- 3175 Bowers Ave,
Santa Clara, CA
95054
Edward Melcer
University of California, Santa Cruz, Computational Media, Faculty Member
Failure is a central aspect of almost every game experience, driving player perceptions of difficulty and impacting core game user experience concepts such as flow. At the heart of failure in many game genres is player death. While... more
Failure is a central aspect of almost every game experience, driving player perceptions of difficulty and impacting core game user experience concepts such as flow. At the heart of failure in many game genres is player death. While techniques such as dynamic difficulty adjustment have addressed tweaking game parameters to control the frequency of player death occurrence, there is a surprisingly limited amount of research examining how games handle what happens when a player actually dies. We posit that this is a rich, underexplored space with significant implications for player experience and related techniques. This chapter presents our exploration into the space of player death and rebirth through the creation of a generalized taxonomy of death in platformer games—one of the genres that features player death and respawning most heavily. In order to create this taxonomy, we collected and catalogued examples of death and respawning mechanics from 62 recent platformer games released on the digital distribution platform Steam after January 2018. Games selected varied equally across positive, mixed, and negative overall reviews in order to provide a broader range of mechanics, both good and bad. We observed gameplays of each individual game and noted the processes of death and rebirth, respectively. A grounded theory approach was then employed to develop the taxonomy of game death and respawning, resulting in five notable dimensions: (1) obstacles, (2) death conditions, (3) aesthetics, (4) changes to player progress, and (5) respawn locations. Finally, we discuss how the different dimensions and mechanics highlighted in our taxonomy have implications for key aspects of player experience, as well as how they could be used to improve the effectiveness of related techniques such as dynamic difficulty adjustment.
Research Interests:
3D printers are becoming increasingly accessible to the average consumer, however their potential utility within games has yet to be fully explored. Integrating 3D printer fabrication technology within game design presents a novel means... more
3D printers are becoming increasingly accessible to the average consumer, however their potential utility within games has yet to be fully explored. Integrating 3D printer fabrication technology within game design presents a novel means for engaging players and providing them with tangible representations of gameplay elements. This in turn could be employed to increase embodied gameplay and even embodied learning for the player. In this paper, we present a novel "fabrication game" designed to teach basic evolutionary concepts. In the game, players take turns physically assembling components 3D printed in real-time to iteratively evolve their creatures and observe the impact of their evolutionary choices on a digital population simulation. We discuss the potential of this game's unique design in leveraging real-time fabrication of tangibles to enhance a player's understanding of principles of evolution and natural selection.
Research Interests:
Concepts utilizing applied ethics, such as responsible conduct of research (RCR), can prove difficult to teach due to the complexity of problems faced by researchers and the many underlying perspectives involved in such dilemmas. To... more
Concepts utilizing applied ethics, such as responsible conduct of research (RCR), can prove difficult to teach due to the complexity of problems faced by researchers and the many underlying perspectives involved in such dilemmas. To address this issue, we created Academical, a choice-based interactive storytelling game for RCR education that enables players to experience a story from multiple perspectives. In this paper, we describe the design rationale of Academical, and present results from an initial study comparing it with traditional web-based educational materials from an existing university RCR course. The results highlight that utilizing a choice-based interactive story game is more effective for RCR education, with learners developing significantly higher engagement, stronger overall moral reasoning skills, and better knowledge scores for certain RCR topics.
Research Interests:
Interactive narratives are widely used to frame and contextualize education in games. However, the specifics of how their designs aid the learning process and outcomes remains relatively unexplored. To better understand this space, a... more
Interactive narratives are widely used to frame and contextualize education in games. However, the specifics of how their designs aid the learning process and outcomes remains relatively unexplored. To better understand this space, a study was conducted that focused on one sub-genre of interactive narrative, Visual Novels. Specifically, in this paper we conducted a survey of thirty-one existing educational Visual Novels, analyzing design elements that fostered learning and delivered educational content. The resulting taxonomy consists of five key dimensions for educational design and teaching strategies within Visual Novels: 1) Teaching Through Choice, 2) Teaching Through Scripted Sequences, 3) Teaching Through Mini-games, 4) Teaching Through Exploration and 5) Non-interactive Teaching. These dimensions demonstrate that there are a number of design considerations for supporting learning through Visual Novels. This work has implications for designers of educational games by classifying the different designs a Visual Novel can employ to teach-ultimately informing how to better present educational subject matter in interactive narrative games.
