Game Design Commons^™

Remaking The Red Death: An Interactive Fiction Post-Mortem, Kenton T. Howard

ELO (un)supervised 2026

This individual talk provides a post-mortem discussion of an interactive fiction game the author created, ReMasque of the Red Death, for the Electronic Literature Collection Volume 5. The game is a web-based interactive fiction recreation of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story “The Masque of the Red Death” built using ink and Inky, an interactive fiction scripting engine, with 2D art assets created in Sketchpad, a mobile-based digital drawing app. The game was produced entirely without the usage of AI tools. This talk will cover the initial ideation for the game, creating a basic prototype of the game’s core systems, …

Cooperation, Collaboration, And Community In Horror And Suspense Games, Rachel Kerr, Monica Evans, Cameron Irby, Cheri Tang

ELO (un)supervised 2026

Cooperation has been a staple in video and analog games since their inception. From couch co-op to social deduction games, there are few games that cannot be enjoyed cooperatively in some way. Even games that are not inherently cooperative can be played collaboratively, from single-player games enjoyed by multiple people in the same room to PvP games where players opt for teamwork despite explicitly competitive mechanics. In horror and suspense games, cooperation tends to form strong communicative bonds between players. The four papers in this panel examine how communities form in and around horror and suspense games, and how those …

Making The Writer’S Project, Alex Calderwood

ELO (un)supervised 2026

The Writer’s Project is a series of playful text editors which intervene in the act of writing in unexpected, challenging, and unusual ways. Some of the editors are conceptual experiments in user interface design: What if the editor asked you if you were sure before committing to each word? What if the delete key was not functional? Others editors are provocations that take aim at the conditions and AI-mediated writing, built to create a tension between writerly agency and system resistance. These involve placing writers into different configurations with text streams, for instance by turning prior writings into a Tetris-like …

Pint-Sized Advisories, Bowman Eggleston, Autumn Carey

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Pint-Sized Advisories is a game inspired by Nintendo's WarioWare series made for the ODU Serious Games Jam of Spring 2025, where it won 2nd place out of 11 entries overall, winning first in the "Fun Factor" category, while tying for first in "Rhetoric" and "Theme". The game covers themes of environmental friendliness on an individual level: within the story, an organization is making "micro-PSAs" to hold the attention spans of teenagers. The player is required to complete each PSA (some task) before the viewer swipes away. These PSAs start short and only get shorter as the game progresses, requiring the …

Hampton Roads' Building Resilient Communities Flood Game, Gul Ayaz, Katherine Smith, Rafael Diaz, Joshua G. Behr

Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Student Capstone Conference

As rising sea levels and subsequent recurrent flooding disproportionately affects coastal areas, it is crucial to develop a heightened awareness of the impacts of natural disasters on communities and the environments they live in. The Hampton Roads’ Building Resilient Communities (BRC) Flood Game is a simulation role-playing game designed to allow players to increase their understanding of the impact of various community response interventions to sea level rise and recurrent flooding. Players will examine and assess the tradeoffs of resiliency investments, the impact policies may have on the population, and the amount of time return on investment takes. The BRC …

Digital Game-Based Approach To Math Learning For Students, Gul Ayaz, Katherine Smith

Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Student Capstone Conference

Mathematics is an important subject that is pervasive across many disciplines. It is also a subject that has proven to be challenging to both teach and learn. Students face many challenges with learning math such as a lack of motivation and anxiety. To address these challenges, game-based learning has become a popular approach to stimulate students and create a more positive classroom environment. It can serve as an alternative or supplement to traditional teaching and can better engage students while developing a positive attitude toward learning. The use of games in a classroom can create a more exciting and engaging …

Maria: A Game Concept On The Perception Of The Filipino Voting Youth Towards Women In Politics, Mehriell Ellice S. Ang

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

Over the years, the Philippines prides itself on being one of the most gender-equal countries in the world. Despite this, female participation within the realm of politics remain below the critical mass of representation—often attributed to androcentric biases and the patriarchal structure of society. In this modern age, with the proliferation of feminist ideologies as well as the rise of publicly misogynistic sentiments, the general stance of the young Gen Zs towards women’s participation in politics remains a mystery, as many of them continue to become part of the eligible voter population of the country. This paper then aims to …

Everescape: A Meta-Ethical Analysis Of The Player’S Morality Through Immersive Gameplay, Alexis Mavis S. Ferrer, Denise Keara L. Limkakeng, Belle Elizabeth S. Tan

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

For the longest time, the concept of heroes and villains has been treated as opposites. Despite this, many actions taken by both are usually of equal morality, especially in video games, as they exist as two sides of one coin. This study attempts to find the application of game design that influences a player's perspective toward protagonists and antagonists. It also aims to find the extent to which a player can disconnect from normative morality within the world of a video game and how it may affect their perceptions of morality. Finally, it aims to find how the avatar absolves …

Zenosyne: A Game Design Concept Assimilating Dispassion In Young Artists Through The Use Of Storytelling And Game Design Principles, Edelaiza Julienne M. Aggabao

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

As young artists reach the milestone of choosing the career path, they assess their passions to decide if they will continue art professionally. Extrinsic factors like lack of income or parental disapproval attribute to the dispassion among students. This study aims to compact discussions of young artists’ dispassion into a story-driven video game. As gaming trends increase throughout the years with role playing games tackling heavy issues, presenting the findings in this study through the use of game development effectively explores the perspective of dispassionate artists. For artists, passion is the focal point of their end product. Cognitive dissonance theory …

My Eyes Are Up Here!: Defining The Female Gaze Through A Comparative Analysis Of Films Throughout The Decades, Anka A. Delos Reyes

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

The male gaze is a trend that has been observed in film for decades, and the oversaturation of inaccurate portrayals of women can be harmful as these portrayals affect women’s self-perception and regress the efforts of feminst movements. Given this, the study aims to define, characterize and illustrate an alternative to the male gaze through My Eyes are up Here! A digital zine that reimagines films adopting the female gaze, rather than its objectifying counterpart. To collect data for the study, visual content analysis of films from different genres and decades was conducted following a set of codes, and the …

Falproject, Mohsen Hazrati

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

"A fāl or Bibliomancy is good or bad, the profit or the loss whose occurrence is predicted by hearing a word or a voice, seeing the movement or the expression, opening or reading a book, or observing a specific motif or image." Mohammad Vojdani

FAL Project is a VR-AR Prediction Machine based on an Old Iranian Bibliomancy tradition.

