The objective of this thesis is to examine the capital structure of Swedish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Accounting data from Swedish game developers, combined with the result from a survey, is used to examine their financial conditions and capital structure decisions. We find that non-debt tax shield, firm size, growth opportunities and age are, to various extents, the determinants of capital structure in the game industry, while effective tax rate and asset structure have marginal effects. Our study also implicates that most of the existing capital structure theories can explain SMEs leverage decisions to some extent; however, some adaptation is needed to fit these theories into the SME context. Additionally, we find the existence of a financial gap in the game industry which might need efforts from both demand side and supply side to eliminate..

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..

Abstract ? Noblesse oblige: a roleplaying gameDuring the 17th-century the Swedish nobility was forced to deal with a number of new challenges. They reached the height of their power, but also began their downfall. How did the nobility?s ideal come to be in the face of this? Can we in these ideals find the duties and obligations of the nobility? And if we can, how can a roleplaying game be made out of the historical facts? A roleplaying game meant for educational means, well suited for the classroom and teachers, capable of stimulating the young minds and offering them an in depth understanding of how the nobility?s minds moved.

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.

In game development, performance is everything and the Playstation 3 provides a unique platform for utilizing parallelization of code to achieve extremely high performance. In this master?s thesis the issue of animation with smooth skinning is migrated from being a GPU process to becoming a parallelized and 358% faster process. This method is incorporated in an existing commercial game engine and integrated in a currently in development title for the Playstation 3. An in-depth study covers parallel processors, the CELL processor, used in the Playstation 3, and how contemporary industry leading game developers are utilizing the same unique architecture to increase their own games? performance..

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.

This essay covers computer gaming as seen from a perspective of gender theory. The main purpose of the essay is to examine women?s relationship to computer games, and more specifically women?s attitudes to the games they play. The theoretical basis for this essay is sprung from a hermeneutic perspective. The empirical basis for analysis consists of two in depth interviews and game analysis of the two computer games Counter Strike and Final Fantasy XI.

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.

Through an examination on a Telemarketing company this paper aim to investigate which relations there is between the level of motivation and performance and how these are related to the factors that are included in Herzbergs two-factor-theory.In this essay we have been using a questionnaire and interview. We have also been able to collect statistics on employees from the Telemarketing company we examine. On the basis of these data we have analyzed which relations there is.The examination shows on relations who mean that the factors Performance and Acknowledgement are the ones that affect the motivation the most, and therefore the level of Performance. The rest of the Motivation factors don?t show any clear relations.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the consequences following an adaptation from literature to video game formatby comparing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass with American McGee's Alice and,primarily, Alice: Madness Returns. In order to answer this, aspects of both game theory and literary critique are takeninto consideration, regarding for example the narrative potential of the game medium and the gameplay's possibleresemblance with Wolfgang Iser's theory of the reading process.The analysis shows in what ways the original narrative has been altered in order to fit its new medium. Some of thebooks' main ingredients are simply retold in the games' so called information spaces, i.e. text and video sequenceswhere the otherwise playable character is not controlled. Others, instead, have undergone a ludolization or ergodizationwhere the story events are experienced as playable elements in the games' action spaces.

Detta arbete har utformats för att besvara frågeställningen: ?Kan Game Approachability Principles (GAP) upptäcka användbarhets-, spelbarhets- och åtkomlighetsproblem i tidiga stadier av utvecklingsprocessen av ett spel??. Teorier om användbarhet, åtkomlighet, spelbarhet, olika utvärderingsmetoder och användartestning samt Game Approachability Principles studerades för att skapa en teoribildning inom området. Två prototyper av ett spel skapades: en hi-fi prototyp och en lo-fi prototyp. Den första representerar det senare stadiet i utvecklingen av ett spel och den andra representerar det tidigare stadiet.

This study examines the in-game encyclopaedia Codex as it appears within the videogame Mass Effect. The purpose of this study is to analyse the Codex with emphasis on how the reading process is affected by the videogame medium. In this regard the study seeks to uncover what characterises the Codex as a fictional encyclopaedia, what it entails and how it interacts with the rest of the game. The theoretical basis of this study is derived from a combination of the writings of Wolfgang Iser concerning the process of reading, Jesper Juul's writings on the relationship between games and narratives, and the concept of intermediality as discussed by Hans Lund and Jørgen Bruhn.      This study is based on a close examination of the PC and Playstation 3 versions of the videogame Mass Effect, created by Bioware, with particular emphasis placed on the Codex. Mass Effect is a science fiction third-person shooter and RPG set in a future where mankind has begun interacting with aliens civilizations and colonising new planets.

This essay aims to investigate how Swedish Public Libraries market their activities in video games for youths. It also highlights how the library, on the basis of the unique opportunities of the video game medium, can develop this marketing to build a relationship with youths. The empiric evidence is based on a survey of answers given by 30 librarians responsible for video game collections, and qualitative telephone interviews with three of them. The essay?s theoretical framework is based on Philip Kotler and his co-authors? marketing theory which consists of five stages: Marketing research, segmentation, marketing mix, implementation and development.