest audience possible. In order to broaden audiences, de-velopers need to invest effort into creating numerous, discrete balances that are aligned to varying …

Redefining Classical Music Literacy: A Study Of Classical Orchestras, Museum Anthropology, And Game Design Theory, Kimberly M. Zahler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current state of declining audiences for the performing arts in the United States is cause for concern for those musicians and ensembles interested in the continuation of the art forms. The previous model of using audience numbers as the sole or primary measure of an orchestra's success is no longer sufficient in an era of participatory design and interactive experiences. Through observation and analysis of the culture of classical music, this study focuses on the emerging visions of participatory culture and the ways in which museum anthropology and game design theory can be used to redefine classical music literacy …

Maerken: A Multiplayer Role Playing Game, Chanh Ho

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project is to develop a base implementation of Maerken using the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a game framework that supports development of 3D games. We describe the game development process that was used to develop Maerken using UDK. The process includes game design, game implementation, and game distribution.

Computational Style Processing, Foaad Khosmood

Foaad Khosmood

Our main thesis is that computational processing of natural language styles can be accomplished using corpus analysis methods and language transformation rules. We demonstrate this first by statistically modeling natural language styles, and second by developing tools that carry out style processing, and finally by running experiments using the tools and evaluating the results. Specifically, we present a model for style in natural languages, and demonstrate style processing in three ways: Our system analyzes styles in quantifiable terms according to our model (analysis), associates documents based on stylistic similarity to known corpora (classification) and manipulates texts to match a desired …

Teaching Design And Communication Through Project-Based Service Learning: Past, Present And Future, Ulrike Gencarelle, Laura Gabiger

Computer Graphics Department Faculty Publications and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

A Location Aware P2p Voice Communication Protocol For Networked Virtual Environments, Gabor Papp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Multiparty voice communication, where multiple people can communicate in a group, is an important component of networked virtual environments (NVEs), especially in many types of online games. While most research has been conducted on one-to-one communication, we focus on group communication. In this dissertation, we present the first measurement study on the characteristics of multiparty voice communications and develop a model of the talking and silence periods observed during multiparty communication. Over a total of 5 months, we measured over 11,000 sessions on an active multi-party voice communication server to quantify the characteristics of communication generated by game players, including …