Challenge and adaptation
What makes a game challenging, how to measure it, and how games can adapt to keep that challenge right for each player.
I study what players experience when they play, and how to measure it. My work is organised into six core themes, four related ones, and some other work from collaborations.
What ties it together
The common thread is research methods for evaluating experiences of playing games:
- Using research methods to define experiences
- Creating new tools and methods to assess specific experiences
- Using those tools to evaluate how aspects of games affect player experiences
- Learning how research methods and theories are used and adapted in academic research and industry practice
Core themes
Emotional challenge and meaningful play
Experiences beyond fun, from emotionally difficult content and moral choices to games that stay with you.
Games for good
How games help people through difficult times, and serious games built for health and education.
The placebo effect
How what players are told, or what a feature looks like, changes what they experience.
Measuring player experience
Questionnaires and mixed methods for measuring challenge, uncertainty, agency and players' needs.
Indie developers and the games industry
How indie developers playtest their games, and what research can do to help.
Related themes
Games made for our studies
Some questions need a game built for the purpose. Each one links to the study it was made for.
“Caroline”A horror game whose difficulty responds to the player's heart rate.© Paris Moschovitis
“ExerWitch”A running exergame comparing proactive and reactive difficulty adjustment.© Sittikrai Chorrojprasert
AI dialogue mysteryA detective game comparing AI-powered and human-written dialogue.© Sarita Sridharan
“Old Li”An emotionally challenging game scenario designed for older adults.© Min Zhou
Narrative VR cycling exergameA story-driven cycling game for active older adults.© Min Zhou
“Trick or Treat”A game used to test players' expectations of difficulty adaptation.© Alena Denisova
Questionnaires
Validated questionnaires I developed with colleagues. Each page has the full items, instructions and scoring, with copy and download options (CSV, text and Qualtrics import).
- CORGISChallenge Originating from Recent Gameplay Interaction Scale30 items · 4 subscales · Perceived challenge in digital games
- PUGSPlayer Uncertainty in Games Scale24 items · 5 subscales · Players' experience of uncertainty in digital games
- BANGSBasic Needs in Games Scale18 items · 6 subscales · Satisfaction and frustration of players' basic psychological needs
Other work
Tabletop games, visualisation literacy, telepresence and VR. See the other work