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This paper describes a game prototype development project named “Code-E” for players learning and practicing their knowledge about coding while playing. Our research is based on design and development research (DDR) methodology. The main purpose of our project was actually to create a 3D action-adventure game with interesting gameplay for educational purposes that can be used by students (i.e., players) as part of their coding practice. Our chosen topic was C++ function codes. Rapid Application Development Model was used as the development method to allow us to focus on minimizing the planning stage and maximizing prototype development. First, the gameplay idea was designed. A quick prototype was developed to assist the potential users to understand the gameplay easily when we were asking for their feedback on requirements. To collect them from potential users, we used interviews. Very fortunately, our first gameplay idea was well accepted which required minimal improvement. Then, we designed and developed a full game prototype using Roblox. A questionnaire session was then conducted to get further feedback from our potential users. The 5-Likert scale questions were categorized into three categories: the game’s technical features, its gameplay concepts, and its usability as a learning tool. We used median values to interpret the Likert data. Our findings showed that the “Code-E” game prototype was well-functioned and well-accepted by our potential users. Some improvements were still required to enhance its ability in terms of difficulty level and motivation.

The Atari 2600 video game Entombed (1982) left open questions in the design and implementation of its efficient maze-generation algorithm that, through serendipity, we are able to address at last. We have analysed almost 500 artefacts that capture the development process leading up to Entombed, artefacts that have not been seen for decades, including a distinct, unreleased Atari 2600 game. This work is interdisciplinary between the fields of archaeology and computer science in the area of archaeogaming; computer science has allowed informed technical analysis of the artefacts, with processes from archaeology used to manage and organise the large number of artefacts, as well as view game development in a human, archaeological context. The deliberate inclusion of a co-author who was a first-hand participant in the game development additionally raises interesting questions about autoethnography, authorship, and objectivity.

Video games can be dynamic sovereign spaces for Indigenous representation and expression when the self-determination of Indigenous people is supported. Where games are concerned, self-determination involves the autonomy and right of Indigenous people to make key decisions regarding the process of how a game is developed as well as what that game entails. A game is sovereign when self-determination is a respected practice throughout all phases of development from conceptualization to distribution. In what ways can games be sovereign and what challenges may be faced? Utilizing comparative case studies of the self-determined games Lost Memories, Terra Nova, and When Rivers Were Trails, this research identifies possible approaches and challenges for sovereign games looking at development as well as the resulting designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Games are trouble. As faculty members in a Game Development program we are aware of the troubles. As inside–outsiders, given our status as queer women in the male-dominated Games field, both with interdisciplinary art-tech-humanities backgrounds as opposed to STEM, we are the ones commonly tasked with 'fixing' these troubles. This tasking comes to us in the form of both assumptions and requests about our providing particular types of education to others, both faculty and students, as fixes to Game-troubles: teaching the gender module; sitting on an LGBTQ+ committee; advising a particular student who is also outside the more comfortable purview of Games; and so forth. While our labor is often assumed, it is not fully valued, evidenced by the ways in which it is chronically under-resourced. And, given this lack of sustainability, our labor is not effective in the ways we intend. Often, our fixes only serve to a fix ourselves, further cementing us as outsiders. Our fixes are diluted until they become performative gestures, absolving others of the need to act, but changing little else. Acting 'in a fix' is something we no longer wish to do. Instead we untangle and re-tangle in a new way, drawing on the work of Feminist New Materialists (Ahmed, 2008; Alaimo, 2016; Alaimo and Hekman, 2008; Barad, 2011; Bennett, 2010; Braidotti, 2013; Coole and Frost, 2010; Dolphijn and Tuin, 2012; Grosz, 1994; Kirby, 1997) to develop imaginative new models for a more just and joyful future Games pedagogy. We share not only our research on this topic, but also invite you into our own intimate experiences of play-making, foregrounding this as knowledge-making too. We offer these crossings between text and context, history and future Ahmed, 2008, memory and fiction as a speculative fabulation for future Games pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now widely accepted that videogames are a cultural form, and that they generate cultural meaning through the possibilities and constraints through which they shape players' experiences and choices. However, the cultural processes through which videogames are themselves produced remain understudied and too-straightforwardly imagined. The videogame maker does not simply conceive of a videogame idea and then execute it. Instead, the videogame is produced through processes of negotiation and iteration between videogame maker, software and hardware environments and the broader expectations of the field. In this sense, videogame production can be fruitfully understood through the lens of craft. I argue that in order to politicise agency in digital play, as is this special issue's goal, videogame research must also consider the agency of the videogame maker, and the iterative, embodied, and social processes through which videogames are produced. This article draws from interviews with videogame makers and existing research on craft production to provide a preliminary consideration of how the agency of the videogame maker as a cultural producer can be accounted for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase in market needs, game development teams are facing a high demand of creating new games every year. Although several methodologies and tools were introduced to support the game development life cycle, there is still a lack of evidence that these techniques improve game requirements understandability among development teams. The use of models in requirements engineering is considered