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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

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Nevermind: creating an entertaining biofeedback-enhanced game experience to train users in stress management

(USC Thesis Other)

Nevermind: creating an entertaining biofeedback-enhanced game experience to train users in stress management

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Content NEVERMIND: CREATING AN ENTERTAINING BIOFEEDBACK-‐ENHANCED GAME EXPERIENCE TO TRAIN USERS IN STRESS MANAGEMENT by Erin Elizabeth Reynolds A Thesis Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF FINE ARTS (INTERACTIVE MEDIA) May 2012 Copyright 2012 Erin Elizabeth Reynolds ii Dedication This work is dedicated to Grandma and Grampy Reynolds, Grandma Garrett, and my Aunt Carol. iii Acknowledgements A simple acknowledgement page seems barely adequate for me to fully acknowledge and express my gratitude for the many people who generously invested their time, energy, insight, and patience throughout the development of Nevermind. While my name is the one on this paper, my work on this project is only one facet of a collective effort shared by many others. Below are the individuals who helped to make this crazy idea a reality. When I assembled my thesis committee in mid 2011, I did so under the mistaken impression that we needed four committee members in total (not three). This was, perhaps the best mistake I could have made. Each person on my committee has been an invaluable asset to the project as a whole and has contributed tremendously to my understanding of the content therein. Marientina Gotsis, my thesis chair, has been my oracle – her insight, expansive knowledge of both games and the clinical world, and keen observations were critical to the progress of the project and my own personal development both as a game designer and as a leader. Jeremy Gibson always kept me grounded and focused on the core gameplay experience – ensuring that I always kept the player’s best interests at the forefront of my mind. Andreas Kratky continually challenged me to look at the game world in a whole new way – unifying experience design, aesthetics, and iv philosophy in a fashion I never thought possible. Scott Rogers lent his unique insight and expertise on horror and terror, which was essential to crafting Nevermind’s atmosphere. Without their patience, support, candid criticism, and endless encouragement, Nevermind would not have evolved into the unique, focused experience that it is today. In addition to my committee, I owe a debt of gratitude to the expertise, support, encouragement and generous contributions of both time and energy provided by a number of amazing people across a wide variety of disciplines. I would like to recognize and celebrate the following individuals (in alphabetical order): Mike Ambinder, Mark Bolas, Tim Clark, Scott Easley, Mark Hantoot, Laird Malamed, Sri Narayanan, Ann Page, Chris Pruett, Alasdair Thin, and Michael Zyda. In this vein, I would also like to thank the faculty and staff of the Interactive Media Department. The tools and support they have provided over the years equipped me with the necessary skills to tackle the challenges of a project such as this in addition to any others that lie ahead. All that said, I could never have ventured so deeply into the horrors of the mind without having the tremendous support from my incredible team of Neuroprobers: (in alphabetical order): Derek Baird (Music Composer), Konstantin Brazhnik (Creative Producer/Usability Lead), Jesse Busch (Producer/Technology Lead), DuckSoo Choi (Game Designer/Technical Artist), v Cameron Donley (Engineer), Erick Moen (Hardware Engineer), Don Nguyen (Engineer), Dustin Painter (Sound Designer), Andres Ramirez (Engineer), Charlie Silver (Marketing), Jeff Tinsley (Music Composer), Sam Woo (Engineer), and Fernando Montilla alongside his team at Atlantic College (Environment Art for “The Clinic”). Everyone should be so lucky to work with a collection of developers as dedicated, passionate, and talented as the Nevermind team. There never seemed to be an idea too ambitious or a quality bar too high. Each one of them took on immense challenges on a weekly basis, and performed what seemed like magic – all while making it look effortless. Any positive response that Nevermind earns is a direct reflection of their hard work and tremendous dedication on the project. I also want to take a moment to recognize Marc Spraragen, who generously provided his talent in helping us design most of the puzzles in the game, while also sharing his insight into affective interactivity and acting a sounding board for ideas for evoking and responding to the player’s internal states. Many of the ideas and techniques that enabled the execution of Nevermind were a product of what I learned from my colleagues and coworkers at Disney Interactive – both at offices in Glendale and the former Fall Line Studios. Nevermind may be