Spatial skills belong to a group of functions and capacities that allow for the manipulation and processing of spatial information. Spatial skills are essential in STEM fields where students need to imagine objects in different orientations, manipulate three-dimensional models, and mentally reconstruct drawings from two to three dimensions. However, many students have difficulty with understanding

This work proposes an engine for the Creation Of Novel Adventure Narrative (CONAN), which is a procedural quest generator that uses a planning approach. The engine is tested on its ability to create quests, which are sets of actions that must be performed in order to achieve a certain goal. The engine takes in a world description represented as a set of facts, including characters, locations, and items

For several years, there has been growing interest in the development and use of serious games to improve individuals’ quality of life and behavior. In particular, Crisis Management Serious Games (CMSG) have shown their potential for teaching people both technical and soft skills related to managing crises in a safe environment while reducing training costs. To improve their effectiveness, several

Game mechanics, the rules that simulate the virtual world inside a game, take a great part in what makes a game unique. For digital games, this uniqueness reduces the opportunity for software reuse. A high-level software architecture for game mechanics, however, can still be reused where a single, specific implementation cannot. Despite that potential, existing research on game development lacks a

Recently, donation-based crowdfunding platforms raise funds by individuals to support many charity projects on the internet. These platforms need to be considered as a valuable financial resource. Gamification constitutes one of the techniques that is able to increase motivation and engagement of users. This study developed a gamified platform to encourage users to participate and engage in donation-based

Severity of motion sickness varies across individuals. While some experience immediate symptoms, others seem relatively immune. We explored a potential explanation for such individual variability based on cue conflict theory. According to cue conflict theory, sensory signals that lead to mutually incompatible perceptual interpretations will produce physical discomfort. A direct consequence of such

Exergaming is a promising technology for the elderly to achieve balance training requirements. This paper investigates the acceptance of a tailored exergame (Indian context), termed as Therapeutic Stepping Exergame (TSE). The key constructs and the intercorrelation between these constructs contributing in the intention of using it from the consumer context (Indian elderly, N = 27, age: 66.44 ± 5.84 years

This article presents a computerized application for the literacy of children with Autistim Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Portuguese language, which has PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) using pictographs related to Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). ADLs can be considered as skills learned in childhood and include self-care and personal hygiene activities. The purpose of this article is to

Web recommender systems play a significant role in different domains, such as movies, books, music, etc., and contributes to not only user satisfaction but also to e-business and e-commerce. It utilizes the user’s profile information, preferences, and activities for recommendations of different objects. However, the distinct nature of watching smart TV greatly affects the accuracy and efficiency of

There is a wealth of academic evidence which points to the role of social gaming on a range of outcomes. Studies have employed a range of methodological approaches to study this, although the majority tend to use experimental methods. The current paper provides a review of the current literature on outcomes of “social gaming” alongside raising debate about the conceptual underpinnings of this term

This study aimed to investigate differences in socioemotional status and perceptions of video games among older adult co-players, solo players, and non-players of video games. We collected data on these three groups through a survey of 190 Korean participants between the ages of 50 and 69 years (Mean age = 59.2). Results showed that co-players expressed a higher positive affect and well-being, higher

Player enjoyment evaluation models allow developers to know the performance of a game in promoting player enjoyment. This kind of evaluation can only be done after the development and have been used to identify possible points for game improvement. Educational serious games are commonly presented to students by their teachers, directing them to play, instead of the students starting to play willingly

The use of serious games provides a new dimension for treating individuals with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Researchers have carried out a substantial amount of work in this domain with promising results in the past two decades. This study reviews the literature to design serious games to improve social behaviour in an individual with ASD. Forty serious games, developed between 2000 and 2019, were

A noteworthy trend that has developed in video games in recent years is retrogaming. Retrogaming could be defined as a specific subculture of digital gaming typically characterised by playing (or collecting) obsolete personal computer, console or arcade video games in contemporary times, although it can also include playing modern games with “retro” aesthetics. However, it is not limited to that; it

The use of video games among both youths and elders has been recognised as a remarkable trend and a global success for the video game companies. Although some of these games might be useful in certain academic areas, the majority of students have been using them from a leisure perspective and consequently became addicted users. Video games are also considered a main constraint that hinder high learning