Research Interests:
Failure, often represented through death, is a central aspect of almost every video game. In-game death can drive player perceptions of difficulty and greatly impact the core player experience; however, there is surprisingly limited... more
Failure, often represented through death, is a central aspect of almost every video game. In-game death can drive player perceptions of difficulty and greatly impact the core player experience; however, there is surprisingly limited amounts of research examining how games actually handle this occurrence. We posit that this is a rich, underexplored space with significant implications for player experience and the design of many games. This paper presents our initial exploration into the space of player death and rebirth through the creation of a generalized taxonomy developed from 62 recent platformer games. Our taxonomy consists of five key dimensions: 1) obstacles, 2) death conditions, 3) aesthetics, 4) changes to player progress, and 5) respawn locations.
Research Interests:
Concepts utilizing applied ethics, such as responsible conduct of research (RCR), can prove difficult to teach due to the complexity of problems faced by researchers and the many underlying perspectives involved in such dilemmas. To... more
Concepts utilizing applied ethics, such as responsible conduct of research (RCR), can prove difficult to teach due to the complexity of problems faced by researchers and the many underlying perspectives involved in such dilemmas. To address this issue, we created Academical, a choice-based interactive storytelling game for RCR education that enables players to experience a story from multiple perspectives. In this paper, we describe the design rationale of Academical, and present results from an initial pilot study comparing it with traditional web-based educational materials from an existing RCR course. The preliminary results highlight that utilizing a choice-based interactive story game may prove more effective for RCR education, with significantly higher engagement and comparable or better scores for tests of RCR topics.
Research Interests:
We propose a new approach to the human-centered evaluation of AI-based games, grounded in the analysis of player retellings of their play experiences. Retellings offer unique insight into dimensions of player experience that can be hard... more
We propose a new approach to the human-centered evaluation of AI-based games, grounded in the analysis of player retellings of their play experiences. Retellings offer unique insight into dimensions of player experience that can be hard to get at through existing evaluation methods, such as the typical narrative structures that tend to emerge in the player's mind when they play a particular game; the variety of subjectively experienced narratives that are possible and probable within a particular game; and the ways in which a game supports, or fails to support, the player's process of narra-tivization. We used a grounded theory methodology to analyze retellings of play experiences in Civilization VI, Stel-laris, and two distinct versions of the research game Prom Week. We also interviewed the creators of several retellings to gain insight into the subjective experience of story construction in collaboration with these games.
Research Interests:
Music and rhythm are powerful tools that can be employed to enhance learning and memory. While games are commonly utilized to aid in second language acquisition, few have explored the implications of sound on learner's ability to draw and... more
Music and rhythm are powerful tools that can be employed to enhance learning and memory. While games are commonly utilized to aid in second language acquisition, few have explored the implications of sound on learner's ability to draw and remember logographic characters (such as those in Chinese hanzi, Japanese kanji and Korean hanja). We created Radical Tunes, a kanji drawing music game, to explore the impacts of incorporating music on players' ability to retain meaning and stoke order of several kanji. In this paper, we describe the design rationale for Radical Tunes, and present results from a pilot study comparing a music focused version of the game with one that uses non-musical sound effects. Results show that while both conditions improved players' short-term ability to remember/draw kanji, there were no significant differences in improvement between the conditions. However, the use of music did improve immersion-an important factor related to learning. This work has implications for designers of second language acquisition games, and how they can incorporate rhythm and music into their games to increase player engagement.
Research Interests:
Embodied cognition is growing in theoretical importance and as a driving set of design principles for curriculum activities and technology innovations for mathematics education. The central aim of the EMIC (Embodied Mathematical... more
Embodied cognition is growing in theoretical importance and as a driving set of design principles for curriculum activities and technology innovations for mathematics education. The central aim of the EMIC (Embodied Mathematical Imagination and Cognition) Working Group is to attract engaged and inspired colleagues into a growing community of discourse around theoretical, technological, and methodological developments for advancing the study of embodied cognition for mathematics education. A thriving, informed, and interconnected community of scholars organized around embodied mathematical cognition will broaden the range of activities, practices, and emerging technologies that count as mathematical. EMIC builds upon our prior working groups with a specific focus on how we can leverage emerging technologies to study embodied cognition and mathematics learning. In particular, we aim to develop new theories and extend existing frameworks and perspectives from which EMIC collaboration and activities can emerge.
