Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 7-15-2016 12:00 AM A Digital Game Maturity Model Saiqa Aleem The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Luiz Fernando Capretz The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Electrical and Computer Engineering A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Saiqa Aleem 2016 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Other Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons Recommended Citation Aleem, Saiqa, "A Digital Game Maturity Model" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3833. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3833 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract Game development is an interdisciplinary concept that embraces artistic, software engineering, management, and business disciplines. The growth of the digital game industry is enormous and gaining importance day by day. This growth imposes severe pressure and a number of issues and challenges on the game development community. In addition to functional and technological requirements, game development includes other factors that are equally important to the success of any game project. Game development is considered as one of the most complex tasks in software engineering. Hence, for successful development of good- quality games, the game developers must consider and explore all related dimensions as well as discussing them with the stakeholders involved. This research facilitates a better understanding of important dimensions of digital game development methodology. The increased popularity of digital games, the challenges faced by game development organizations in developing quality games, and severe competition in the digital game industry demand a game development process maturity assessment. Consequently, this study presents a Digital Game Maturity Model to evaluate the current development methodology in an organization. The objective is first to identify key factors in the game development process, then to classify these factors into target groups, and eventually to use this grouping as a theoretical basis for proposing a maturity model for digital game development. In doing so, the research focuses on three major stakeholders in game development: developers, consumers, and business management. The framework of the proposed model consists of assessment questionnaires made up of key identified factors from three empirical studies, a performance scale, and a rating method. The main goal of the questionnaires is to collect information about current processes and practices. This research contributes towards formulating a comprehensive and unified strategy for game development process maturity assessment. The proposed model was evaluated with two case studies from the digital game industry. Keywords Digital game, game business performance, game development process, developers, consumers, game players, maturity model, empirical analysis, process assessment, game development methodology. ii Dedicated to My Family I dedicate this thesis to my loving husband for supporting me with his love and affections, and for his dedicated partnership for success in my life. iii Acknowledgments First and above all, all praise goes to Allah Almighty, who is most merciful and beneficent. I am very thankful to Almighty Allah, most Gracious, who in His infinite mercy has guided and granting me the capability to proceed successfully to complete this PhD work. It would not have been possible without His guidance and blessings. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my Supervisor, Dr. Luiz Fernando Capretz, for the continuous support of my PhD study and related research, for his patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. His guidance helped me throughout the research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my PhD study. I appreciate all his contributions of time, ideas, and guidance as well as funding to make my PhD experience productive and stimulating. I want to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Faheem Ahmed for trust, insightful discussion, and offering valuable advice, for his support during the whole period of the study, and especially for the hard questions, which encouraged me to widen my research from various perspectives. Besides my supervisor, I would like to thanks Dr. Arif Raza for his insightful comments and guidance during the writing process. My sincere thanks also go to Western University of Ontario for providing me excellent opportunities and research facilities to conduct my research work and to contribute to the research world in a positive manner. I would also take this opportunity to thank all the survey participants who used their precious time to participate in this research. Their sincere responses have helped me conduct this research in an objective manner. And most importantly, I’d like to thank my family for all their love and encouragement. For my parents, who raised me with the love of science and supported me in all my pursuits. My loving husband Aleem, this journey would not have been possible without your love, your iv sense of humor, your support, and your talent for keeping my spirits high. My beautiful daughter Eeman and handsome son Aayan for just being around and making me forget work stress with your smiles, giggles, hugs, and tens of awesome drawings, Thank you. v Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Dedicated to My Family .................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi List of Tables .................................................................................................................... xii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. xiv List of Appendices ........................................................................................................... xvi List of Abbreviations and Symbols................................................................................. xvii Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Game Development Process ................................................................................... 2 1.2 Research Objective ................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Research Motivation ............................................................................................... 5 1.4 Problem Statement .................................................................................................. 7 1.5 Research Paradigm and Method ............................................................................. 8 1.6 Research Questions ............................................................................................... 12 1.7 Contribution to Knowledge................................................................................... 13 1.8 Thesis Structure .................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................... 16 2 Research Background................................................................................................... 16 2.1 Digital Games Concepts ....................................................................................... 16 2.2 Traditional Software Development vs Game Development ................................. 17 2.2.1 Digital Game Development ...................................................................... 17 2.3 Challenges in Game Development Assessment .................................................... 22 vi 2.3.1 General Software Development Assessment and Maturity Models ......... 25 2.3.2 Game Development Assessment and Maturity Models ............................ 27 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 29 3 Literature Review ......................................................................................................... 29 3.1 A Systematic Review of the GDLC ...................................................................... 29 3.1.1 Related Work ............................................................................................ 30 3.2 Review Methodology ............................................................................................ 31 3.2.1 Selection of Topic and Research Questions.............................................. 31 3.2.2 Review