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O’Bryan, M., Alvarez, A., Font, J. & Robinson, R. B. (2024). Decentering the Designer Through Live-Action Roleplay. In: Proceedings of the Halfway to the Future Symposium: . Paper presented at HTTF '24: Halfway to the Future Santa Cruz CA USA October 21 - 23, 2024. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Article ID 37.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Decentering the Designer Through Live-Action Roleplay
2024 (English)In: Proceedings of the Halfway to the Future Symposium, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2024, article id 37Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

More-than-human approaches to HCI design research have gained traction in recent years, facilitating a need to employ new methods that decenter the human perspective. We propose live-action roleplay (larp), as a method and practice within HCI that can support perspective taking and empathy-building with non-humans actors. In this paper, we discuss a local community workshop where we facilitated numerous body-based and larp activities surrounding the theme of sustainability, and reflect on the strengths larp offers in service of decentering the human perspective.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2024
Series
HttF ’24
Keywords
embodied methods, human-computer interaction, larp, more-than-human, roleplay, sustainability
National Category
Interaction Technologies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-71776 (URN)10.1145/3686169.3686173 (DOI)979-8-4007-1042-1 (ISBN)
Conference
HTTF '24: Halfway to the Future Santa Cruz CA USA October 21 - 23, 2024
Available from: 2024-10-24 Created: 2024-10-24 Last updated: 2024-10-28Bibliographically approved
Robinson, R. B., Alvarez, A. & Mekler, E. D. (2024). How to write a CHI paper (asking for a friend). In: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings: . Paper presented at CHI '24: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu HI, USA, May 11-16, 2024 (pp. 1-8). ACM Press, Article ID 558.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>How to write a CHI paper (asking for a friend)
2024 (English)In: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, ACM Press, 2024, p. 1-8, article id 558Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Writing and genre conventions are extant to any scientific community, and CHI is no different. In this paper, we present the early phases of an AI tool called KITSUNE, which takes text and adapts it toward the writing conventions of a CHI paper. We describe the development of the tool with the intent to promote discussion around how writing conventions are upheld and unquestioned by the CHI community, and how this translates to the work produced. In addition, we bring up questions surrounding how the introduction of LLMs into academic writing will fundamentally change how conventions will be upheld now and in the future.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
ACM Press, 2024
National Category
Media and Communications
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-70196 (URN)10.1145/3613905.3644051 (DOI)2-s2.0-85194168851 (Scopus ID)979-8-4007-0331-7 (ISBN)
Conference
CHI '24: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu HI, USA, May 11-16, 2024
Available from: 2024-08-13 Created: 2024-08-13 Last updated: 2024-08-13Bibliographically approved
Robinson, R. B. & Alvarez, A. (2024). Toward a Design and Play-Focused Approach to Teaching Technical Game Design. In: FDG '24: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games: . Paper presented at DG 2024: Foundations of Digital Games, Worcester MA USA, May 21 - 24, 2024. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Article ID 39.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Toward a Design and Play-Focused Approach to Teaching Technical Game Design
2024 (English)In: FDG '24: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2024, article id 39Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

