Author: aucadmin

Melissa Nichols Part of CW18

A study by Gasselseder (Gasselseder, 2014) explored the immersive presence, emotional behaviour and arousal in players through the use of dynamic and non-dynamic music in an action-adventure video game. The study concluded that subjects experienced “enhanced [immersion] when being presented with dynamic music” (Gasselseder, 2014).

Open-world games, particularly medieval-based role playing games (RPG), have been criticised for their overly-cluttered content and information resulting in reduced immersion. Their “design has reduced what should be immersive worlds into expensive yet meaningless filler between objective icons.” (Parish 2015). Consequently, this study will explore how dynamic music can be used to enhance immersion in such open-world games. Based on a pragmatic action research methodology the study will focus on the development and refinement of a musical prototype. Brainwave measurements, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews will be used to inform the refinement phases.

It is envisaged that results from this study will be valuable to game developers who plan to create huge open-worlds with improved immersion levels.

Leah Gustafson, Chris Carter, Susan Fuller, Leah Barclay and Charles Dacosta Part of CW18

The complexity of soundscapes is difficult to express to general audiences, and the most common ways of visualising the audio generated from the acoustic data of a soundscape recording are difficult for the lay audience to interpret. The creative work “Wild Soundscapes” experiments with the use of 360° video in a mixed reality (MR) environment as a backdrop for visualising soundscapes.

Sonia York-Pryce Part of CW18

This paper seeks to examine the role of the older, experienced dancer through digital documentation. This is followed by a discussion regarding the project and its aims to make visible the older dancing body on screen, a rare occurrence within Western society. It questions why in the Western dance world, the sentiment is no different, ageing remains a taboo issue, holding prejudice towards the corporeal difference of the older, experienced dancer.

Ceegan Kohere and Reza Ryan Part of CW18

Within the past decade development and quality of weather phenomena in virtual environments has rapidly increased. However, there is a lack of documented framework to create a dynamic and optimized weather system suitable for real-time environment.

This research is a critical inquiry of current research and the implementation required to create such a weather system in real-time. In this research a dynamic weather model was created using different weather component generation techniques such as Particle emission, Markov chains, Cellular Automata, Tri-Planar projection and Depth mapping. The weather model was designed and tested through the design science research methodology to ensure functionality. This framework can be easily integrated into existing real-time engines.

Jackson Fuller Part of CW18

Since Bartle’s taxonomy of player types, various researchers have attempted to identify and categorise player behaviours. However, player types have proven to be inefficient which has paved the way for trait models instead. Research into player traits is fairly recent and so far, has only been used in subjective questionnaires. This can lead to a lack of understanding of how players make certain decisions in game scenarios.

This project attempts to address this problem by creating a framework that defines various behaviours that players exhibit in relation to their player traits. An artificial agent will be created to display these behaviours in a video game setting to provide an understanding of how a player’s trait orientation can inform their actions in each scenario. The scenarios created for the agent to interact in will be informed by the subjective survey questions designed to identify player traits.

It is expected that the knowledge from this project can be used to predict player behaviours based on the scenarios that developers have created. This leaves the potential to personalise a game for multiple player traits or cater towards a specific one.

Travis Jeffery and Reza Ryan Part of CW18

This research considers the numerous studies into the genre of horror in the entertainment industry with the growing commercial success of virtual reality (VR). While there is an increasing number of studies conducted into these VR systems, there is limited research on developing a framework to create horror games using VR. This practice-led study aims to design a framework which utilizes the VR systems with the techniques of horror design: visual components of light and color; audio localization and hallucinations; obscurity. A prototype game is developed alongside the framework and then tested to see the effectiveness of the design on the experience of fear. The findings of this research aim to establish a framework suitable for horror game development.

Charulatha Mani and Taana Rose Part of CW18

This paper describes a creative work in progress. Two women vocal performers from diverse traditions come together with technology to create a textured soundscape. Using artistic practice as process, the methodological framework adopts artistic experimentation as the key method. Adopting the overarching philosophy that Otherness comprises of the marginalised, the vulnerable and the machine, we draw on Donna Haraway’s notion of ‘becoming-with’ technology. We draw on lullaby from the South Indian tradition of music as the primary content. Drawing on key syllabic elements from the lullaby tradition, we compose and improvise using technology as the facilitator and partner, on a technologically created textured substrate. The outcomes showcased here include sound files of failed and successful attempts, as well as spectrograms depicting the key moments in the composed-improvisations.

Phil Aitken Part of CW18

This article is an extract from my PhD. In my research I considered the primacy of meaning, consumption and the divinity of the machine. The era of interest was the machine age. This was an era of rapid scientific and technological development, declining religiosity, and the acknowledgement of the individual in western culture. Considering the enormity of this paradigmatic change, I consider the notion that the machine has paramount importance, not only in preserving, sustaining, and advancing humanity but also in the deepening process of how we construct meaning and spirituality in a mass–production and mass–consumption society. I suggest that perhaps the machines producing our items of consumption have taken on a divine importance within adapting cultural systems and continued technological advancement. In this extract, I considered how some 20th century artists have utilised and considered the machine in their work and how a sense of the divine can be applied to the machine.

Angus McMeekin and Reza Ryan Part of CW18

Video game art styles have a great impact not only on how a game is initially perceived by an audience but also on how it is experienced. Through an understanding of the capabilities of each art style, developers can better design experiences that utilise their chosen art style to enhance gameplay, themes and emotions. However, these capabilities have not been fully explored, particularly within video games. For example, a small amount research in visual media outside video games, suggests that non-photorealistic art styles typically contain more expressive qualities.

This study aims to further explore this art trend through an expressive analysis of the stylised art style compared to the realistic art style, fill the gap in knowledge and as a result, provide a better understanding of the expressive qualities of the stylised video game art style. This research first explores what expressive qualities stylised art contains and collaborates them into a framework that can be used for the development of expressive stylised art. This framework is then applied to a stylised recreation of a AAA quality realistic environment. Both environments are then comparatively evaluated using participant testing consisting of playtesting followed by questionnaires. These questionnaires survey the participants on whether they felt either environment effectively expressed a mood, which moods they were able to identify and whether either environment displayed ‘artistic qualities’.

The data gathered from these questionnaires will then be analysed to provide a conclusion on which art style displayed more expressive qualities. It is expected from this data that the stylised art style will be received more favourably for its expressive abilities while the realistic will be perceived as more artistic. The conclusion drawn from this study can then be utilised by developers and artists to better guide the design process, providing a deeper insight into the abilities of each art style and how they may impact their games.

Dale Patterson Part of CW18

This paper explores the way the human brain functions and how digital play causes differing elements of the the brain to interact with each other in ways that they normally would not. The potential for this play driven cross brain activity is aimed to inspire new creative thoughts and outcomes for the player. The paper explores the use of game-play based systems in a number of applications and demonstrates the capacity for such digital play systems to enhance our personal capabilities in education and creative practice.