People play games now more than ever before. While the digital gaming industry dominates the market, boardgaming has been living in its shadow. Board games offer a physical tangibility and a social experience that can be found in few digital games. How do we create a tool that further builds upon those strengths? The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of developing a service that consists of an mobile application and board game events to promote social face-to-face interaction. Focus has been on the social face-to-face interaction in the context of a board game session.

The middle ages is a time in our history that is often used as a frame when portraying fantasy on tv. HBOs immensely popular series Game of Thrones could easily be counted as one of these. But to what extent does the creators of the series approach the history of our world while creating their own? The aim of this essay is to analyse a number of characters from the tv- series out of gender- and their place in the social structure and then compare the findings with the image of the middle ages that is given in academic research. By analysing the two released seasons of Game of Thrones the study has shown that there are many similarities between the fictional world and the actual world but that it also differs through choices made by the creators of the series. .

In this study we examine how much latency is required in an RTS-game (Real-Time Strategy) before the player quits the game. In the study latency is simulated in the games Age of Mythology and Starcraft: Brood War with the program WANem, and then the testplayers are asked ?Do you want to quit because of latency??. This data is then gathered and compiled into graphs to show the results. These results show that the limit for when players want to quit differs between the two games and that there are two factors that play into this.

Vi beskriver i denna rapport hur vi, som två studenter vidÖrebro universitet, utvecklade ett nätverksbaserat action-spel för datorer i Windows-miljösomsedanvarmed ochtävladei nordens största spelutvecklar-tävling, Swedish Game Awards. I spelet,som vi döpt till Battle of Life, tar sig spelaren an en farlig och oförlåtande värld och måste slåss mot andra spelareför att överleva. Vi förklarar i denna rapport hur vi, under tio veckors tid,utvecklar ett spel från grundenoch vilka verktyg och metoder vi använde oss av för att genomföra uppgiften. Vi beskriver projektets mot-och framgångar samt hur vi löste de problem vi komi kontakt med under utveklingens gång.Vi går in djupare på varför vi gjordevissa designbeslut och hur de påverkade vårt slutliga resultat.Avslutningsvis diskuterarviom utveklingsprocessen och spelets eventuella framtid, både från vårt eget perspektivsom utvecklaremen även från ett samhällsenligt perspektiv..

This study examines the players experience, environments and objects in the videogame World of Warcraft. The purpose of this study is to get more knowledge about the players experience in the game with the focus on factors contributing to some form of immersion or/and presence. The data for this study were gathered using interviews as method and then analyzed with relevant literature in the chosen field. A game content analysis and a group of questions are tested with the results of the study which is presented at the end in with an analytic discussion. .

The Squares Family is a game developed as a learning aid in mathematics. With its graphical representation of the decimal system, the four basic arithmetic operations and positive and negative numbers together with a learning agent as pedagogical approach, the game?s primary purpose is to motivate students in their learning of mathematics. Although the game is strictly based on mathematical rules it attempts to encourage students to play and work with math without experiencing it as mathematics as this is initially not obvious. The game being internationally tested on normal performing students, this project introduced the game to six Swedish students who experience low motivation for and/or difficulties in mathematics.

This bachelor´s thesis analyzes the video game Red Dead Redemption and the historical use of the environment and atmosphere in the game. The theory and method used is media research and social memory studies. Two questions were asked: how does Red Dead Redemeption convey and produce the historical environment and the historical atmosphere. Furthermore subqueries/criterias were used to help answer the main questions.The analysis was divided into two parts, the first part we analyze and discuss the games historical environment and the second part analyzes and discusses the historical atmosphere of the game.The conclusion is that both the historical environment and the historical atmosphere is present in the game through picture and sound, the text only works as a guide. The picture and sound live in a symbiotic relationship and depend on each other to fully immerse the player to the game.