Pokémon Go is one of the most successful mobile games of all time and has motivated its users to become physically active, socialize, and spend more time outdoors. There have been published some systematic literature reviews related to Pokémon Go, but few address health effects beyond the physical health of playing the game. This paper presents the results from a systematic literature review on how

Ever since online games gained popularity in society, it has been used as a means of interaction and facilitating relationships. Online game players tend to actively communicate and collaborate with each other to achieve common goals, and this consequently leads to the formation of strong bonds and attachments with other players of the game. However, a variety of conflicts can sometimes arise during

Over the past thirty years, research situated in many individual sub-domains of psychology has investigated the potential impact of video game play on behavior. Interestingly, although researchers in the various sub-fields are (presumably) versed in the results of the published research, there nonetheless remain significant individual differences in opinion across researchers regarding what exactly

In this article, a head gesture recognition system is developed in order to identify emotional inputs and provide them to an adaptive music system (LitSens) in virtual reality applications, improving virtual presence in the process. Two iterations of this system, both founded on neural networks, are presented: the first one is based on a multi-layer perceptron, whereas the second one consists of a

This paper collated and analysed information regarding the abilities, gameplay and game genre preferences perceived to be important by amateur gamers and whether these perceptions differed based on several criteria, including time spent gaming and the types of games people played. First-person Shooter (FPS), Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) and Real-time Strategy (RTS) games were examined among

The motivation to stimulate children’s learning engagement could be found in the fact that learning is not always motivational in itself. This is particularly true when learning is obligatory and based upon material that has not been chosen by the children themselves. A Lean UX approach to the co-design of an educational serious videogame (MOBI) is proposed in this paper. The core idea is that children's

Serious games and gamification is a popular and growing field, commercially and for academic research. This paper aims to give an overview of a specific domain within the field of serious gaming and gamification; the field of serious games and gamification to empower vulnerable target groups. This overview contributes to a better understanding of this field, by identifying different vulnerable groups

The extended usage of mobile digital devices has nowadays become commonplace. Location-based games make the most of the mobile technologies by being played solely on mobile devices. The ever-growing interest for this type of applications goes beyond the mere goal of player entertainment, even reaching to the advocacy of civilization, research and education. In this article, three of the most famous

Games provide a variety of experiences for players. Currently, research focuses either on games as undifferentiated wholes, or on a feature-level basis where findings are difficult to generalise. However, specific gaming experiences cannot be explained from these approaches. Open world games in particular are a popular game type known for giving players high levels of choice over what they do, thus

There is a potential for immersive tools that can teach some basic aspects of conducting in a constructive way. This work presents a Kinect-based conducting system that uses a gestural interface for visualization of musical structures, aimed towards educational purpose. The system provides a solution that enables students to practice conducting without the actual need of the physical presence of an

Rakuchu Rakugai-zu are screen drawings illustrating in and around Kyoto and various versions were created from the beginning of 16th century until 17th century. As in the Funaki Version of Rakuchu Rakugai-zu everyday lives of over 2000 people in Kyoto are vividly painted, the drawing is a good material to learn their customs in early 17th century in Kyoto and thus, could be relevant for entertainment

Despite the adverse consequences associated with playing risky online games, their popularity is increasing. Prior literature on online games has focused on identifying adoption factors without taking associated risks into consideration. In this study, we examine the factors that drive individuals to play online games in the presence of cybersecurity risks such as physical and psychological risks associated

This paper presents an ongoing project focused on the framework Listen by Looking, that includes several tools to support the implementation of digital games, allowing the interactive display of music sheets, piano rolls and dialog windows with contextual information. Using this framework, a serious game for mobile devices was designed to entertain and teach music to users by listening to songs and

Serious games are used in different sectors such as education, health, work, etc. Among the potential users of serious games are persons suffering from mental illness. Mental disorders affect a person’s memory, thinking, perceptions or behaviour. This type of disability makes it more difficult to create games for people suffering from it. Indeed, the constraints associated with this type of disability

Gaming elicits strong emotional responses. However, little is known about which situations within the gameplay elicit specific emotions. Thus, we aimed to identify which gaming situations elicit positive and negative emotions. We asked Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gamers (N = 652) to recall and write about a situation when they felt amused, angry, enthusiastic, or sad. In our analysis, we used