Research Interests:
In this paper we propose that game design strategies and theories can be useful tools for supporting the design of innovative socio-technical systems aimed at supporting social co-presence. We support this proposal with an annotated... more
In this paper we propose that game design strategies and theories can be useful tools for supporting the design of innovative socio-technical systems aimed at supporting social co-presence. We support this proposal with an annotated portfolio of a series of research prototype games that investigate sensor affordances and configurations to sustain and enhance social co-presence. We introduce relevant theory from game studies (the magic circle; the MDA (mechanics/dynamics/aesthetics framework)) to help ground and guide the use of game design in HCI practice. We conclude with recommendations for adopting game design as a supplementary research technique, with caveats about the limits of the approach.
Research Interests:
CTRL-Labs has developed algorithms for determination of hand movements and forces and real-time control from neuromuscular signals. This technology enables users to create their own control schemes at run-time-dynamically mapping... more
CTRL-Labs has developed algorithms for determination of hand movements and forces and real-time control from neuromuscular signals. This technology enables users to create their own control schemes at run-time-dynamically mapping neuromuscular activity to continuous (real-valued) and discrete (categorical/integer-valued) machine-input signals. To demonstrate the potential of this approach to enable novel interactions, we have built three example applications. One displays an ongoing visualization of the current posture/rotation of the hand and each finger as determined from neuromuscular signals. The other two showcase dynamic mapping of neuromuscular signals to continuous and discrete input controls for a two-player competitive target acquisition game and a single-player space shooter game.
Research Interests:
While recent work has begun to evaluate the efficacy of educational programming games, many common design decisions in these games (e.g., single player gameplay using touchpad or mouse) have not been explored for learning outcomes. For... more
While recent work has begun to evaluate the efficacy of educational programming games, many common design decisions in these games (e.g., single player gameplay using touchpad or mouse) have not been explored for learning outcomes. For instance, alternative design approaches such as collaborative play and embodied interaction with tangibles may also provide important benefits to learners. To better understand how these design decisions impact learning and related factors, we created an educational programming game that allows for systematically varying input method and mode of play. In this paper, we describe design rationale for mouse and tangible versions of our game, and report a 2x2 factorial experiment comparing efficacy of mouse and tangible input methods with individual and collaborative modes of play. Results indicate tangibles have a greater positive impact on learning, situational interest, enjoyment, and programming self-beliefs. We also found collaborative play helps further reduce programming anxiety over individual play.
Research Interests:
While there are common design decisions in existing games for teaching Computer Science (single player puzzle based games for the touchpad/keyboard and mouse), recent work has suggested that alternative approaches such as collaborative... more
While there are common design decisions in existing games for teaching Computer Science (single player puzzle based games for the touchpad/keyboard and mouse), recent work has suggested that alternative approaches such as collaborative play and physically embodied designs may also provide important benefits to learners. In order to explore how making interactions with an educational programming game more physically embodied could impact collaborative play, we created an educational programming game called Bots & (Main)Frames. We then conducted a preliminary study to examine if the level designs achieved desired challenge and explore how two versions of the game with different forms of physical embodiment/input (e.g., mouse vs. tangible programming blocks) impacted player interactions underlying collaboration. We found that game levels seem to provide desired increasing challenge, and that players often used the mouse and tangible programming blocks to aid communication/collaboration in distinctly different ways.
Research Interests:
Computer Science (CS) and related skills such as programming and Computational Thinking (CT) have recently become topics of global interest, with a large number of programming games created to engage and educate players. However, there... more
Computer Science (CS) and related skills such as programming and Computational Thinking (CT) have recently become topics of global interest, with a large number of programming games created to engage and educate players. However, there has been relatively limited work to assess 1) the efficacy of such games with respect to critical educational factors such as enjoyment and programming self-beliefs; and 2) whether there are advantages to alternative, physically embodied design approaches (e.g., tangibles as input). To better explore the benefits of a tangible approach, we built and tested two versions of an educational programming game that were identical in design except for the form of interaction (tangible programming blocks vs. mouse input). After testing 34 participants, results showed that while both game versions were successful at improving programming self-beliefs, the tangible version corresponded to higher self-reports of player enjoyment. Overall, this paper presents a comparison between the efficacy of tangible and mouse design approaches for improving key learning factors in educational programming games.