As of 2023, education surrounding game design has become a fixture in university education systems around the world. As the teaching of game design is an inherently interdisciplinary subject with many connections to the arts and humanities, there are a diverse range of perspectives as to what the focus of each curriculum should include. In this essay, we argue that game programs with a more technical focus should include both design and play-focused approaches embedded into the pedagogy. We present two case studies drawing from our education journeys studying games as well as our experiences teaching in both game and computer science programs, and discuss the resulting benefits of integrating these concepts into our practice.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2024
Keywords
education, pedagogy, game design, computer science, play-centric, larp, design
National Category
Interaction Technologies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-70216 (URN)10.1145/3649921.3650003 (DOI)001267233700039 ()2-s2.0-85199042209 (Scopus ID)979-8-4007-0955-5 (ISBN)
Conference
DG 2024: Foundations of Digital Games, Worcester MA USA, May 21 - 24, 2024
Available from: 2024-08-14 Created: 2024-08-14 Last updated: 2024-09-12Bibliographically approved
Andersson, J., Trojanowski, M. & Alvarez, A. (2023). Are You Lucky or Skilled? An Analysis of Elements of Randomness in Slay the Spire. In: 2023 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG): . Paper presented at IEEE Conference on Games (CoG), Boston, USA, 21-24 Aug 2023. IEEE
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Are You Lucky or Skilled? An Analysis of Elements of Randomness in Slay the Spire
2023 (English)In: 2023 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG), IEEE, 2023Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Elements of randomness are a very common factor in modern digital games, from simple rolls of a die to complex AI systems. These elements have an impact on how the player experiences a game. We believe that exploring the field of luck analysis can benefit designers through a developed understanding of how such elements affect players. In this study, we explore how elements of randomness affect players in the roguelike deckbuilding game, Slay the Spire using data clustering. Three player skill groups were identified with the use of clustering: Winners, Low skill losers and High skill losers. Our results indicate that people who succeeded in beating the game, had an increased amount of randomness in the form of cards by a factor of 1.82. Showing that more skilled players do not shy away from randomness but instead embrace it more than lower skilled players.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IEEE, 2023
Series
IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games, ISSN 2325-4270, E-ISSN 2325-4289
Keywords
Game analysis, Game design, Elements of Randomness, Correlation, Input variables, Clustering algorithms, Games, Data mining, Artificial intelligence, Faces
National Category
Computer Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-64677 (URN)10.1109/CoG57401.2023.10333231 (DOI)2-s2.0-85180547354 (Scopus ID)979-8-3503-2277-4 (ISBN)979-8-3503-2278-1 (ISBN)
Conference
IEEE Conference on Games (CoG), Boston, USA, 21-24 Aug 2023
Available from: 2023-12-21 Created: 2023-12-21 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved
Alvarez, A. (2023). ChatGPT as a Narrative Structure Interpreter. In: Lissa Holloway-Attaway, John T. Murray (Ed.), Interactive Storytelling: 16th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2023, Kobe, Japan, November 11–15, 2023, Proceedings, Part II. Paper presented at 16th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2023, Kobe, Japan, November 11–15, 2023 (pp. 113-121). Springer
Open this publication in new window or tab >>ChatGPT as a Narrative Structure Interpreter
2023 (English)In: Interactive Storytelling: 16th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2023, Kobe, Japan, November 11–15, 2023, Proceedings, Part II / [ed] Lissa Holloway-Attaway, John T. Murray, Springer, 2023, p. 113-121Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Narrative structures define the skeleton of narratives and help at identifying common structures in stories, that then can be used to compare structures, define variations, and understand prototypical [structural] components. However, narrative structures are just one piece of the puzzle, their interpretation is what gives room to the stories seen in transmedia storytelling. In principle, a structure can be interpreted and developed with a myriad of stories, but requires some type of corpus to develop it further. Large language models such as ChatGPT could be employed for this task, if we are able to define a good narrative structure and give the tools to the algorithm to develop them further. For this paper, we use a narrative structure system called TropeTwist, which employs interconnected tropes as narrative structures, defining characters, conflicts, and plot devices in a relational graph, which gives raise to a set of trope micro- and meso-patterns. Using ChatGPT and through the web interface, we communicate all the possible elements to be used from TropeTwist and tasked ChatGPT to interpret them and generate stories. We describe our process and methodology to reach these interpretations, and present some of the generated stories based on a constructed narrative structure. Our results show the possibilities and limitations of using these systems and elaborate on future work to combine large language models for other tasks within narrative interpretation and generation.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2023
Series
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, ISSN 0302-9743, E-ISSN 1611-3349 ; 384
Keywords
Narrative Structures, Large Language Models, ChatGPT, Games, Story Generation
National Category
Computer Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-64278 (URN)10.1007/978-3-031-47658-7_9 (DOI)2-s2.0-85177442540 (Scopus ID)978-3-031-47657-0 (ISBN)978-3-031-47658-7 (ISBN)
Conference
16th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2023, Kobe, Japan, November 11–15, 2023
Available from: 2023-12-12 Created: 2023-12-12 Last updated: 2023-12-12Bibliographically approved
Robinson, R. B., Mirza-Babaei, P., Alvarez, A., Garreta Domingo, M., Mandryk, R. L. & Isbister, K. (2023). Games and Play SIG: Connecting Through Social and Playful Technologies. In: CHI EA '23: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: . Paper presented at 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2023, Hamburg, Germany, April 23-28, 2023. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Article ID 513.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Games and Play SIG: Connecting Through Social and Playful Technologies
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2023 (English)In: CHI EA '23: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2023, article id 513Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Games have always been popular for connecting people, from local single-player and couch co-op, to massively multiplayer online. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, remote games that involved and fostered social interactions and connections were a highlight among strategies for staying connected. For this year’s games and play SIG, we come together to discuss the relevant and timely topic of social and playful technologies, and how they can be designed to best foster meaningful social connections over a distance. We bring together attendees from not only the games community, but also those in the broader field of CHI focusing on social and playful technologies.  

