"Whatever the Emotional Experience, It's Up to Them": Insights from Designers of Emotionally Impactful Games

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Access rights

openAccess

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa

Date

2021-05-06

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

9

Series

CHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Abstract

Emotionally impactful game experiences have garnered increasing interest within HCI games research. Yet the perspectives of designers have, to date, remained largely overlooked. We interviewed 14 indie game designers regarding their values and practices in designing emotionally impactful games. Counter to the focus of recent player experience (PX) studies, we find that while designers typically have a clear vision for the intended emotional impact, they aim for their games to provide a space for players to have their own personal experiences and interpretations. Despite this player-centric orientation, players were rarely involved before and during the production to evaluate the emotional experience. Based on these findings, we identify gaps between design practice and PX research, raise open questions around the design and evaluation of emotionally impactful game experiences, and outline opportunities for HCI games research to more productively support game designers.

Description

Keywords

Other note

Citation

Denisova, A, Bopp, J, Nguyen, T D & Mekler, E 2021, "Whatever the Emotional Experience, It's Up to Them": Insights from Designers of Emotionally Impactful Games . in CHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems : Making Waves, Combining Strengths ., 120, ACM, ACM SIGCHI Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Yokohama, Japan, 08/05/2021 . https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445286