Hannamari Saarenpää

Expert review method in game evaluations: comparison of two playability heuristic sets

The expert review method is not yet widely adopted in game evaluations, although it has been used successfully in productivity software evaluations for years. In order to use the method effectively, there need to be playability heuristics that take into account the characteristics of the videogames. There are a few playability heuristic sets available, but they have several differences, and they have not been compared to discover their strengths and weaknesses in game evaluations. In this paper, we report on a first study comparing two playability heuristic sets when evaluating the playability of a videogame. The results indicate that the heuristics can assist the evaluators in evaluating both the user interface and the gameplay aspects of the game. However, playability heuristics need to be developed further before they can be utilized by the practitioners. Especially, the clarity and comprehensibility of the heuristics need to be improved, and the optimal number of heuristics is still open.

Insectopia: exploring pervasive games through technology already pervasively available

We present the pervasive game Insectopia, which have been designed by the approach of utilizing commercially available mobile phones to provide context-dependent gameplay. The design and evaluation of the game is described together with a discussion on how this approach can speed up making pervasive games a viable game genre for the general public.

Designing game idea generation games

This paper introduces idea generation games designed for the use of game designers. Three games designed especially for generating new game ideas were developed in the GameSpace project that studies methods for design and evaluation of casual mobile multiplayer games. GameSpace idea generation games have been developed through an iterative process and in close cooperation with the end users, game industry professionals. According to our workshop experiences and tentative results from a pilot study, idea generation games can be successful devices for creative work of game designers. Game-based idea generation techniques provide an easily facilitated, focused but playful setting for coming up with new ideas. However, our experiences indicate that idea generation games feature special challenges which must be taken into consideration when designing such games.

Pervasive Mobile Games --- A New Mindset for Players and Developers

Pervasive games are an emerging new game genre, which includes context information as an integral part of the game. These games differ from traditional games in that they expand spatio-temporal and social aspects of gaming. Mobile devices support this by enabling players to choose when and where a game is played. Designing pervasive games can be a challenging task, since it is not only limited to the virtual game world, but designers must consider information flow from the real world into the game world and vice versa. In this paper, we describe a user study with an experimental pervasive multiplayer mobile game. The objective was to understand how the players perceive pervasiveness in the game and what the crucial factors are in the design. Based on the results, we propose initial design guidelines and compare them to other design guidelines for the pervasive games.

Social and privacy aspects of a system for collaborative public expression

In this paper, we are concerned with how a real-world social situation shapes the interaction with a novel technology that combines collocated mobile phone and public display use for groups of people. We present a user study of a system that allows collaborative creation and sharing of comic strips on public displays in a social setting such as a pub or café. The system utilizes mobile phones and public displays for shared collaborative expression between collocated users. A user study spanning three sessions was conducted in real-world settings: one during the social event following a seminar on games research and two in a bar on a regular weekday evening. We present and discuss our findings with respect to how the larger social situation and location influenced the interaction with the system, the collaboration between participants of a team, how people moved between different roles (i.e., actor, spectator and bystander), and the privacy issues it evoked from participants.