“Whatever the Emotional Experience, It’s Up to Them”: Insights from Designers of Emotionally Impactful Games

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 fnd 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 fndings, 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. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI; User studies; • Applied computing → Computer games.

Emotional Exploration and the Eudaimonic Gameplay Experience: A Grounded Theory

“…Ambiguity is one method the game can use to mount an emotional challenge and for the player to be given tools to meet and overcome it. This echoes the findings of Denisova et al, where indie designers of emotionally-impactful games purposely design for mixed-affect but leave space for players to form their own interpretations and experiences [20]. Players must have their expectations appropriately configured for this to occur in exactly the same way a good game trains a player how to use its mechanics effectively and the extent of their mechanical agency.…”

“…[16] Through being given the space to expend effort on building their own interpretation (often with the controlled use of ambiguity), players receive a more powerful and deeper emotional experience back as a reward [60]. This matches with Denisova et als findings from their interviews of indie game designers [20], where participants said they design for emotional impact by leaving space for the player to build their own interpretation.…”

“…During this emotional experience (the 'what') players feel a mixture of positive and negative affect which is evaluated as a positive experience overall [8]. Participants commented that the interactivity of the videogame medium -the ability to act and exert some level of choice in the diegesis, made them more vulnerable to this kind of mixed affect experience -which again aligns with Denisova et als findings that designers consider players active interaction with the game as an important factor in creating a deep connection with the game [20]. This mixed affect experience is one that leads to psychological growth [33] through self-expansive escapism [58], prompting a reflective mindset and satisfying a psychological need for relatedness not only to others and the world, but also to the self.…”

“…If we wish players to engage in a strong mixed-affect emotional experience there should be a similar amount of freedom to explore, interrogate and emotionally interpret, building their own 'nexus of meaning' [25] about the diegesis. The player requires Interpretive Fictional Agency [16], rather than mechanical agency, to emotionally explore an emotional landscape that's been constructed by the developer (a point echoed by Denisova et al [20].…”

“…Note that ambiguity does not mean a lack of information, but the refers to the possibility for multiple interpretations [27]. Give the player space to create their own understanding [16,20], but don't give them so little as to have nothing to build on. • Use emotional exploration as a conceptual tool to visualise the emotional experience as a landscape, similar to how you design an environment and mechanics to traverse and act on/in it.…”