research-article

GameFlow heuristics for designing and evaluating real-time strategy games

Authors:

Penelope Sweetser,

Daniel Johnson,

Anne OzdowskaAuthors Info & Claims

IE '12: Proceedings of The 8th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Playing the System

Article No.: 1, Pages 1 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/2336727.2336728

Published: 21 July 2012 Publication History

Abstract

The GameFlow model strives to be a general model of player enjoyment, applicable to all game genres and platforms. Derived from a general set of heuristics for creating enjoyable player experiences, the GameFlow model has been widely used in evaluating many types of games, as well as non-game applications. However, we recognize that more specific, low-level, and implementable criteria are potentially more useful for designing and evaluating video games. Consequently, the research reported in this paper aims to provide detailed heuristics for designing and evaluating one specific game genre, real-time strategy games. In order to develop these heuristics, we conducted a grounded theoretical analysis on a set of professional game reviews and structured the resulting heuristics using the GameFlow model. The resulting 165 heuristics for designing and evaluating real-time strategy games are presented and discussed in this paper.

References

[1]

Bond, M. and Beale, R. 2009. What makes a good game?: using reviews to inform design. Proceedings of the 23rd British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Celebrating People and Technology (Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2009), 418--422.

Digital Library

[2]

Bleumers, L., Jacobs, A. and Lier, T. V. 2010. Criminal cities and enchanted forests: a user-centred assessment of the applicability of the Pervasive GameFlow model. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Fun and Games (Leuven, Belgium, 2010), 38--47.

Digital Library

[3]

Brand, J. 2012. Digital Australia 12. Interactive Games and Entertainment Association. Bond University: Gold Coast.

[4]

Brown, A., Ceccarini, P. and Eisenhower, C. 2007. Muckrakers: engaging students in the research process through an online game. Sailing into the future: Charting our destiny, proceedings of the thirteenth national conference of the association of college and research libraries (Baltimore, USA, 2007), 226--236.

[5]

Calvillo-g�mez, E. H., Cairns, P. and Cox, A. L. (2010). Evaluating User Experience in Games. (R. Bernhaupt, Ed.) Human-Computer Interaction. London: Springer London.

[6]

Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1990. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper Perennial, New York.

[7]

De Kort, Y. A. W. and Ijsselsteijn, W. A. 2008. People, places, and play: player experience in a socio-spatial context. Computers in Entertainment. 6, 2 (2008), 18. DOI=10.1145/1371216.1371221

Digital Library

[8]

Ding, S., Tang, N., Lin, T. and Zhao, S. 2009. RTS-GameFlow: A New Evaluation Framework for RTS Games. 2009 International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Software Engineering. (Dec. 2009), 1--4. DOI= 10.1109/CISE.2009.5363526

[9]

Faber, J. P. and van den Hoven, E. 2011. MARBOWL: increasing the fun experience of shooting marbles. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. (Jun. 2011). DOI=10.1007/s00779-011-0405-1

Digital Library

[10]

Fu, F.-L., Su, R.-C. and Yu, S.-C. 2009. EGameFlow: A scale to measure learners' enjoyment of e-learning games. Comput. Educ. 52, 1 (2009), 101--112. DOI= 10.1016/j.compedu.2008.07.004

Digital Library

[11]

Finkelstein, S., Nickel, A., Lipps, Z., Barnes, T., Wartell, Z. and Suma, E. A. 2011. Astrojumper: Motivating exercise with an immersive virtual reality exergame. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments. 20, 1 (2011), 78--92. DOI= 10.1162/pres_a_00036

Digital Library

[12]

Gamespot UK, 2011. Gamespot UK. http://www.gamespot.com

[13]

Gilberg, F. P. 2006. Can Network Security be Fun? An agent-based Simulation Model and Game proposal. Masters dissertation. Gj�vik University College, Norway.

[14]

Jegers, K. 2007. Pervasive game flow: understanding player enjoyment in pervasive gaming. Computers in Entertainment. 5, 1 (2007), 9. DOI=10.1145/1236224.1236238

Digital Library

[15]

Khoo, E. T., Cheok, A. D., Nguyen, T. H. D. and Pan, Z. 2008. Age invaders: social and physical inter-generational mixed reality family entertainment. Virtual Reality. 12, 1 (Mar. 2008), 3--16. DOI= 10.1007/s10055-008-0083-0

Digital Library

[16]

Kliem, A. and Wiemeyer, J. 2010. Comparison of a Traditional and a Video Game Based Balance Training Program. International Journal of Computer Science in Sport. 9, 2 (2010), 80--91.

[17]

Metacritic, 2011. Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com

[18]

Morrison, A., Mulloni, A., Lemmel�, S., Oulasvirta, A., Jacucci, G., Peltonen, P., Schmalstieg, D. and Regenbrecht, H. 2011. Collaborative use of mobile augmented reality with paper maps. Computers & Graphics. 35, 4 (Aug. 2011), 789--799.

Digital Library

[19]

Omar, A. and Ali, N. M. 2011. Measuring flow in gaming platforms. Information Retrieval. June (2011), 302--305. DOI= 10.1109/STAIR.2011.5995806

[20]

Paavilainen, J., Kultima, A., Kuittinen, J., M�yr�, F., Saarenp��, H. and Niemel�, J. 2009. GameSpace: Methods for Design and Evaluation for Casual Mobile Multiplayer Games. University of Tampere, Finland.