The aim of this studyhas been to capture preschool children's strategies, when they include and exclude each other in play. My aim was also to find out how children choose to integrate into an already existing game. My questions were: What strategies are used by the children at the preschool when they want to exclude or include each other? How to integrate the children when they want to be involved in an ongoing game and how they will be received during the time of play? My theoretical starting points are from Vygotsky's theory of proximal development zone, and Michel Foucault's perspective on power, and also research on the subject.The empirical study was conducted using the observations at two preschools. The children I observed were between four to five years old.The results show that children used different strategies, and when the strategy did not work so the child could switch to another.

This qualitative study examines how users of boardgamegeek.com chooses which analogue game to buy. The purpose of the study is to find out which factors constitutes the choice of games and how the information of these factors reach the consumer. The investigation is executed by users of boardgamegeek.com explaining their latest game purchase in a questionnaire survey online. The results show that many of the respondents research the games they are interrested in beforehand and based on this information make their choice. Despite of this we can see that many game developers and distributors does not make this information available for the consumers, but leaves this task to the public..

As the speed and complexity of computers have increased so have software and the expectations of users. Software development follows a straightforward evolution where complicated tasks are made easier by better tools; this repeats itself as those tasks in turn are automated.Software mechanics that were seen as revolutionary a decade ago are seen as obvious requirements that no multimedia application can be without.dotNet is the next step in line and makes it easier and faster to build software.This report focuses on the development of a multimedia platform developed in dotNet. It does this by developing the tools and framework from which a complete game can be built.A game is selected because it combines the most aspects of multimedia development, such as interaction, graphics, sound & music. The report goes further by describing why the game looks like it does as well as the mechanics of the game and the benefits of the dotNet platform..

My aim in this case study has been to create a method for creature design to test this method in a production and evaluate the results. To achieve this I studied and analyzed the methods of three concept artists and illustrators named James Gurney, Neville Page and Iain McCaig. From the analysis of these artist´s methods, combined with my own personal experience, a new method was formed. To test this method a creature was designed based on directives given by a game design group in the process of creating a table top role playing game in a fictitious world. These directives where given for the creature´s role and its living conditions.

The aim of this essay is to investigate the function and development of non-player characters (NPC) in the TV/computer game Dragon Age: Origins. The NPCs are analysed in order to see if their development is affected by the player character?s (PC) background and interactions. The game?s ethics is also investigated by studying how the NPCs treat the PC and what significance they give to his background and actions.The results show that the NPCs are affected by the PC?s interactions, and furthermore, that they are round characters, which is unusual in TV/computer games.

In this study we examine how much latency is required in an RTS-game (Real-Time Strategy) before the player quits the game. In the study latency is simulated in the games Age of Mythology and Starcraft: Brood War with the program WANem, and then the testplayers are asked ?Do you want to quit because of latency??. This data is then gathered and compiled into graphs to show the results. These results show that the limit for when players want to quit differs between the two games and that there are two factors that play into this.

This project report describes a supplement for character creation in a tabletop role-playing game ?Dragons and Demons." The purpose of this project is to improve the character creation for the players? trough the narrative elements such as character?s background story. The applied qualitative methods such as a test panel and a questionnaire were conducted for the evaluation of theories used during character creation and to get feedback on the supplement?s creative value for the players. The aim of the questionnaire was to see how the method for the character creation differs from the regular way of making a character for a tabletop role-playing game and if this idea improves user experience during the tabletop role-playing game.The results of the evaluation are based on answers from novice and experienced players, and conclude that the additional background story creates an insight into the character's past, which makes it easier for novice players to get quick started with character creation.

In this study we pose the question if you through finding patterns in implementation of checkpoints can find ways to tailor the experience of the game A Story About My Uncle to hardcore gamers. To find out the answer we had hardcore players playing a modified level from the game A Story About My Uncle that was used as stimulus material for the following focus group interview. The analysis of the gathered material resulted in four patterns that can be used when implementing checkpoints to tailor the experience of the game A Story About My Uncle to hardcore gamers. Elements of checkpoints that our study showed to be important when it comes to how the game is experienced are density, placement and clearness..