The Impact, use and design of game awareness widgets
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Date
2018
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University of New Brunswick
Abstract
Game designers create interface elements, called Game Awareness Widgets, to allow players to interact with games and to provide an awareness of what is happening in the game. Game awareness widgets are, therefore, extremely important parts of video games, which game designers carefully craft to best support players in a game and facilitate a desired play experience. Despite their importance Game Awareness Widgets have not been well studied and how they can best be designed. Through three separate studies this thesis exemplifies how game awareness widgets can be studied to uncover important new knowledge that can improve their design. These three studies contribute new information on how Game Awareness Widgets impact players, how players use them, and what current design practices are. The results of this thesis can help guide future research and provides important new knowledge to help designers build games that provide the best experience to players.