Massive Open Online Courses are important online study resources. They aim at providing online education to an increasingly large and heterogeneous audience: school pupils, university students or professionals who intend to acquire or develop their skill to better respond to market needs. The growing number of learners (more than 100 million globally at the moment, https://www.classcentral.com/rep

Competitive video gaming, collectively known as esports, has surged in popularity over the last decade. The rapid growth in revenue, viewership, players and exposure to date has led to the rise of impropriety in the form of cheating. “Boosting” is a form of cheating whereby high-skilled players access lower-skilled players’ accounts for the purpose of increasing the rank of the account for monetary

In this paper we introduce a novel strategy for generalizing existing puzzles and games by mathematically expressing the operations of the game; then deriving mathematical generalizations of those expressions; and finally implementing a new variant of the game using those generalized operations. The strategy is illustrated in a case study involving the adapting of a traditional game/puzzle to exploit

Objective Gaming disorder is a serious public health problem; however, there is a limited number of studies on this issue in clinical settings. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of addicted and at-risk gamers among adolescents who applied to a child psychiatry clinic and to identify the differences in clinical characteristics and game preferences between addicted gamers and other gamers

The film comments data contains a huge amount of mining research value, and text mining analysis of the animated film’s comments can objectively reflect the quality of the animated film presentation and the problems generally expressed by the audience. However, these film comments are often mixed. The existing well-known film reviews websites have not excavated typical reviews on the users film comment

The study aims to investigate the factors that contribute to children’s subjective well-being. We used playful-consumption experiences in children’s smartphone usage to determine their subjective well-being. In total, 210 valid responses were obtained from the parents and analyzed using PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 3.2.8. The results of the measurement model revealed that the investigated constructs were reliable

We present BPAlt – a system which allows game developers to create and manage alternatives for Unreal Engine’s Blueprints Visual Scripting System. BPAlt allows the user to create, save, organize and swap Blueprint alternatives for rapid testing and experimentation. BPAlt also supports level alternatives, alternatives of alternatives through alternative scenarios, and allows merging of alternatives

The objective of exposing girls to Computer Science as a career option has led to research directed towards gaming activities for girls. These activities include both game play and game design. Research about gaming activities for increasing girls’ interest in computer science has gained much attention over the past few years and has resulted in a number of contributions. We follow up with an overview

Playing mind games and puzzles has 2500 years of known history. Puzzles and games constitute a research domain that is attracting the interest of scientists from numerous disciplines such as artificial and computational intelligence, neural networks etc. All types of puzzles and games contain their own logic and mathematics. Able to know the science behind them and modelling the logic that a person

Game streaming is emerging as an increasingly popular form of social gaming even among non-professionals. As such, players have to adapt to the presence of a digital gaming audience consisting of people who are either synchronously or asynchronously participating in their performance and engaging with them remotely via digital media. While individuals’ experiences with physically collocated (non-digital)

Digital serious games have shown to be effective in promoting citizen engagement and social interaction. The reasons for their success are, however, unknown. This paper proposes design recommendations to support designers of serious games for meaningful social interaction, based on player preferences, needs and desires, based on literature study and a case study for which a location-based game framework

Existing research in player typologies has presented theories to try and explain players’ behavior during gameplay. Many typologies are context or genre specific and therefore are potentially limiting their practicality in other contexts. To date, no existing research categorizes players based on their explicit preferences for game elements and mechanics (GEMs). To this end, an analysis of three surveys

Commercial exergames are popular entertainment games and beneficial for health and motivation. However, more evidence on their effectiveness in learning contexts is needed. The present pre-post longitudinal field study focused on whether and how a commercial dance exergame promotes student learning and on several experience factors when being integrated into formal school teaching across four regular

Anxiety and depression are the most prevalent mental health disorders among young adults, leading to debilitating outcomes. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the use of video games to prevent and treat mental health problems. Insight into the motivational factors that influence game selection and engagement will inform us on how to tailor the promotion of mental health games. The primary

Social clouds are nowadays very popular among users around the world, and users post videos and images on their wall to share with family and friends. Social cloud automatically compressed the videos during the upload process for fast load in webpages and save storage, which decreases the Quality of Experience (QoE) of the end-user. Previously subjective QoE of social cloud videos was conducted to