a promising approach to support requirements elicitation, negotiation, validation, and management. In the context of game development, game designers argue that models are hard to learn and would restrict their creativity. In this paper, we introduce a novel use case-based game modeling approach that extends the standard UML use case diagram. The proposed technique allows for better representation of game-related requirements and promotes a common understanding of game requirements among game development teams. Our approach is implemented in a tool, called game use case modeling, and its applicability is demonstrated using four well-known games, Super Mario Bros, Tetris, Just Dance, and The Walking Dead. Moreover, in order to assess the perceived understandability, learnability, and usefulness of the proposed approach, we have conducted a survey involving 29 participants from the game development community. Results indicate a very satisfactory agreement regarding the added value of the proposed approach and a willingness of adoption by the game development community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to our knowledge, there are only few existing mobile games for learning Viena Karelian dialect and culture. Karelian is classified as a minority and endangered language. Different actions for revitalizing the Karelian language and culture have been made during the several past years in Finland and Russia. However, more effort is needed, especially to developed digital and easily accessible ways to learn and teach Karelian. This paper presents simple games developed for beginners to learn Viena Karelian. We also present findings from a small-scale user study. In addition, we propose a concept idea of the tool for teachers to create simple learning exercises.

This paper explores the link between play, an evolutionary and biological trait found in human behaviour and the fundamental human psychological needs; and its complex relationship with the game design principles in order to answer the following - why do people play games and what motivates them to do so? Answering these two questions would enable educational game designers to better understand game design principles for developing engaging educational games. This research will delve into the psychological aspects of play and attempt to link those aspects to game design elements. Studying Prensky’s six elements of successful games, the Octalysis gamification framework and the fundamental psychological needs, the paper will then present the findings of an exploratory and confirmatory survey from practicing game designers all around South-East Asia. The results of these findings give an overall positive and current result that provides a useful point of reference in order to create a game design model that would offer a set of guiding principles for educational game designers to create engaging gameplay.

Copyright of HMD: Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Arqueologia Pública is the property of Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Portal de Periodicos Eletronicos Cientificos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Commercial game makers at all scales of production have increasingly come to incorporate livestreaming into every stage of the game development cycle. Mainstream hits like Fortnite and League of Legends owe their ongoing success in no small part to their massive uptake by streamers, and triple-A releases from major publishers can reliably expect significant attention on streaming platforms. But what about smaller, lower budget games? For independent game developers, the costs and benefits of streaming are less clear. Based on interviews with small commercial indie developers in Toronto and Montréal, this article critically examines different discourses around streaming and commercial indie games, focusing on developer perceptions of the benefits and risks of streaming and its impacts on indie game-making practices, including production, promotion, and community-building. Contrary to persistent popular myths about streaming as the key to 'discoverability', commercial indie game development remains a precarious form of cultural work, and indie games collectively attract only a tiny fraction of the overall audience on streaming platforms. There is a high level of uncertainty about the factors that led to a given game's success, leaving many indie developers ambivalent about leveraging influencer attention and even as they commit significant time and energy trying to doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video game development platforms represent a specialized work environment that contains a multitude of properties and tools that help game creators in designing and making applications in this field. The market for game development platforms is currently booming, offering a diverse range of options. Anyone with motivation and ideas can start creating and developing a game using popular platforms such as Unreal Engine, Unity, Game Maker or RPG Maker VX Ace. Today, every platform for game development is supported by a vast basic documentation but also by a huge public community that provides game creators with all the tools they need to create high-performance games. If an experienced or even less experienced developer finds himself in a situation where he cannot solve a problem on his own, he has the opportunity to find the answer to the problem encountered, on the community forums corresponding to the technology used in creating the game, or he will find someone who has faced a similar situation and can give him answers/advice for the specific situation. Depending on the purpose of the final product, the game creator has the opportunity to choose the platform he will use in creating it. Unity is the most popular video game development platform due to its cross-platform capability. Unity can be used both in making 2D or 3D games, but also in the film, automotive, architecture, engineering, and construction industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the research is as a medium for learning traditional dances and regional traditional houses and can be used as a debriefing for the community to better know the traditional dances and regional traditional houses properly. The research method used is the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) waterfall method, a research method that has the characteristics of each phase in the waterfall must be completed before proceeding to the next phase The analytical aid used is Flowchart and Unified Modeling Language. Software used with the help of the Java programming language, Android Studio Editor, Android Standard Development Kit, and Android Development Tools. The conclusion is that this application was built so that it can provide convenience in learning regional dance education and local traditional houses.