Research Interests:
Due to a broad conceptual usage of the term embodiment across a diverse variety of research domains, existing embodied learning games and simulations utilize a large breadth of design approaches that often result in seemingly unrelated... more
Due to a broad conceptual usage of the term embodiment across a diverse variety of research domains, existing embodied learning games and simulations utilize a large breadth of design approaches that often result in seemingly unrelated systems. This becomes problematic when trying to critically evaluate the usage and effectiveness of embodiment within existing designs, as well as when trying to utilize embodiment in the design of new games and simulations. In this paper, we present our work on combining differing conceptual and design approaches for embodied learning systems into a unified design framework. We describe the creation process for the framework, explain its dimensions, and provide examples of its use. Our design framework will benefit educational game researchers by providing a unifying foundation for the description, categorization, and evaluation of designs for embodied learning games and simulations.
Research Interests:
Existing embodied learning games and simulations utilize a large breadth of design approaches that often result in the creation of seemingly unrelated systems. This becomes problematic when trying to critically evaluate the usage and... more
Existing embodied learning games and simulations utilize a large breadth of design approaches that often result in the creation of seemingly unrelated systems. This becomes problematic when trying to critically evaluate the usage and effectiveness of embodiment within embodied learning designs. In this paper, we present our work on combining differing conceptual and design approaches for embodied learning systems into a unified design framework. We describe the creation process for the framework, explain its dimensions, and provide two examples of its use. Our embodied learning games and simulations framework will benefit HCI researchers by providing a unifying foundation for the description, categorization, and evaluation of embodied learning systems and designs.
Research Interests:
In this paper we present an analysis of the academic landscape of games research from the last 15 years. We employed a data driven approach utilizing co-word and co-venue analysis on 48 core venues to identify 20 major research themes and... more
In this paper we present an analysis of the academic landscape of games research from the last 15 years. We employed a data driven approach utilizing co-word and co-venue analysis on 48 core venues to identify 20 major research themes and 7 distinct communities, with a total of 8,207 articles and 21,552 unique keywords being analyzed. Strategic diagrams and network maps are applied to visualize and further understand interrelationships and underlying trends within the field.
Research Interests:
In this paper, we present a study examining how individuals embody emotion within form. Our findings provide a general taxonomy of affective dimensions of shape consistent with and extending previous literature. We also show that ordinary... more
In this paper, we present a study examining how individuals embody emotion within form. Our findings provide a general taxonomy of affective dimensions of shape consistent with and extending previous literature. We also show that ordinary people can reasonably construct embodied shapes using affective dimensions, and illustrate that emotion is conveyed through both visual dimensions and tactile manipulations of shape. Participants used three distinct strategies for embodiment of emotion through shape: the look of a shape (visual representation), creation of a shape symbolizing the experience of an intended emotion (metaphor), and by evoking the intended emotion in the creator through affective movements and manipulations during construction (motion). This work ties together and extends understanding around emotion and form in HCI subdomains such as tangible embodied interaction, emotional assessment, and user experience evaluation.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
We build upon recent research designing a constructive, multi-touch emotional assessment tool and present preliminary qualitative results from a Wizard of Oz study simulating the tool with clay. Our results showed the importance of... more
We build upon recent research designing a constructive, multi-touch emotional assessment tool and present preliminary qualitative results from a Wizard of Oz study simulating the tool with clay. Our results showed the importance of emotionally contextualized spatial orientations, manipulations, and interactions of real world objects in the constructive process, and led to the identification of two new affective dimensions for the tool.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Games are a popular form of entertainment and, due to their nature (i.e., interactive, immersive, etc.), strongly lend themselves for use beyond this original intent. Serious games, or games with a purpose, have been introduced to... more
Games are a popular form of entertainment and, due to their nature (i.e., interactive, immersive, etc.), strongly lend themselves for use beyond this original intent. Serious games, or games with a purpose, have been introduced to integrate the entertainment value games with domain specific objectives on important topics within education, health, and the environment to mention a few. In addition, gamification has been used to enhance nonentertainment applications with game elements; it aspires to foster behavioral changes, engagement, motivation, and participation in activities. In this context, the actions performed have meaning/value in the game experience in order to improve workplace performance or learn something in real life. The growing adoption of gameful experiences in all of the previous contexts make their design and development increasingly complex due to, for example, the number and variety of users, and their potential mission criticality. This complexity is nurtured, among the other factors, by a lack of theoretical grounding and adequate frameworks to engineer the intended solutions. In this paper, we report the outcomes of the 6th International Workshop on Games and Software Engineering: Engineering fun, inspiration, and motivation (GAS 2023 ) 1, which was held as part of the 44th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2022) in Pittsburgh, PA, USA on May 20, 2022. The workshop program includes two exciting keynotes discussing topics related to training and learning, and fulfilling the promise and potential of gamification. The two paper sessions examined gamification from the perspectives of software project, testing, and, design. The conclusion of the workshop is anchored by a panel of four highly qualified researchers and practitioners discussing lessons learned and the future of gamification.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
BACKGROUND: To address the global need for accessible evidence-based tools for competency-based education, we developed ENTRUST, an innovative online virtual patient simulation platform to author and securely deploy case scenarios to... more
BACKGROUND: To address the global need for accessible evidence-based tools for competency-based education, we developed ENTRUST, an innovative online virtual patient simulation platform to author and securely deploy case scenarios to assess surgical decision-making competence. STUDY DESIGN: In partnership with the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa, ENTRUST was piloted during the Membership of the College of Surgeons (MCS) 2021 examination. Examinees (n = 110) completed the traditional 11-station oral objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs), followed by 3 ENTRUST cases, authored to query similar clinical content of 3 corresponding OSCE cases. ENTRUST scores were analyzed for associations with MCS Examination outcome using independent sample t tests. Correlation of ENTRUST scores to MCS Examination Percentage and OSCE station scores was calculated with Pearson correlations. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate predictors of performance. RESULTS: ENTRUST performance was significantly higher in examinees who passed the MCS examination compared with those who failed (p < 0.001). The ENTRUST score was positively correlated with MCS Examination Percentage (p < 0.001) and combined OSCE station scores (p < 0.001). On multivariate analysis, there was a strong association between MCS Examination Percentage and ENTRUST Grand Total Score (p < 0.001), Simulation Total Score (p = 0.018), and Question Total Score (p < 0.001). Age was a negative predictor for ENTRUST Grand Total and Simulation Total Score, but not for Question Total Score. Sex, native language status, and intended specialty were not associated with performance on ENTRUST. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates feasibility and initial validity evidence for the use of ENTRUST in a high-stakes examination context for assessment of surgical decision-making. ENTRUST holds potential as an accessible learning and assessment platform for surgical trainees worldwide.
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT We build upon recent research designing a constructive, multi-touch emotional assessment tool and present preliminary qualitative results from a Wizard of Oz study simulating the tool with clay. Our results showed the importance... more
ABSTRACT We build upon recent research designing a constructive, multi-touch emotional assessment tool and present preliminary qualitative results from a Wizard of Oz study simulating the tool with clay. Our results showed the importance of emotionally contextualized spatial orientations, manipulations, and interactions of real world objects in the constructive process, and led to the identification of two new affective dimensions for the tool.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Automated game design (AGD) research focuses on creating systems that can design entirely new games. This is often done by a genetic algorithm, with a fitness function that is used to find individual games that satisfy certain design... more
Automated game design (AGD) research focuses on creating systems that can design entirely new games. This is often done by a genetic algorithm, with a fitness function that is used to find individual games that satisfy certain design criteria. However, it is difficult to tell if generated games actually have the desired emergent properties (such as balance), since the fitness function might not align well with human aesthetic judgments about such properties. This is particularly problematic when trying to automatically design balanced, fair, yet asymmetrical games for multiple players. In this paper we present an implementation of an optimization-based AGD system for brawler games, and present findings from a preliminary user study of generated games. We show that while the system successfully optimizes for our written fitness function during human play, we found that this optimization did not necessarily translate to our hypothesized human experience of the game.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Failure, often represented through death, is a central aspect of almost every video game. In-game death can drive player perceptions of difficulty and greatly impact the core player experience; however, there is surprisingly limited... more
Failure, often represented through death, is a central aspect of almost every video game. In-game death can drive player perceptions of difficulty and greatly impact the core player experience; however, there is surprisingly limited amounts of research examining how games actually handle this occurrence. We posit that this is a rich, underexplored space with significant implications for player experience and the design of many games. This paper presents our initial exploration into the space of player death and rebirth through the creation of a generalized taxonomy developed from 62 recent platformer games. Our taxonomy consists of five key dimensions: 1) obstacles, 2) death conditions, 3) aesthetics, 4) changes to player progress, and 5) respawn locations.
