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"It Started as a Joke": On the Design of Idle Games

Authors:

Sultan A. Alharthi,

Andrew Jian-lan Cen,

Jessica Hammer,

Lennart E. Nacke,

Phoebe O. Toups Dugas,

Theresa Jean TanenbaumAuthors Info & Claims

CHI PLAY '19: Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

Pages 495 - 508

https://doi.org/10.1145/3311350.3347180

Published: 17 October 2019 Publication History

Abstract

With idle games, active withdrawal from the game comprises an essential part of gameplay as players wait for the game state to change over time. This mode of interaction is paradigmatic for the change of roles technologies have in our lives. However, the design elements of idle games are less well understood, particularly from the perspectives of developers. We interviewed six designers of six different popular idle games and inquired into their individual approaches. Via thematic analysis, we refine and expand on existing definitions of idle games as a genre, shed light on ethically charged practices of care in their design, and identify shared core characteristics between the games and processes. We then generate intermediate-level knowledge on the design of idle games. Our work contributes designers' perspectives on idle games and their design to a growing body of literature on the genre.

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Cited By

Sturdee M(2025)A Step Toward Formalising Visual Data Analysis Practices in Human Computer InteractionInteracting with Computers10.1093/iwc/iwae063Online publication date: 15-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwae063
Buergi J(2024)Idle Games: A Cozy Genre Turned ExploitativeReplay. The Polish Journal of Game Studies10.18778/2391-8551.12.0212:1(73-86)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.18778/2391-8551.12.02
Yin MXiao R(2024)How We See Changes How We Feel: Investigating the Effect of Visual Point-of-View on Decision-Making in VR EnvironmentsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869338:CSCW2(1-27)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3686933
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Index Terms

"It Started as a Joke": On the Design of Idle Games
1. Applied computing
  1. Computers in other domains
    1. Personal computers and PC applications
      1. Computer games
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI design and evaluation methods
  2. Interaction design
    1. Empirical studies in interaction design
    2. Interaction design theory, concepts and paradigms

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI PLAY '19: Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

October 2019

680 pages

ISBN:9781450366885

DOI:10.1145/3311350

General Chairs:
Joan Arnedo
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
,
Lennart E. Nacke
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Vero Vanden Abeele
KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
,
Phoebe O. Toups Dugas
New Mexico State University, New Mexico, USA

Copyright © 2019 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Published: 17 October 2019

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CHI PLAY '19 Paper Acceptance Rate 51 of 181 submissions, 28%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 421 of 1,386 submissions, 30%

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwae063
Buergi J(2024)Idle Games: A Cozy Genre Turned ExploitativeReplay. The Polish Journal of Game Studies10.18778/2391-8551.12.0212:1(73-86)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.18778/2391-8551.12.02
Yin MXiao R(2024)How We See Changes How We Feel: Investigating the Effect of Visual Point-of-View on Decision-Making in VR EnvironmentsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869338:CSCW2(1-27)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3686933
Hwang DMelcer E(2024)Exploring Engagement in Idle Game Design2024 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG)10.1109/CoG60054.2024.10645671(1-8)Online publication date: 5-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/CoG60054.2024.10645671
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Anyango JSuleman H(2022)Designing Programming Games for Diversity in Teaching Introductory ProgrammingICT Education10.1007/978-3-030-92858-2_2(19-36)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2022
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