Digital games are a powerful means for creating enticing, beautiful, educational, and often highly addictive interactive experiences that impact the lives of billions of players worldwide. We explore what informs the design and construction of good games to learn how to speed-up game development. In particular, we study to what extent languages, notations, patterns, and tools, can offer experts theoretical foundations, systematic techniques, and practical solutions they need to raise their productivity and improve the quality of games and play. Despite the growing number of publications on this topic there is currently no overview describing the state-of-the-art that relates research areas, goals, and applications. As a result, efforts and successes are often one-of, lessons learned go overlooked, language reuse remains minimal, and opportunities for collaboration and synergy are lost. We present a systematic map that identifies relevant publications and gives an overview of research areas and publication venues. In addition, we categorize research perspectives along common objectives, techniques, and approaches, illustrated by summaries of selected languages. Finally, we distill challenges and opportunities for future research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing and contextualizing different aspects of the Finnish game development scene, this article provides concrete examples of why we need cultural studies of game development and how game development cultures can be studied. The article follows a three-layer approach, first exploring some of the historical and political developments that have shaped forms of local game production. Second, a focus is placed on working cultures within the industry and attitudes toward crunch time, work–life balance, and workplace regulation. Third, everyday strategies of organizing creative work are analyzed to better understand game studio cultures. The lessons from this empirical study directly contribute to the larger scholarly discussions around game production and creative labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The game development industry is growing, and training new developers in game development-specific abilities is essential to satisfying its need for skilled game developers. These developers require effective learning resources to acquire the information they need and improve their game development skills. Question and Answer (Q&A) websites stand out as some of the most used online learning resources in software development. Many studies have investigated how Q&A websites help software developers become more experienced. However, no studies have explored Q&A websites aimed at game development, and there is little information about how game developers use and interact with these websites. In this paper, we study four Q&A communities by analyzing game development data we collected from their websites and the 347 responses received on a survey we ran with game developers. We observe that the communities have declined over the past few years and identify factors that correlate to these changes. Using a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model, we characterize the topics discussed in the communities. We also analyze how topics differ across communities and identify the most discussed topics. Furthermore, we find that survey respondents have a mostly negative view of the communities and tended to stop using the websites once they became more experienced. Finally, we provide recommendations on where game developers should post their questions, which can help mitigate the websites’ declines and improve their effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes user work during open game development and presents an alternative model for participatory design. During open development, developers publicly distribute incomplete games, discuss their design goals, and facilitate user feedback. This article examines user work on an open development forum using conventional content and discourse uptake analyses. It finds that users customize their participation, engage with multiple objects of design, and affect design through collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine learning have a huge impact in video games, in this we will learn about use of machine learning in game development. Video game developers use machine learning to give users more realistic feel in the game. Non player characters (NPCs) algorithm are used to provide real like characters to the game and also increase the challenges for the players who are playing that game. Nowadays games are becoming more real than ever, we have to face more challenges in it. There are many games which are currently using machine learning and it might be the future for game development. Now games can also be experienced over VR (Virtual Reality), players can actually feel the game by just using VR technology, all thanks to AI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scrum software development has brought new ideas and tools in the software development industry. This study is a finding that the scrum can be a guideline for building mobile-based Virtual Reality applications as a new medium for learning English that is still conventional and has not applied technology to support the teaching and learning process of learning English. Scrum Software provides a framework for managing the iterative and incremental process for building VR applications. The results of this study indicate that a series of Sprint plans contained in the Scrum method have a positive impact and affect the quality of virtual reality mobile application games in English learning and also reveal the theoretical and practical implications that repeated feedback has a moderating effect on the relationship between Sprint planning and quality in VR games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of design and development of games that integrate virtual aspects in a real environment has grown in recent years. An example of such games is