SBC - Proceedings of SBGames 2011 Arts & Design Track - Full Papers Single Button Interaction Technique Patterns Applied to Digital Game Design Felipe Breyer Judith Kelner Eduardo S. Albuquerque* Luis Vasconcelos** UFPE, Centro de Informática, Brazil *UFG, Instituto de Informática, Brazil **UFPE, dDesign, Brazil ABSTRACT greater consistency in the designer choices during the conception phase of the game design. This paper investigates how interaction design can be applied to the design of digital games, more The remaining sections of this paper are outlined as specifically, to the player controls scheme definition follows. Section 2 briefly describes the concept of and user experience. To achieve this objective, this interaction techniques and classification of interaction work studies three methods of knowledge devices. Section 3 analyzes the ways of classifying formalization, ontologies, tropes and patterns, and as a formal elements that will structure the results to be case study the digital button was chosen as the obtained in the research. Section 4 discusses the interaction device to be researched. Initially, a set of current status of pattern languages usage applied to the games was observed through the inductive research design of digital games. Section 5 explains the object method in order to define analysis parameters that of study and the methodology applied in the enabled modeling user interaction with the game. Thus, experiment. The patterns proposed in this article are we extend the pattern library of game design, creating a described in section 6. Section 7 contains the main set of interaction technique patterns applied to the conclusions and discusses future work to be carried out button device. to extend this analysis. Keywords: Patterns, interaction, technique, games, 2. Interaction Techniques and button Interaction Devices Classification Author’s contact: Hinckley, Jacob and Ware [2007] define interaction {fbb3, jk}@cin.ufpe.br techniques as a way to use a particular interaction *[email protected] device to perform a generic task interaction. For **[email protected] example, the pop-up menu is an interaction technique to allow the user to select a specific command from a 1. Introduction small set. This action is accomplished through interaction devices that are peripheral to the computer, The role of the game designer is to create ludic and allow user interaction, such as mouse and monitor. experiences for their audience through the games he or In an atomic way, an Interaction Task is the user- she conceives. Games are not relevant unless they are supplied primitive input at the lowest level, such as played and the players have a good experience during choosing a command or typing a line of text. the game [Schell, 2008]. The player experience, in turn, is unique and non-transferable and, although the According to Breyer et al [2008] we can classify game designer indirectly designs them, he must have the interaction devices according to twelve senses: tools to guide the players during their journeys. touch, life, movement, balance, smell, taste, vision, Interaction design is the border between the game and warmth, hearing, sense of language or word, thought, the player, i.e. the border where the designer can and ego. This article is restricted on the tactile input approach the audience, and this is where the efforts of devices, a category that includes devices that are this research are focused. common to most computers, such as keyboards. One of the differences between production software A digital signal is the smallest amount of and digital games is that software should reduce the information a user can send to a system and the workload of the user while games should make it more simplest device used to trigger the transmission is the difficult over time to maintain player interest [Lazzaro button. There are devices that provide different and Keeker, 2004]. Therefore, the game designer can amounts and combinations of buttons from the explore interaction possibilities that would be QWERTY keyboard to a variety of joysticks for video unacceptable in the context of production software. games. More specifically, the aim of this paper is to identify these unconventional forms of interaction to provide The main features observed in continuous inputs are the type of measurement, the type of movement, the X SBGames - Salvador - BA, November 7th - 9th, 2011 1 SBC - Proceedings of SBGames 2011 Arts & Design Track - Full Papers physical property registered and the number of degrees structure for the study of interaction techniques applied of freedom. Continuous information can be modified to games. using a direct assignment of a new absolute value or an increase to the old value, indicating a relative In turn, tropes are described in literature as the transform. There are two types of movements: linear as main idea of a story, like the cliche, but function as in a slider or rotatory like a knob. A linear device can figures of speech [Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2011]. measure the position of the marker or the force applied The project TvTropes [TvTropes, 2009] is open to and the corresponding properties for the rotary devices various media such as animation, comics, television, are angle and torque. Typically, a system can record literature, cinema and digital games, unlike what its from one to three linear dimensions and/or from one to name might suggest and it is proposed to be a library of three angular dimensions, respectively translation and tropes open to the community. Tropes have only a rotation in the three dimensional axes X, Y, Z. textual description and fields of examples, despite the vast database, which has registered about 700 records, The possibilities of using the button as an the lack of categorization and information architecture interaction device have also been the subject of the makes it difficult to query and use these data. work by Green [2005], however, his work describes only the interaction possibilities in the abstract, such The pattern language was created by Christopher as: "Keep button pressed = activates action = A. Alexander [1977] to the area of architecture, with the Release button = activates action B. " On the other aim of structuring the knowledge gained and describe hand, the research here described adopts an analysis solutions to known issues thus allowing future centered on the user experience, giving meaning to reference. However, it was with the growth of software different forms of interaction, rather than abstractions production that language patterns were popularized like "Action A" or "Action B". Therefore we try to mainly in the context of software engineering, for identify the actions taken within the games and the example, the patterns of Freeman et al [2004]. For the transactions associated with them, for example, to Design, the patterns language found application in the make a character perform the action of jumping, the areas of interface design with Tidwell [2005] and player must press a button. And from the survey of interaction design with Borchers [2001] and these associations, we are able to structure the Schummer, Lukosch [2007]. To define a pattern, the knowledge surrounding the interaction techniques, as language requires that a field with the description of we shall see in more detail in the results presented in the solution, the context in which it is used, the section 6. consequences of its implementation and a practical example must be filled. Through the application of the 3. Classification of Formal Elements: pattern language, we can understand how to apply a Ontologies, Tropes and Patterns certain solution and to which scenario it applies. Thus, in the context of this research, the pattern language It is of interest to the game designers community to presented the characteristics necessary for structuring build a formal language that facilitates communication knowledge, enabling an analysis of the functions of the between its members as Costikyan [1994] and Church object of study in a given context of use. [1999] reported. In order to sort and arrange the formal elements that make up a game you can use ontologies, 4. Game Design Patterns patterns or tropes, as described below. In the context of digital game design, the research on Ontologies are intended to verify the existence of design patterns was performed by Björk, Holopainen real or abstract elements, categorize them and identify [2004] and extended by Folmer [2007]. Björk and their relationships [Aristotle apud Cochiarella, 2007]. Holopainen instituted eleven categories of patterns: In the context of digital game design, Zagal et al [2005] propose an ontology of games, the Game Game elements - physical or logical components that Ontology Project (G.O.P.). It is divided into four contain the state of the game as "avatars" and categories: interface, rules, entity manipulation and "enemies". objectives. Each element of the ontology has the following properties: name, parent element, children Resource and resource management - define the elements, description, strong example and weak domestic economy of the game, as "consumers". example. The items "parent element" and "children elements" are used to create relationships between Information, communication and presentation - include entities. Altogether, there are approximately 180 the interface patterns dedicated to contain the game elements that make up the ontology with examples that information, such as "progress indicators". note only