very different from the games we worked on together, but I owe much of what I have been able to bring to the project to them. vi My friends and family also need to be acknowledged for their incredible support, patience, and understanding throughout this whole process – especially for the last few months of isolation as I focused on completing this project. In moments when things felt a tad darker than they probably were, they were always there to give me a laugh and a supportive pat on the back. Last but certainly not least; I must thank my ever-‐wonderful husband, Charley. Without his inhuman amount of support, patience, selflessness, and humor, it is extremely likely that there would have reports in the papers about a certain graduate student having spontaneously combusted. Thank you, everyone, for helping me reach my dreams. I hope that one day I can help inspire others in the same way you have inspired me. vii Table of Contents DEDICATION..............................................................................................................................II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................III LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................................................X ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................XV CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................1 CHAPTER TWO: CONVENTIONS..........................................................................................4 PRONOUNS...................................................................................................................................................4 FEAR/STRESS TERMINOLOGY...................................................................................................................4 INTENDED AUDIENCE.................................................................................................................................4 CHAPTER THREE: PROJECT OVERVIEW...........................................................................5 GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE............................................................................................................................5 PROJECT PHILOSOPHY................................................................................................................................5 SCOPE OF PROJECT...................................................................................................................................11 CHAPTER FOUR: DESIGN AND NARRATIVE PHILOSOPHY/METHODOLOGY.....12 ACCESSIBILITY..........................................................................................................................................12 NARRATIVE CONTEXT.............................................................................................................................14 GAMEPLAY................................................................................................................................................15 PSYCHOLOGY INFLUENCES......................................................................................................................18 THE HORROR/TERROR EXPERIENCE...................................................................................................22 DESIGNING HORROR................................................................................................................................25 ENVIRONMENTAL ANTAGONISTS...........................................................................................................28 AESTHETIC PHILOSOPHY........................................................................................................................30 AURAL LANDSCAPE..................................................................................................................................35 SYMBOLISM IN THE NARRATIVE............................................................................................................37 GAME DESIGN...........................................................................................................................................39 GAMEPLAY IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS..............................................................................................43 viii CHAPTER FIVE: BIOFEEDBACK.........................................................................................45 STATE OF THE ART IN BIOFEEDBACK....................................................................................................45 WHY BIOFEEDBACK?...............................................................................................................................51 BIOFEEDBACK GAMEPLAY PHILOSOPHY AND EXECUTION.................................................................52 GAMEPLAY FLOW.....................................................................................................................................57 