Research Interests:
This research applies a bibliometric analysis to the structural health monitoring (SHM) research field over a 15-year period, from 2003 to 2017. The goal of this research is to provide a broader analysis of the field as a whole through a... more
This research applies a bibliometric analysis to the structural health monitoring (SHM) research field over a 15-year period, from 2003 to 2017. The goal of this research is to provide a broader analysis of the field as a whole through a data-driven approach with a bibliometric analysis of SHM literature. The aim of this work is to understand relationships between research themes and communities within the SHM field, and how this landscape has evolved over time. By employing graph theory and social network analysis methods, this study uses a data-driven analysis using a co-word and co-venue analysis based on publication data from over 21,000 conference and journal papers in SHM. Strategic diagrams and network analysis were used to map and visualize the academic landscape of SHM. Additionally, a co-venue analysis was performed to determine the conference and journal research communities within the field at each time segment. The analysis was conducted for three 5-year time periods pr...
Research Interests:
Failure is a central aspect of almost every game experience, driving player perceptions of difficulty and impacting core game user experience concepts such as flow. At the heart of failure in many game genres is player death. While... more
Failure is a central aspect of almost every game experience, driving player perceptions of difficulty and impacting core game user experience concepts such as flow. At the heart of failure in many game genres is player death. While techniques such as dynamic difficulty adjustment have addressed tweaking game parameters to control the frequency of player death occurrence, there is a surprisingly limited amount of research examining how games handle what happens when a player actually dies. We posit that this is a rich, underexplored space with significant implications for player experience and related techniques. This chapter presents our exploration into the space of player death and rebirth through the creation of a generalized taxonomy of death in platformer games—one of the genres that features player death and respawning most heavily. In order to create this taxonomy, we collected and catalogued examples of death and respawning mechanics from 62 recent platformer games released on the digital distribution platform Steam after January 2018. Games selected varied equally across positive, mixed, and negative overall reviews in order to provide a broader range of mechanics, both good and bad. We observed gameplays of each individual game and noted the processes of death and rebirth, respectively. A grounded theory approach was then employed to develop the taxonomy of game death and respawning, resulting in five notable dimensions: (1) obstacles, (2) death conditions, (3) aesthetics, (4) changes to player progress, and (5) respawn locations. Finally, we discuss how the different dimensions and mechanics highlighted in our taxonomy have implications for key aspects of player experience, as well as how they could be used to improve the effectiveness of related techniques such as dynamic difficulty adjustment.
Research Interests:
3D printers are becoming increasingly accessible to the average consumer, however their potential utility within games has yet to be fully explored. Integrating 3D printer fabrication technology within game design presents a novel means... more
3D printers are becoming increasingly accessible to the average consumer, however their potential utility within games has yet to be fully explored. Integrating 3D printer fabrication technology within game design presents a novel means for engaging players and providing them with tangible representations of gameplay elements. This in turn could be employed to increase embodied gameplay and even embodied learning for the player. In this paper, we present a novel "fabrication game" designed to teach basic evolutionary concepts. In the game, players take turns physically assembling components 3D printed in real-time to iteratively evolve their creatures and observe the impact of their evolutionary choices on a digital population simulation. We discuss the potential of this game's unique design in leveraging real-time fabrication of tangibles to enhance a player's understanding of principles of evolution and natural selection.