This project is about generating a virtual environment of a prediction using unlimited online data based on the Persian Mysticism and tradition into a VR artwork. As there are so many people who get matched results based on their niyats(Intent of prediction) …

Why Are We Like This?: Exploring Writing Mechanics For An Ai-Augmented Storytelling Game, Max Kreminski, Melanie Dickinson, Michael Mateas, Noah Wardrip-Fruin

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Why Are We Like This? (WAWLT) is a playful, co-creative, AI-augmented, improvisational storytelling game in which one or more players explore and influence an ongoing simulation which they then glean for narrative material. It uses the recently developed simulation technology of story sifting (the recognition of microstories in a chronicle of simulation events), via the Felt library, to afford a new kind of playful, social, and creative writing experience. In this paper, we discuss our primary design goals: (1) using computation and interaction design to support casual player creativity, and (2) foregrounding character subjectivity as a driver for …

The Borders Between Linear Narrative And Interactive Forms, Eric S. Miller

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

This paper traces the boundaries between linear narrative forms and interactive forms. The paper starts with a glossary of relevant terms and then attempts to untangle issues that tie these forms together and separate them. It attempts to answer questions such as:

1. Where are there major overlaps between these forms?

2. What are the specific affordances of interactive forms?

3. What are the specific affordances of linear forms?

The paper draws from multiple sources, such as Computers as Theatre by Brenda Laurel, Narrative as Virtual Reality by Marie-Laure Ryan and Half-Real by Jesper Juul. Agency is the core attribute of interaction, though …

Designing For Truth In Counterfactual Games, Mark Sample

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

This paper brings together two distinct and seemingly irreconcilable threads: first, the place of interactive narratives and games within the broader context of documentary media; and second, the value of counterfactual narrative as a documentary form. I will weave these two threads using my own counterfactual documentary game as the guide. Currently under development in Twine, the game is rooted in archival research about the past yet is about a version of the past that didn’t happen. The game asks the following counterfactual question: what if gene editing technology like CRISPR had been invented in the 1920s and 1930s, the …

Simply Mo., Marjolijn Jaliene Oskam

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

Small portfolio presentation of design work by Marjolijn Oskam, branded under simply mo. The poster includes school work as well as professional work.

3d Procedural Maze & Cave Generation, Jacob Sharp

Student Scholar Showcase

The goal of this project is to generate a maze or cave procedurally so that a player may be able to explore infinitely without a reoccurring pattern. The project also utilizes Virtual Reality (VR); the user will be able to put on a VR Headset and become more immersed in a procedural environment. One of the challenges that needed to be overcome was simple random number generators did not generate natural looking worlds. Introducing VR to the project created the additional challenge of preventing the user from becoming motion sick. These challenges were both addressed through many hours of research …

Death Arena Game, Ryan Deasy, Nick Snan, Albert Anderson, David Cole, Shahzada Aqib Gill

Student Scholar Showcase

Death Arena is a 3D first-person action shooter with a horror twist. The player has 30 seconds to collect guns and health before a monster spawns. The map will be large with indoor and outdoor play. In each round a more powerful boss spawns with minions. Our goal is to appeal to horror and action fans alike.

Applications Of Modular Synthesis In Music & Sound Design For Video Games, Wyatt Gay, Shelby Pease, Logan Starks, Travis Wattigney

Undergraduate Research Conference

Project Objective: Score one minute of gameplay footage and produce fifteen sound effects for a video game solely utilizing the virtual modular synthesizer Reaktor Blocks.

Ready, Set, Play! Disrupting Our Preconceptions Of Classroom Learning Through Innovative Teaching Practices., Heather Shaw

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

What is play in the context of an undergraduate classroom? For our purposes, play is an attitude and an approach to making work. Both inside and outside of the classroom, there are many ways in which play can serve as a base for serious problem-solving.

As educators, we choose to create a learning environment that provides enjoyment to the people who conduct activities within it. Play does not need to be frivolous — it encourages curiosity, constructive and critical discourse, and provides a safe environment to fail. Framing work within the context of “play” allows students to go beyond their …

A New Variant Of Baccarat For Vip Players, Stewart N. Ethier, Jiyeon Lee

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

In 2013 baccarat generated over US$41 billion in revenue for the 35 casinos of Macau, of which nearly US$30 billion was attributed to VIP players (high-stakes gamblers). Although the VIP market segment has declined over the past two years, it is still substantial. In this talk we propose a new variant of baccarat that will appeal to and attract VIP players. Its appeal lies in the facts that (a) it has a historical connection to baccarat and (b) it is closer to a fair game than is baccarat.

"Duchamping In Game Making": An Analysis Of Pippin Barr's Parodic Computer Games, Devin A. Wilson

Modern Languages and Literatures Annual Graduate Conference

Devin Wilson analyzes some of Pippin Barr's subversive videogames, examining the methods by which they parody game design conventions.