In the Mood for Horror: A Game Designers Approach on Investigating Engagement, Involvement, and Immersion in Horror Games
Author
Nielsen, Danny Langhoff
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2013
Submitted on
2013-05-23
Pages
156
Abstract
Dette speciale undersøger, hvordan design af horrorspil fremkalder spillerengagement, involvering og immersion, og hvordan disse dynamikker påvirker spillernes lyst til at fortsætte med at spille. Med udgangspunkt i en grounded theory-foranalyse samler arbejdet indsigter fra fokusgruppeinterviews, en analyse af survival-horror-genren og en elektronisk spørgeskemaundersøgelse for at opbygge designerorienterede modeller for engagement og immersion samt en model for “fortsættelseslyst” specifikt for horrorspil. For at afprøve modellerne i praksis designer og implementerer forfatteren en prototype af et horrorniveau med et beskrevet designframework, herunder narrativ struktur, grader af frihed, mekanikker der positionerer spilleren som sårbar, fjender og gemmefunktioner samt en in-game computerinteraktion/“intrusion”-metode. Den endelige testmetode kombinerer biometriske målinger med in-game spørgeskemaer under spil og sammenligner to prototypeversioner (A og B) op imod opstillede succeskriterier. De tidlige sider henviser til figurer med biomålinger og spørgeskemadata, men specifikke resultater fremgår ikke af dette uddrag. Specialets bidrag er en modeldrevet, spiludviklerorienteret tilgang og et empirisk testdesign til at evaluere engagement, involvering og immersion i horrorspil.
This thesis investigates how horror game design elicits player engagement, involvement, and immersion, and how these dynamics shape players’ desire to continue playing. Guided by a grounded theory pre-analysis, the work synthesizes insights from focus group interviews, a survival-horror genre analysis, and an online survey to build designer-oriented models of engagement and immersion, as well as a horror-specific “continuation desire” model. To examine these models in practice, the author designs and implements a prototype horror level with a documented design framework, including narrative structure, degrees of freedom, mechanics that position the player as vulnerable, enemies and hiding, and an in-game computer interaction/“intrusion” method. A final test method combines biometric measurements with in-game questionnaires delivered during play and compares two prototype versions (A and B) against defined success criteria. Although early pages reference figures with bio-measurements and questionnaire data, specific outcomes are not included in this excerpt. The contribution is a model-driven, game-designer’s approach and an empirical protocol for evaluating engagement, involvement, and immersion in horror games.
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