Juiciness Exploring and designing around experience of feedback in video games Simeon Atanasov [email protected] Thesis-project, Interaction Design Master Supervisor: Simon Niedenthal Examiner: Jonas Löwgren Examination date: 31 May 2013 K3, MAH, Malmö, Sweden Spring term 2013 1. Introduction...................................................................................................................................................................5 2. Contribution summary...................................................................................................................................................6 3. Theoretical framework...................................................................................................................................................6 3.1. Emotion and beauty in design ............................................................................................................................................ 6 3.2. What is “aesthetics”?........................................................................................................................................................... 8 3.3. “Shared” aesthetics in video games................................................................................................................................... 9 3.4. Experience. From Interaction design to video games. ................................................................................................... 13 3.5. Experiential Qualities......................................................................................................................................................... 15 4. Methodology...............................................................................................................................................................16 4.1. Articulating Experiential Qualities.................................................................................................................................... 16 4.2. Lo-Fi vs. Hi-Fi sketching ..................................................................................................................................................... 17 4.3. Research through design................................................................................................................................................... 18 4.4. Design approach................................................................................................................................................................. 18 5. Feedback / Feedback systems......................................................................................................................................19 6. Feedback in games.......................................................................................................................................................20 7. “Juiciness”....................................................................................................................................................................24 7.1. Emotionally charged feedback.......................................................................................................................................... 24 7.2. “Juiciness” and visuals....................................................................................................................................................... 26 7.3. “Juiciness” and sound........................................................................................................................................................ 29 7.4. Emergence........................................................................................................................................................................... 30 7.5. Conditions and scope......................................................................................................................................................... 33 7.7. Satisfaction through “Juiciness” ....................................................................................................................................... 34 8. Game prototype...........................................................................................................................................................34 8.1. Design tools and limitations.............................................................................................................................................. 35 8.2. Testing.................................................................................................................................................................................. 35 8.3. Experiments........................................................................................................................................................................ 36 8.3.1. Sketch1 – the fire trail................................................................................................................................................ 36 8.3.2. Sketch 1 testing .......................................................................................................................................................... 38 8.3.3. Sketch 1.1 – the ghost trail........................................................................................................................................ 39 8.3.4. Sketch 1.1 testing ....................................................................................................................................................... 39 8.3.5. Sketch 2 – the lanterns .............................................................................................................................................. 40 8.3.6. Sketch 2 – testing ....................................................................................................................................................... 42 8.4. Design process.................................................................................................................................................................... 43 8.4.1. Initial ideas and process start up.............................................................................................................................. 43 8.4.2. Development of the game prototype ...................................................................................................................... 44 Shooting and pickups:..................................................................................................................................................... 45 Changing shooting modes:............................................................................................................................................. 47 Player death and game over screen:............................................................................................................................. 48 Audio feedback:............................................................................................................................................................... 49 8.4.3. Testing and initial comments.................................................................................................................................... 50 8.4.4. Updates and further testing...................................................................................................................................... 51 9. Conclusions from the prototype...................................................................................................................................54 9.1. Evaluation of “Juiciness”.................................................................................................................................................... 54 9.2. The language of “Juiciness”............................................................................................................................................... 55 9.3. A part of a whole................................................................................................................................................................ 56 9.4. Summary............................................................................................................................................................................. 57 10. A critical look .............................................................................................................................................................57 10.1. Can one really design experience through “Juiciness”?............................................................................................... 57 10.2. Is “Juiciness” really novel? .............................................................................................................................................. 58 10.3. Experience or marketing? ............................................................................................................................................... 58 11. Further work..............................................................................................................................................................59 11.1. Sub-qualities of “Juiciness” ............................................................................................................................................. 59 11.2. Non-audio/visual feedback............................................................................................................................................