This study maps instructional support and learning outcomes of argumentation game-based learning. For this systematic review, 29 publications dating from 2000 through 2019 were studied to highlight the foci of this field of research. Although these studies reported effects of game-based learning on learning outcomes and instructional supports on argumentation skills, none of the publications reported

Video games are part of the technological revolution, and it is possible nowadays to play video games anytime and anywhere as a primary source of youth entertainment. The research question of this study refers to which are the patterns of video game usage by Spanish school adolescents. In particular, it analyzes the time and money spent on video games among Spanish teenage students of 11–19 years old

The verses of Rabindranath Tagore have been sung by various artistes over generations spanning over almost 100 years. There are few songs which were popular in the early years and have been able to retain their popularity over the years while some others have faded away in the course of time. In this study we tried to find cues in the singing style of these songs, sung by different singers spanning

Adaptive interactive storytelling is a resource used to guide the player through the game narrative in a way he/she can understand, in his/her own unique way, the multifaceted nature of the story being told. In interactive storytelling, the player is presented with a set of options to help directing the narrative, and the Drama Manager (DM) is responsible for controlling the narrative trajectories

Game refinement theory has been used as a reliable tool for measuring the attractiveness and entertainment of games, which is derived from a game information progress model and has been applied in various games. This study aims to explore the entertainment of popular multiplayer game-Chinese checkers. The experiments in this study investigated the entertainment of Chinese checkers by creating different

Gaming is a growing hobby in the young generation around the world and games are played from different platforms such as personal computer (PC)/mobile applications, online server and cloud services. Quality of experience (QoE) domain used for the assessment of user experience during the playing of the game. In this paper, we assess the QoE of the game players while playing different popular games such

Attention training games can use brainwaves as auxiliary inputs to increase the attention level of players in an engaging environment. These serious games are generally developed as a single-player game. However, research has shown that multi-player games that involve the interactions between multiple players are more appealing. This paper proposes a multi-player attention training game based on two

Mobile game industry made a breakthrough in the last decade with the increase in stores, applications, users and revenue. As a fresh sector in the business market, it brought many opportunities to entrepreneurs, companies, programmers and human resources who work and are intended to work in this field. Many researches have been conducted for mobile game industry on education, ergonomics, finance, marketing

“Juiciness” is a term that has been widely used to describe the positive feedback (both visual/audial) present in digital games. However, few empirical investigations have looked at how juiciness concretely impacts players. In this paper, we perform a study (N = 3018) in which we compare four identical versions of an action role-playing game with varying amounts of juiciness: (1) None; (2) Medium;

This paper explores an innovative way to find the comfortable settings of a newly designed game under development using a computer program. A Japanese crossword game ‘MyoGo Renju’ has been chosen as a benchmark for this research, whereas some important aspects such as fairness and engagement are evaluated to find the most optimum settings for the player. The game ‘MyoGo Renju’ can be played by Japanese

Artificial Intelligence in the form of machine learning is employed in games to control non-human computer-players, agents or bots. However, most of these games such as Atari took place in 2D environments that were not fully observable to the agents. Currently, it is of extreme significance to employ such machine learning techniques and methods in 3D environments such as Doom. Therefore, In this paper

Omnidirectional treadmills (ODTs) have been traditionally proposed as a promising solution for users’ navigation in large-scale virtual environments. These mechanical devices enable users to perform locomotive motion with 360-deg freedom, while keeping their position fixed in the physical world. However, most locomotion approaches based on omnidirectional treadmills have presented either high acquisition

Objective Being aware that serious games can be an interesting and appealing tool, the objective of this paper is to present the Physioland, a serious game based on image processing techniques, developed to monitor the physical therapy practice of patients with reduced mobility as a consequence of neurological disease. Materials and Methods Several tests were performed in a clinical environment. The

Maintaining certain modes of existence/action in the gaming universe seems to be directly linked to the low identity diversity in the digital game development industry. Within this context, we argue in this paper that a game is a way of representing/acting, in other words, it is a discourse in which people can act and interact in/on the world and, especially, with others. Thus, considering that game