CHAPTER SIX: IMPLEMENTATION...................................................................................64 DEVELOPMENT CYCLE.............................................................................................................................64 PLATFORM................................................................................................................................................64 SENSOR TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW.........................................................................................................65 HEART RATE VARIABILITY (HRV).......................................................................................................66 SENSOR HARDWARE................................................................................................................................68 CHAPTER SEVEN: USER TESTING.....................................................................................72 FIRST-‐STAGE TESTING – INITIAL GAMEPLAY......................................................................................72 SECOND-‐STAGE TESTING – FINAL GAMEPLAY....................................................................................73 THIRD-‐STAGE TESTING – SENSOR INTEGRATION...............................................................................73 CHAPTER EIGHT: WHAT WE LEARNED..........................................................................75 ENTERTAINMENT AND ENRICHMENT CAN CO-‐EXIST.........................................................................75 SENSOR PERIPHERALS AND GAMES ARE POSSIBLE............................................................................75 DIVERSITY IN REACTIONS.......................................................................................................................76 MOTION SICKNESS AND VIRTUAL REALITY..........................................................................................77 DESIGN CHALLENGES..............................................................................................................................79 TRANSLATING THE SENSOR’S RESULTS................................................................................................82 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THOSE WHO COME AFTER US..................................................................84 Review Technology from all Sources....................................................................................84 Design and Clinical Tension......................................................................................................85 Do Not Underestimate the Value of a Good Team...........................................................85 Consider Testing Processes and Results Analysis Early on in the Process..........87 Nothing is Impossible..................................................................................................................87 ix CHAPTER NINE: NEXT STEPS.............................................................................................89 MORE DATA..............................................................................................................................................89 ADDITIONAL DEVICES.............................................................................................................................90 LONGITUDINAL TESTING.........................................................................................................................91 MORE CASUAL GAMER PLAYTESTING...................................................................................................92 DEEPER FEEDBACK RESPONSE..............................................................................................................93 REFINED GAMEPLAY................................................................................................................................93 MORE GAMEPLAY....................................................................................................................................93 EXPANDED ART........................................................................................................................................94 FURTHER EXPLORATION INTO VR........................................................................................................94 BETTER PLAYTESTING METRICS ANALYSIS.........................................................................................95 CHAPTER TEN: CONCLUSION.............................................................................................96 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................................97 APPENDIX A – ORIGINAL NEVERMIND CONCEPT ART............................................108 APPENDIX B – GAME DOCUMENTATION.....................................................................115 APPENDIX C – NARRATIVE..............................................................................................145 