[21]

Sweetser, P. and Wyeth, P. 2005. GameFlow: a model for evaluating player enjoyment in games. Computers in Entertainment. 3, 3 (2005), 3. DOI= 10.1145/1077246.1077253

Digital Library

[22]

Tijs, T. J. W. 2006. Quantifying immersion in games by analyzing eye movements. Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.

[23]

Yee, S. L. C. Y., Duh, H. B.-L. and Quek, F. 2010. Investigating narrative in mobile games for seniors. Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems. (2010), 669--672. DOI= 10.1145/1753326.1753424

Digital Library

Cited By

Sweetser POzdowska A(2024)GameFlow Affordances: Towards a Tool for Designing Gameful ExperiencesExtended Abstracts of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3650887(1-7)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3650887
Lavou� �Villenave SSerna ADidier CBaert PLavou� G(2024)Influence of Scenarios and Player Traits on Flow in Virtual RealityIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2023.333226130:9(6208-6221)Online publication date: Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2023.3332261
Chueca JVer�n JFont JP�rez FCetina C(2024)The consolidation of game software engineering: A systematic literature review of software engineering for industry-scale computer gamesInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107330165(107330)Online publication date: Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107330
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

GameFlow heuristics for designing and evaluating real-time strategy games
1. Applied computing
  1. Operations research
    1. Consumer products
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI design and evaluation methods
  2. Interaction design
    1. Interaction design process and methods
      1. User centered design

Recommendations

GameFlow in Different Game Genres and Platforms
Theoretical and Practical Computer Applications in Entertainment

The GameFlow model strives to be a general model of player enjoyment, applicable to all game genres and platforms. Derived from a general set of heuristics for creating enjoyable player experiences, the GameFlow model has been widely used in evaluating ...
GameFlow: a model for evaluating player enjoyment in games
Theoretical and Practical Computer Applications in Entertainment

Although player enjoyment is central to computer games, there is currently no accepted model of player enjoyment in games. There are many heuristics in the literature, based on elements such as the game interface, mechanics, gameplay, and narrative. ...
Evaluating enjoyment within alternate reality games
Sandbox '11: Proceedings of the 2011 ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Video Games

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are interactive narrative experiences which use the real world as the platform of the game. By bringing play out into the real world, ARGs provide players with an opportunity to enjoy both the gameplay, and benefit from ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

IE '12: Proceedings of The 8th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Playing the System

July 2012

182 pages

ISBN:9781450314107

DOI:10.1145/2336727

Conference Chairs:
Daniel Cermak-Sassenrath
Auckland University of Technology
,
Charles Walker
Auckland University of Technology
,
Program Chair:
Chek Tien Tan
University of Technology, Sydney

Copyright � 2012 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

Auckland University of Technology
University of Technology, Sydney: University of Technology, Sydney

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 21 July 2012

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

IE '12

Sponsor:

University of Technology, Sydney

IE '12: The 8th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment

July 21 - 22, 2012

Auckland, New Zealand

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 64 of 148 submissions, 43%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

21
Total Citations
View Citations
871
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)34
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)6

Reflects downloads up to 16 Oct 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Sweetser POzdowska A(2024)GameFlow Affordances: Towards a Tool for Designing Gameful ExperiencesExtended Abstracts of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3650887(1-7)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3650887
Lavoué ÉVillenave SSerna ADidier CBaert PLavoué G(2024)Influence of Scenarios and Player Traits on Flow in Virtual RealityIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2023.333226130:9(6208-6221)Online publication date: Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2023.3332261
Chueca JVerón JFont JPérez FCetina C(2024)The consolidation of game software engineering: A systematic literature review of software engineering for industry-scale computer gamesInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107330165(107330)Online publication date: Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107330
Ouyang XZhang XZhang QGong XZhang R(2023)Preschool children’s screen time during the COVID-19 pandemic: associations with family characteristics and children’s anxiety/withdrawal and approaches to learningCurrent Psychology10.1007/s12144-023-04783-y43:20(18659-18673)Online publication date: 31-May-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04783-y
Zeng ZSweetser P(2022)Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment in a Multiplayer Minecraft ServerProceedings of the 34th Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3572921.3572946(319-324)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3572921.3572946
Sweetser PRogalewicz Z(2020)Affording Enjoyment in VR Games: Possibilities, Pitfalls, and PerfectionProceedings of the 32nd Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3441000.3441050(55-64)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3441000.3441050
Sweetser P(2020)GameFlow 2020: 15 Years of a Model of Player EnjoymentProceedings of the 32nd Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3441000.3441048(705-711)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3441000.3441048
Jeffrey RBian PJi FSweetser PMirza-Babaei PMcArthur VVanden Abeele VBirk M(2020)The Wisdom of the Gaming CrowdExtended Abstracts of the 2020 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/3383668.3419915(272-276)Online publication date: 2-Nov-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3383668.3419915
Sweetser PJohnson DKyburz J(2020)Evaluating GameFlow in a Multiplayer Online Strategy Game Under DevelopmentProceedings of the Australasian Computer Science Week Multiconference10.1145/3373017.3373068(1-10)Online publication date: 4-Feb-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3373017.3373068
Horton MRead JWillitts C(2020)InCuDe: Heuristics for Enhancing Spectator Experience in Streamed GamesHCI in Games10.1007/978-3-030-50164-8_7(97-116)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50164-8_7
Show More Cited By

View Options

Get Access

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents