Game balance can be considerd complex - there are many factors that play a role in the perception of balance. This thesis examines complexity, game theory and intution in an effort to disconver more about the perception of balance. The findings are that tactical and strategical choices that are presented for a player need to be interesting, not to complex and not to obvious. The importance lies in the estimation of the result that the player does when making a choice..

AbstractTitle: The game of playing: A media ethnographic study of children playing videogames on a Swedish after school recreation centre. Spelet om spelandet: En medieetnografisk studie av barns dataspelande på en fritidsklubb.Number of pages: 46Author: Peter BrandbergTutor: Amelie HössjerPeriod: Spring term 2008Course: Media and Communication studies DUniversity: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim with this study is to describe how children play video games in an everyday context. In this study this context consists of a Swedish after school recreation centre. By combining three different aspects on the activity this study tries to understand how both the video game and the social and cultural context in which the activity takes place in influences it. This by taking one analyse of the specific game that the children played at the time of the study and how the overall environment is structured into account.

this paper is a study on children's social interactions in role-play. The aim is to try to highlight how children with other develop social skills and how to further motivate children tosee, understand and manage their reality in role-play by highlighting the characteristics of afunctioning role-play. I would also highlight the importance of pedagogue´s role in relation tochildren's social skills in role-play. The purpose flows into these issues, what distinguishes afunctioning role-play? Can the children in role-play influence their thinking to developunderstanding of others and the environment and if so, how? What significance does pedagogue´s role in children's role-play? I used out of a qualitative methodology to carry out this investigation.

I denna text diskuterar jag produktionen av Hearty Horrors, ett spel programmerat och designat helt i flash. Jag diskuterar svårigheterna för de olika delarna i att skapa ett spel. Tankar och jämförelser mellan onda och goda karaktärer och vad man, som speldesigner, bör och inte bör göra för att få spelare att känna sig manade att spela vidare. In this text I discuss the production of Hearty Horrors, a game programmed and designed completly in flash. I discuss the difficulties of diffrent parts in the making of a game.

In order to attract talented consultants, Sigma, a consultant company, wanted an online game for recruitment. In the game, potential employees? skills could be tested to determine whether they are qualified for the job. This paper presents a general technique for creating such a recruitment game. The report generalizes the recruitment game to a level-based game for the web, where a player should be able to progress from one level to the next by solving a given problem.

This thesis is based on research and observations of children on a preschool when playing in the free-play. What do the children choose to play with, when they get to choose for themselves? And how do they play? Do boys and girls together or do they divide themselves up? How important is the free-playing for the development of the child? Genus is also an important element which is interesting to observe and to see different patterns in. The abidance?s have been made while the children have been playing, and from discrete observations notes have been taken.I have been working with material, and literature from distinguished researchers within the subject.

The aim of this report is to see whether the graphic design of a game influences children?s will to play games. I am especially looking at minimalist graphic design and how well it works for a game aimed at children age 7-9. Does the style of the game design have any impact at all concerning the children?s wish to play the game or is the game mechanic all that matters.

Starting out as a minor form of amusement, the game industry has become one of the most lucrative andsuccessful in the entertainment business competing against giants such as television, movies and music.As the internal competition within the developer community grows companies work hard at discoveringnew ways to attract and keep customers. By having a playcentric approach focusing on user experiencethey hope to achieve that goal. This thesis describes the process of designing a game with focus on theplayer. We apply the concept of flow on game development and investigate through research throughdesign if we are able to create a game that keeps the player in flow.Play tests showed several elements such as control issues and too difficult challenges early in the game,affecting the possibility for players to experience flow while playing. These negative factors came to becalled flowleakers.

In this study I have investigated how role playing may change young students´ attitudes and behavior. According to the Swedish National Agency for Education´s governing document, Läroplanen för de frivilliga skolformerna, 1994, the principals at Swedish schools are required to inform students about the risks connected with alcohol and traffic. Scientists bring to our attention the need for emotional information to change attitudes and behaviors. The Historical Wine- and Sprits Museum in Stockholm has arranged a role play that gives emotional information to school students in order to affect their attitudes towards drunk driving. My study is a qualitative examination of this role play.

Denna rapport behandlar utvecklingen av den spelmotor samt spellogik som används i speletSteam Tale utvecklat under projektnamnet Project Steam Age av gruppen StormBound. Speletutvecklades i första hand för mobila enheter, och i rapporten ingår även en kort undersökningav mobila spel i ett historiskt perspektiv. Även spelets genre, JRPG, en förkortning avJapanese Role Playing Game, kommer att förklaras som hastigast med referenser till andraspel inom genren.Spelet programmerades för Android OS version 2.3 och framåt i språket Java. En avsvårigheterna som påträffades, såsom beskrivs i rapporten, var att säkerställa att speletfungerar för den varierande prestanda som mobila enheter utgör, inklusive aspekter såsommed eller utan hårdvaruacceleration av grafik, varierande mängd lagringsutrymme ochprocessorkärnor samt storlek på skärmar. Därtill bör man vid skapandet av en applikation avdenna typ beakta resurshantering, framförallt beträffande grafik och ljud, ett ämne sombehandlas i denna rapport..

The purpose of this essay was to do a research about if the language in Swedish role-playing books is used correctly and if the composition along with the possible language errors makes the books hard to understand.This research was also about to find out why these problems occurs and if the authors are aware of them.I choose books from two Swedish role-playing games, Eon and Drakar och Demoner. I read them trough, noted the mistakes made and put them together in a scoring table. I also did a LIX-test on the books and interviewed one of the authors.The results shows that the books to Eon is harder to read than the books to Drakar och Demoner and this agrees with the vision the authors of the books claims to have.The results also shows that it is not only the language mistakes and the composition that makes the books hard to read, but also the choice of difficult words and badly formulated rules..

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..

AimThe aim with this study was to analyse how strategic decisions through schemas of play, in this case the Pick and Roll, effect the end result of a basketball game. Following questions were answered:? How often is the Pick and Roll used? The total sum per team and game?? What field goal percentage generates the Pick and Roll?? How often generates the Pick and Roll turnovers?? How often does the attacking team receive foul during Pick and Roll, and what is the team awarded from the foul situation?? How often is the Pick and Roll interrupted without any effect?MethodTo be able to answer the questions in our study we videoanalysed 2251 Pick and Roll-situations from the European Championships for Men in 2003 through video analysis. We used nine different categories to sort the 2251 Pick and Roll situations.ResultsThe Pick and Roll is executed 62,53 times per game, or viewed as 0,43 Pick and Roll / possession. Points / possession during the games was 1,04 while points / Pick and Roll was 0,60.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the unintentional learning that happens during the use of computer games. With the use of interviews with students in the ages 13-15 who all have played the game series Assassin?s Creed, and then compared them with students who does not play the game, we have been able to identify that some learning is taking place, but that the student?s attitude towards the subject, and their maturity, also is vital for the learning. Even tough, the students who didn?t really enjoy history as a subject showed better knowledge after playing the game, than the students who hadn?t played at all, which indicates that computer games can be a good source for learning.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate and discuss the current state of game research and its potential usage in didactic situations. The essay is divided in two parts. Part one consists of an attempt to comment preceding contemporary game research and address possible myths that have been established. Part two aims to discuss games narrative capacity and function in education using the theories and terms laid down by Wolfgang Iser and Gérard Genette.Contemporary game research tends to focus on classic retro games, trying to form theories for a general understanding of the media. This is a useful method as long as the purpose of the study is to define how game mechanics and layout are formed.