pervasive games (PGs), which seek to enrich the game world through mixing these two realities in order to better involve the player in the story. The application of PGs has resulted in increasing player motivation and engagement. Currently, new technologies have made it possible to advance the design and development of games. PGs have not been the exception, and through the mix of elements of traditional games with real elements and scenarios it has been possible to improve motivation and user experience. However, previous studies have identified the need to have a process that guides the design and creation of PGs. Therefore, this paper presents GeoPGD, a methodology that integrates the design of geolocated narrative as the core of the game experience. This methodology guides designers and developers through the different stages of building a PG, offering tools for defining the narrative components, places and interactions between the user and the PG. In addition, a validation with experts and a PG experience is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: On the basis of ethical and methodological arguments, numerous calls have been made to increase the involvement of end users in the development of serious games (SGs). Involving end users in the development process is considered a way to give them power and control over educational software that is designed for them. It can also help identify areas for improvement in the design of SGs and improve their efficacy in targeted learning outcomes. However, no recognized guidelines or frameworks exist to guide end users' involvement in SG development. Objective: The aim of this study is to describe how end users are involved in the development of SGs for health care professions education. Methods: We examined the literature presenting the development of 45 SGs that had reached the stage of efficacy evaluation in randomized trials. One author performed data extraction using an ad hoc form based on a design and development framework for SGs. Data were then coded and synthesized on the basis of similarities. The coding scheme was refined iteratively with the involvement of a second author. Results are presented using frequencies and percentages. Results: End users' involvement was mentioned in the development of 21 of 45 SGs. The number of end users involved ranged from 12 to 36. End users were often involved in answering specific concerns that arose during the SG design (n=6) or in testing a prototype (n=12). In many cases, researchers solicited input from end users regarding the goals to reach (n=10) or the functional esthetics of the SGs (n=7). Most researchers used self-reported questionnaires (n=7). Conclusions: Researchers mentioned end users' involvement in the development of less than half of the identified SGs, and this involvement was also poorly described. These findings represent significant limitations to evaluating the impact of the involvement of end users on the efficacy of SGs and in making recommendations regarding their involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conversation with attorney and game developer Mark Yohalem about his passion for point-and-click adventure games, and how his experiences as a player and fan inspired him to pursue game writing, to co-found Wormwood Studios (with artist Victor Pflug and programmer James Spanos) and, in 2010, to develop Primordia, a classical point-and-click adventure game that has sold roughly a quarter-million copies. Additional topics discussed include the potential of digital games to encourage empathy and connection; gaming fan communities; suitability of games for storytelling; gaming journalism, reviews and analysis; and games and creative work in relation to connection, participation and engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a structured series of lessons for teaching undergraduate computer science or game development students how to construct a game engine using C++ and standard graphics APIs such as OpenGL or DirectX. Our proposed course content discusses rendering topics, game object management, scene management, and rigid body physics where learners are tasked to incorporate them into a fully functional prototype scene editor. By incorporating actual coding into the course, students can gain a better understanding of low-level engine features and also hone their programming skills. In addition to the learning content, we provide recommended assessment methods. We include discussions about our teaching experience in handling a game engine architecture course, titled GDENG03, which 36 students have passed. Our paper stands out from related works by providing a framework for interested educators on how to write a 3D game engine and how to teach the same in class. Based on our actual delivery of GDENG03, all 36 students achieved high scores of > 80 % out of 100 which demonstrates the effectiveness of our learning content. We received positive student feedback, such as a better appreciation of game engines, while suggestions for course improvement were raised, such as using simpler terminologies and better workload management. Based on student scores and feedback, we can attribute the success of our students' learning to our inclusion of practical coding examples and discussions, highlighting their relevance to mainstream game engines. The learning materials and accompanying source code can be accessed in the following link:. • A learning content is proposed that aims to teach undergraduate students how to develop their own game engine using only C++ and a graphics API. Learners are taught how to create a functional 3D scene editor. • Assessment methods are presented for assessing a student's mastery of the game engine architecture course. • Positive feedback and experiences were reported by students during the actual course delivery. • Comprehensive materials, including the scene editor's working source code and PowerPoint files, are publicly accessible at this link:. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]