 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2023
National Category
Human Computer Interaction
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-63788 (URN)10.1145/3544549.3583176 (DOI)2-s2.0-85158152170 (Scopus ID)9781450394222 (ISBN)
Conference
2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2023, Hamburg, Germany, April 23-28, 2023
Available from: 2023-11-20 Created: 2023-11-20 Last updated: 2023-11-20Bibliographically approved
Alvarez, A. (2022). Exploring Game Design through Human-AI Collaboration. (Doctoral dissertation). Malmö: Malmö universitet
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Exploring Game Design through Human-AI Collaboration
2022 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Game design is a hard and multi-faceted task that intertwines different gameplay mechanics, audio, level, graphic, and narrative facets. Games' facets are developed in conjunction with others with a common goal that makes games coherent and interesting. These combinations result in plenty of games in diverse genres, which usually require a collaboration of a diverse group of designers. Collaborators can take different roles and support each other with their strengths resulting in games with unique characteristics. The multi-faceted nature of games and their collaborative properties and requirements make it an exciting task to use Artificial Intelligence (AI). The generation of these facets together requires a holistic approach, which is one of the most challenging tasks within computational creativity. Given the collaborative aspect of games, this thesis approaches their generation through Human-AI collaboration, specifically using a mixed-initiative co-creative (MI-CC) paradigm. This paradigm creates an interactive and collaborative scenario that leverages AI and human strengths with an alternating and proactive initiative to approach a task. However, this paradigm introduces several challenges, such as Human and AI goal alignment or competing properties.

