research-article

Game design principles for engaging cooperative play: core mechanics and interfaces for non-mimetic simulation of fire emergency response

Authors:

Phoebe O. Toups Dugas,

William HamiltonAuthors Info & Claims

Sandbox '09: Proceedings of the 2009 ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Video Games

Pages 71 - 78

https://doi.org/10.1145/1581073.1581085

Published: 04 August 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Core mechanics are the activities that players repeat to play a game, the central aspects of play constrained by rules. Interfaces mediate play experiences, impacting engagement with core mechanics. We design core mechanics for gathering, integrating, and sharing information, based on team coordination practices of fire emergency responders. We connect these mechanics with interfaces that impact player engagement. Mechanics and interfaces combine into a non-mimetic simulation game, which eschews fire and smoke, in favor of re-creating information flows and team structures.

We describe the iteration of mechanics and interface components as shaped by practice, pilot games, participatory redesign sessions, and long-term user studies. The result is integrated core mechanics that we develop from work practice and interface components that support engagement with them. From this data, we construct game design principles for engaging cooperative play: information distribution, modulating visibility, providing the right information in the right time, making predictable, and understandable representations for shared mental models.

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Cited By

Soetedjo RBachtiar F(2022)Kansei Engineering Evaluation on Game Design Using Customer ReviewsProceedings of the 7th International Conference on Sustainable Information Engineering and Technology10.1145/3568231.3568289(338-343)Online publication date: 22-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3568231.3568289
Tan ERogers KNacke LDrachen AWade A(2022)Communication Sequences Indicate Team Cohesion: A Mixed-Methods Study of Ad Hoc League of Legends TeamsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35494886:CHI PLAY(1-27)Online publication date: 31-Oct-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3549488
Oksanen KLainema THämäläinen R(2018)Learning from Social CollaborationGamification in Education10.4018/978-1-5225-5198-0.ch027(500-524)Online publication date: 2018
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5198-0.ch027
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Index Terms

Game design principles for engaging cooperative play: core mechanics and interfaces for non-mimetic simulation of fire emergency response
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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cover image ACM Conferences

Sandbox '09: Proceedings of the 2009 ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Video Games

August 2009

173 pages

ISBN:9781605585147

DOI:10.1145/1581073

Editor:
Stephen N. Spencer
University of Washington
,
Program Chairs:
Drew Davidson
Carnegie Mellon University
,
Tracy Fullerton
University of Southern California
,
Karen Schrier
Columbia University

Copyright © 2009 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 ACM 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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SIGGRAPH: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 04 August 2009

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Division of Information and Intelligent Systems

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SIGGRAPH09

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SIGGRAPH

SIGGRAPH09: Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques Conference

August 4 - 6, 2009

Louisiana, New Orleans

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Cited By

Soetedjo RBachtiar F(2022)Kansei Engineering Evaluation on Game Design Using Customer ReviewsProceedings of the 7th International Conference on Sustainable Information Engineering and Technology10.1145/3568231.3568289(338-343)Online publication date: 22-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3568231.3568289
Tan ERogers KNacke LDrachen AWade A(2022)Communication Sequences Indicate Team Cohesion: A Mixed-Methods Study of Ad Hoc League of Legends TeamsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35494886:CHI PLAY(1-27)Online publication date: 31-Oct-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3549488
Oksanen KLainema THämäläinen R(2018)Learning from Social CollaborationGamification in Education10.4018/978-1-5225-5198-0.ch027(500-524)Online publication date: 2018
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5198-0.ch027
Hämäläinen RNiilo-Rämä MLainema TOksanen K(2018)How to Raise Different Game Collaboration ActivitiesSimulation and Gaming10.1177/104687811775247049:1(50-71)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1177/1046878117752470
Wuertz JAlharthi SHamilton WBateman SGutwin CTang AToups Dugas PHammer JMandryk RHancock MPerry MCox A(2018)A Design Framework for Awareness Cues in Distributed Multiplayer GamesProceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3173574.3173817(1-14)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3173574.3173817
Oksanen KLainema THämäläinen R(2017)Learning from Social CollaborationHandbook of Research on Serious Games for Educational Applications10.4018/978-1-5225-0513-6.ch003(41-65)Online publication date: 2017
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-0513-6.ch003
Toups Dugas PHamilton WAlharthi SCox AToups Dugas PMandryk RCairns P(2016)Playing at PlanningProceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/2967934.2968089(362-375)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2967934.2968089
Alsaedi OToups Dugas PCook J(2016)Can a team coordination game help student software project teams?Proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering10.1145/2897586.2897594(33-39)Online publication date: 14-May-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2897586.2897594
Nasir MLyons KLeung RBailie AWhitmarsh F(2015)The effect of a collaborative game on group workProceedings of the 25th Annual International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering10.5555/2886444.2886464(130-139)Online publication date: 2-Nov-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2886444.2886464
Oksanen KHämäläinen R(2014)Game Mechanics in the Design of a Collaborative 3D Serious GameSimulation & Gaming10.1177/104687811453079945:2(255-278)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2014
https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878114530799
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