Game-Based Development of Interactive Systems

Abstract

We study the use of games as a metaphor for building complex interactive systems from simple components, with particular attention to the provision of Knowledge-Based Front-Ends (KBFEs) to software packages. Interaction is viewed as a rule governed activity which may be usefully regarded as a game. Given a specification of the rules, implementation of the interactive system requires the construction of an umpire, a component that enforces compliance of the players with the rules and thereby controls the interaction. Advice giving components added to the system are analogous to games played in the presence of an advisor who recommends moves to the participants.We also use games to develop complex interactive systems from interactive components. In this context, we investigate how to customise existing games by studying how to expand and filter their moves. More generally, we examine how to develop compound games built up from simpler sub-games; coordination of moves chosen from sub-games is then a key issue. This is resolved by treating sub-games as active components that communicate the results of interactions from sub-games to the more complex games. This leads to a general approach of building complex interactive systems from existing components, in such a way that the overall coordination of the interactive system is supported by using only information about the interfaces between components, without regard to their internal structure.