Research Interests:
Embodied cognition is growing in theoretical importance and as driving a set of design principles for curriculum activities and technology innovations for mathematics education. The central aim of the EMIC (Embodied Mathematical... more
Embodied cognition is growing in theoretical importance and as driving a set of design principles for curriculum activities and technology innovations for mathematics education. The central aim of the EMIC (Embodied Mathematical Imagination and Cognition) Working Group is to connect with inspired colleagues in this growing community of discourse around theoretical, technological, and methodological developments to advance the study of embodied cognition for mathematics education. Our thriving, informed, and interconnected community of scholars organized around embodied mathematical cognition will continue to broaden the range of activities, practices, and emerging technologies that contribute to mathematics teaching and lea ning a ell a o e ea ch on he e henomena. Thi ea o o ed EMIC o king g o builds upon our prior working groups with a specific focus on collaboratively creating embodied activities for mathematics learning that utilize different types of physicality, from full-body ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Computer Science (CS) and related skills such as programming and Computational Thinking (CT) have recently become topics of global interest, with a large number of programming games created to engage and educate players. However, there... more
Computer Science (CS) and related skills such as programming and Computational Thinking (CT) have recently become topics of global interest, with a large number of programming games created to engage and educate players. However, there has been relatively limited work to assess 1) the efficacy of such games with respect to critical educational factors such as enjoyment and programming self-beliefs; and 2) whether there are advantages to alternative, physically embodied design approaches (e.g., tangibles as input). To better explore the benefits of a tangible approach, we built and tested two versions of an educational programming game that were identical in design except for the form of interaction (tangible programming blocks vs. mouse input). After testing 34 participants, results showed that while both game versions were successful at improving programming self-beliefs, the tangible version corresponded to higher self-reports of player enjoyment. Overall, this paper presents a comparison between the efficacy of tangible and mouse design approaches for improving key learning factors in educational programming games.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
While there are common design decisions in existing games for teaching Computer Science (single player puzzle based games for the touchpad/keyboard and mouse), recent work has suggested that alternative approaches such as collaborative... more
While there are common design decisions in existing games for teaching Computer Science (single player puzzle based games for the touchpad/keyboard and mouse), recent work has suggested that alternative approaches such as collaborative play and physically embodied designs may also provide important benefits to learners. In order to explore how making interactions with an educational programming game more physically embodied could impact collaborative play, we created an educational programming game called Bots & (Main)Frames. We then conducted a preliminary study to examine if the level designs achieved desired challenge and explore how two versions of the game with different forms of physical embodiment/input (e.g., mouse vs. tangible programming blocks) impacted player interactions underlying collaboration. We found that game levels seem to provide desired increasing challenge, and that players often used the mouse and tangible programming blocks to aid communication/collaboration in distinctly different ways.
Research Interests: Computer Science and Acm
Research Interests:
Due to a broad conceptual usage of the term embodiment across a diverse variety of research domains, existing embodied learning games and simulations utilize a large breadth of design approaches that often result in seemingly unrelated... more
Due to a broad conceptual usage of the term embodiment across a diverse variety of research domains, existing embodied learning games and simulations utilize a large breadth of design approaches that often result in seemingly unrelated systems. This becomes problematic when trying to critically evaluate the usage and effectiveness of embodiment within existing designs, as well as when trying to utilize embodiment in the design of new games and simulations. In this paper, we present our work on combining differing conceptual and design approaches for embodied learning systems into a unified design framework. We describe the creation process for the framework, explain its dimensions, and provide examples of its use. Our design framework will benefit educational game researchers by providing a unifying foundation for the description, categorization, and evaluation of designs for embodied learning games and simulations.
Research Interests:
In this article we describe Hack.VR, an object-oriented programming game in virtual reality. Hack.VR uses a VR programming language in which nodes represent functions and node connections represent data flow. Using this programming... more
In this article we describe Hack.VR, an object-oriented programming game in virtual reality. Hack.VR uses a VR programming language in which nodes represent functions and node connections represent data flow. Using this programming framework, players reprogram VR objects such as elevators, robots, and switches. Hack.VR has been designed to be highly interactable both physically and semantically.