In this thesis, game design and the generation of game facets by themselves and intertwined are explored through Human-AI collaboration. The AI takes a colleague's role with the designer, arising multiple dynamics, challenges, and opportunities. The main hypothesis is that AI can be incorporated into systems as a collaborator, enhancing design tools, fostering human creativity, and reducing workload. The challenges and opportunities that arise from this are explored, discussed, and approached throughout the thesis. As a result, multiple approaches and methods such as quality-diversity algorithms and designer modeling are proposed to generate game facets in tandem with humans, create a better workflow, enhance the interaction, and establish adaptive experiences.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Malmö: Malmö universitet, 2022. p. 381
Series
Studies in Computer Science ; 20
Keywords
Computer Games, Human-AI Collaboration, Mixed-Initiative, Procedural Content Generation, Quality Diversity, Computational Creativity
National Category
Computer Sciences Human Computer Interaction
Research subject
Interaktionsdesign
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-54586 (URN)10.24834/isbn.9789178773084 (DOI)978-91-7877-307-7 (ISBN)978-91-7877-308-4 (ISBN)
Public defence
2022-09-27, Niagara hörsal C, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1, 21119, Malmö, 14:30 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2022-08-29 Created: 2022-08-27 Last updated: 2022-12-08Bibliographically approved
Alvarez, A., Font Fernandez, J. M., Dahlskog, S. & Togelius, J. (2022). Interactive Constrained MAP-Elites: Analysis and Evaluation of the Expressiveness of the Feature Dimensions. IEEE Transactions on Games, 14(2), 202-211
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Interactive Constrained MAP-Elites: Analysis and Evaluation of the Expressiveness of the Feature Dimensions
2022 (English)In: IEEE Transactions on Games, ISSN 2475-1502, Vol. 14, no 2, p. 202-211Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We propose the Interactive Constrained MAP-Elites, a quality-diversity solution for game content generation, implemented as a new feature of the Evolutionary Dungeon Designer (EDD): a mixed-initiative co-creativity tool for designing dungeons. The feature uses the MAP-Elites algorithm, an illumination algorithm that segregates the population among several cells depending on their scores with respect to different behavioral dimensions. Users can flexibly and dynamically alternate between these dimensions anytime, thus guiding the evolutionary process in an intuitive way, and then incorporate suggestions produced by the algorithm in their room designs. At the same time, any modifications performed by the human user will feed back into MAP-Elites, closing a circular workflow of constant mutual inspiration. This paper presents the algorithm followed by an in-depth evaluation of the expressive range of all possible dimension combinations in several scenarios, and discusses their influence in the fitness landscape and in the overall performance of the procedural content generation in EDD.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IEEE, 2022
National Category
Computer Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-40278 (URN)10.1109/TG.2020.3046133 (DOI)000811581700012 ()2-s2.0-85098766850 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2021-02-01 Created: 2021-02-01 Last updated: 2024-04-04Bibliographically approved
Alvarez, A., Font, J. & Togelius, J. (2022). Story Designer: Towards a Mixed-Initiative Tool to Create Narrative Structures. In: FDG '22: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games: . Paper presented at FDG22: 17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, Athens, Greece, September 5 - 8, 2022. ACM Digital Library, Article ID 42.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Story Designer: Towards a Mixed-Initiative Tool to Create Narrative Structures
2022 (English)In: FDG '22: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, ACM Digital Library, 2022, article id 42Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Narratives are a predominant part of games, and their design poses challenges when identifying, encoding, interpreting, evaluating, and generating them. One way to address this would be to approach narrative design in a more abstract layer, such as narrative structures. This paper presents Story Designer, a mixed-initiative co-creative narrative structure tool built on top of the Evolutionary Dungeon Designer (EDD) that uses tropes, narrative conventions found across many media types, to design these structures. Story Designer uses tropes as building blocks for narrative designers to compose complete narrative structures by interconnecting them in graph structures called narrative graphs. Our mixed-initiative approach lets designers manually create their narrative graphs and feeds an underlying evolutionary algorithm with those, creating quality-diverse suggestions using MAP-Elites. Suggestions are visually represented for designers to compare and evaluate and can then be incorporated into the design for further manual editions. At the same time, we use the levels designed within EDD as constraints for the narrative structure, intertwining both level design and narrative. We evaluate the impact of these constraints and the system’s adaptability and expressiveness, resulting in a potential tool to create narrative structures combining level design aspects with narrative.  

 

 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
ACM Digital Library, 2022
National Category
Computer Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-56278 (URN)10.1145/3555858.3555929 (DOI)2-s2.0-85142339970 (Scopus ID)978-1-4503-9795-7 (ISBN)
Conference
FDG22: 17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, Athens, Greece, September 5 - 8, 2022
Available from: 2022-11-29 Created: 2022-11-29 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved
Alvarez, A., Font, J. & Togelius, J. (2022). Toward Designer Modeling Through Design Style Clustering. IEEE Transactions on Games, 14(4), 676-686
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Toward Designer Modeling Through Design Style Clustering
2022 (English)In: IEEE Transactions on Games, ISSN 2475-1502, Vol. 14, no 4, p. 676-686Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We propose modeling designer style in mixed-initiative game content creation tools as archetypical design traces. These design traces are formulated as transitions between design styles; these design styles are in turn found through clustering all intermediate designs along the way to making a complete design. This method is implemented in the Evolutionary Dungeon Designer, a research platform for mixed-initiative systems to create adventure and dungeon crawler games. We present results both in the form of design styles for rooms, which can be analyzed to better understand the kind of rooms designed by users, and in the form of archetypical sequences between these rooms, i.e., Designer Personas.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IEEE, 2022
National Category
Computer Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-51543 (URN)10.1109/tg.2022.3143800 (DOI)000908822400014 ()2-s2.0-85123365921 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2022-05-19 Created: 2022-05-19 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved
Projects
Behaviour change caused by various degrees of digitalisation in tabletop gameplay – An Egocentric Interaction Interventions pilot project
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0002-7738-1601

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