Research Interests:
We propose a new approach to the human-centered evaluation of AI-based games, grounded in the analysis of player retellings of their play experiences. Retellings offer unique insight into dimensions of player experience that can be hard... more
We propose a new approach to the human-centered evaluation of AI-based games, grounded in the analysis of player retellings of their play experiences. Retellings offer unique insight into dimensions of player experience that can be hard to get at through existing evaluation methods, such as the typical narrative structures that tend to emerge in the player’s mind when they play a particular game; the variety of subjectively experienced narratives that are possible and probable within a particular game; and the ways in which a game supports, or fails to support, the player’s process of narrativization. We used a grounded theory methodology to analyze retellings of play experiences in Civilization VI, Stellaris, and two distinct versions of the research game Prom Week. We also interviewed the creators of several retellings to gain insight into the subjective experience of story construction in collaboration with these games.
Research Interests:
We present Generominos, a set of design cards to model interactive generative systems. While many ideation cards exist, Generominos attempts to model the constraints of making a transformative pipeline of data in the constraints of the... more
We present Generominos, a set of design cards to model interactive generative systems. While many ideation cards exist, Generominos attempts to model the constraints of making a transformative pipeline of data in the constraints of the cards themselves. For this paper, we contribute the design of the Generominos cards and a preliminary evaluation of perceived usefulness in an undergraduate alternative controller class.
Research Interests:
Recent work has highlighted a notable divide in communication and collaboration between technical and social science/humanities disciplines within games research. In order to provide deeper insight around this apparent separation and... more
Recent work has highlighted a notable divide in communication and collaboration between technical and social science/humanities disciplines within games research. In order to provide deeper insight around this apparent separation and underlying difference in epistemic cultures, we interviewed experts from various communities within games research. Our findings highlight some fundamental differences in research methodologies, publication practices, and epistemic cultures that need consideration in the larger discussion around future directions of games research. We in turn utilize these differing viewpoints to consider an assortment of approaches that could potentially better address the needs of technical, social science, and humanities sub-communities within games research.
One prominent aspect of programming skills/expertise is that it requires the use of many creative processes such as problem-solving, visualization, reflection, motivation and handling failure. While there have been a variety of... more
One prominent aspect of programming skills/expertise is that it requires the use of many creative processes such as problem-solving, visualization, reflection, motivation and handling failure. While there have been a variety of puzzle-based educational programming games created to help teach learners these skills, few have been evaluated to assess their efficacy in developing programming and problem-solving skills or improving learners' positive emotional responses. Furthermore, most games are designed for a single player touchpad/mouse experience. This is problematic when trying to understand the validity of these designs, and whether there are alternative physically embodied design approaches that may prove more effective. My dissertation work helps address this problem. After creating a framework based on a meta-review that carefully dissects embodiment strategies in learning games, I am creating and evaluating tangible and augmented reality versions of a programming game. I ...
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In this paper we present an analysis of the academic landscape of games research from the last 15 years. We employed a data driven approach utilizing co-word and co-venue analysis on 48 core venues to identify 20 major research themes and... more
In this paper we present an analysis of the academic landscape of games research from the last 15 years. We employed a data driven approach utilizing co-word and co-venue analysis on 48 core venues to identify 20 major research themes and 7 distinct communities, with a total of 8,207 articles and 21,552 unique keywords being analyzed. Strategic diagrams and network maps are applied to visualize and further understand interrelationships and underlying trends within the field.
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Visual Novel (VN) is a widely recognizable genre of narrative-focused games that has grown in popularity over the past decade. Surprisingly, despite being so widely recognizable, there is not a singular definition to help guide the design... more
Visual Novel (VN) is a widely recognizable genre of narrative-focused games that has grown in popularity over the past decade. Surprisingly, despite being so widely recognizable, there is not a singular definition to help guide the design and analysis of such games---with academic definitions and implementations ranging from "interactive textbooks" to "adventure games with multi-ending stories". In this paper, we present a unified definition of VNs drawn from an analysis of 30 prior academic definitions. We also examined 54 existing VNs to further refine our definition and employ a deeper analysis of the interactivity within VNs. We highlight key features of VNs that arise in our definition, and discuss resulting implications for the design of VNs. This work is relevant for narrative game designers and researchers, affording a more unified structure and clearer guidelines to identify, analyze, and design future VN games.