The Neurostalgia Institute......................................................................................................145 Spilled Milk – The World Inside the Patient’s Mind......................................................148 APPENDIX D – USABILITY REPORT..............................................................................150 x List of Figures FIGURE 1 – THE GAME MASS EFFECT (PC) USES ELABORATE INTERFACE MENUS AND OPTIONS 13 FIGURE 2 – SCREENSHOT FROM THE GAME MYST 16 FIGURE 3 – A NEVERMIND SCREENSHOT 17 FIGURE 4 – IN NEVERMIND SURREAL IMAGERY IS USED TO REPRESENT THE TORTURED SUBCONSCIOUS 21 FIGURE 5 -‐ EXAMPLE OF CUBIST AND SURREALIST INFLUENCES 31 FIGURE 6 – EXAMPLE OF PRIOR WORK, NUMBERSTER SERIES: 2 32 FIGURE 7 – EXAMPLE OF PRIOR WORK, URSUSMANUS 33 FIGURE 8 – EXAMPLE OF PRIOR WORK, THE UNSTARBLIK SERIES: MAIDEN 33 FIGURE 9 – EXAMPLE OF PRIOR WORK, THE CREATION SERIES: THE CREATION 4 34 FIGURE 10 – THE NEVERMIND " GARAGE" DEPICTING THE DISTURBING NATURE OF THE AESTHETICS 35 FIGURE 11 – THE NEVERMIND "KITCHEN" AREA SHOWING MILK BEING INTERCHANGED WITH BLOOD 38 FIGURE 12 – IMAGE FROM THE FILM THE CELL 46 FIGURE 13 – EXAMPLE OF THE KITCHEN AREA'S REACTION TO THE PLAYER'S STRESS LEVELS 55 FIGURE 14 – A SCENE FROM NEVERMIND WITHOUT THE “STRESS STATIC.” 56 FIGURE 15 – A SCENE FROM NEVERMIND WITH THE “STRESS STATIC.” 56 FIGURE 16 – THE BIOFEEDBACK GAMEPLAY LOOP 58 FIGURE 17 – BIOFEEDBACK-‐BASED DIFFICULTY PROGRESSION 59 FIGURE 18 – FLOW 60 FIGURE 19 – WINDOW OF AFFECT TOLERANCE 61 FIGURE 20 – PN PULSE 1 HEART RATE 69 FIGURE 21 – ATMOSPHERE CONCEPT ART 108 xi FIGURE 22 – ATMOSPHERE CONCEPT ART 109 FIGURE 23 – ATMOSPHERE CONCEPT ART 109 FIGURE 24 -‐ PATIENT POD CONCEPT ART 110 FIGURE 25 -‐ CLINIC RECEPTION CONCEPT ART 111 FIGURE 26 -‐ CLINIC TREE CONCEPT ART 112 FIGURE 27 -‐ CAR LOT CONCEPT ART 113 FIGURE 28 -‐ FUNERAL STORYBOARD 114 FIGURE 29 – OPENING SCREEN 115 FIGURE 30 – DATA ENTRY 116 FIGURE 31 – THE CLINIC ATRIUM 116 FIGURE 32 – THE CLINIC POD 117 FIGURE 33 – THE YARD 118 FIGURE 34 – THE YARD 118 FIGURE 35 – CLEAN HALL 119 FIGURE 36 – CLEAN HALL: DETAILED VIEW 120 FIGURE 37 – CLEAN KITCHEN 120 FIGURE 38 – CLEAN KITCHEN: ALTERNATE ANGLE 121 FIGURE 39 – CLEAN LIVING ROOM 121 FIGURE 40 – CLEAN STAIRWAY 122 FIGURE 41 – CLEAN BEDROOM 122 FIGURE 42 – CLEAN BEDROOM 123 FIGURE 43 – DARK BEDROOM 124 FIGURE 44 – DARK BEDROOM 124 FIGURE 45 – DARK BEDROOM 125 xii FIGURE 46 – DARK BEDROOM 125 FIGURE 47 – DARK BEDROOM 126 FIGURE 48 – DARK BEDROOM 126 FIGURE 49 – DARK BEDROOM 127 FIGURE 50 – DARK STAIRCASE 128 FIGURE 51 – DARK HALLWAY 128 FIGURE 52 – DARK HALLWAY 129 FIGURE 53 – DARK HALL 130 FIGURE 54 – DARK HALLWAY 130 FIGURE 55 – DARK LIVING ROOM 131 FIGURE 56 – DARK LIVING ROOM 132 FIGURE 57 – DARK LIVING ROOM 132 FIGURE 58 – DARK LIVING ROOM 133 FIGURE 59 – DARK LIVING ROOM 133 FIGURE 60 – DARK KITCHEN 134 FIGURE 61 – DARK KITCHEN 135 FIGURE 62 – DARK KITCHEN 135 FIGURE 63 – DARK KITCHEN 136 FIGURE 64 – DARK KITCHEN 136 FIGURE 65 – DARK KITCHEN 137 FIGURE 66 – DARK KITCHEN 137 FIGURE 67 – CAR LOT MAZE 138 FIGURE 68 – CAR LOT MAZE 139 FIGURE 69 – CAR LOT MAZE 139 xiii FIGURE 70 – CAR LOT MAZE 140 FIGURE 71 – CAR LOT MAZE 141 FIGURE 72 – YARD 141 FIGURE 73 – FUNERAL 142 FIGURE 74 – FUNERAL 143 FIGURE 75 – FUNERAL 143 FIGURE 76 – FUNERAL 144 FIGURE 77 – PLAYTEST 1: USER REPORTED DATA 154 FIGURE 78 – PLAYTEST 1: USER REPORTED DATA 154 FIGURE 79 – PLAYTEST 1: USER REPORTED DATA 155 FIGURE 80 – PLAYTEST 1: USER REPORTED DATA 155 FIGURE 81 – PLAYTEST 1: USER REPORTED DATA 156 FIGURE 82 – PLAYTEST 2: USER REPORTED DATA 157 FIGURE 83 – PLAYTEST 2: USER REPORTED DATA 157 FIGURE 84 – PLAYTEST 2: USER REPORTED DATA 158 FIGURE 85 – PLAYTEST 2: USER REPORTED DATA 158 FIGURE 86 – PLAYTEST 2: USER REPORTED DATA 159 FIGURE 87 – PLAYTEST 2: USER REPORTED DATA 159 FIGURE 88 – PLAYTEST 2: USER REPORTED DATA 160 FIGURE 89 – PLAYTEST 3: USER REPORTED DATA 161 FIGURE 90 – PLAYTEST 3: USER REPORTED DATA 161 FIGURE 91 – PLAYTEST 3: USER REPORTED DATA 162 FIGURE 92 – PLAYTEST 3: USER REPORTED DATA 162 FIGURE 93 – PLAYTEST 3: USER REPORTED DATA 163 xiv FIGURE 94 – PLAYTEST 3: USER REPORTED DATA 163 FIGURE 95 – HR AND DVANN DATA FROM PLAYTESTER #17 164 FIGURE 96 – HR AND DVANN DATA FROM PLAYTESTER #18 165 FIGURE 97 – HR AND DVANN DATA FROM PLAYTESTER #19 165 FIGURE 98 – HR AND DVANN DATA FROM PLAYTESTER #21 166 FIGURE 99 – HR AND DVANN DATA FROM PLAYTESTER #22 166 FIGURE 100 – HR AND DVANN DATA FROM PLAYTESTER #23 167 FIGURE 101 – HR AND DVANN DATA FROM PLAYTESTER #24 167 FIGURE 102 – HR AND DVANN DATA FROM PLAYTESTER #25 168 xv Abstract Nevermind is a PC-‐based biofeedback-‐enhanced exploration horror game that challenges the player to go outside of his psychological comfort zone. Players are asked to either bravely face the fear and stress of an unknown ever-‐changing space (and thus be rewarded with progress) or to retreat, turning their back not only on the source of their fears, but also on their character, other in-‐game characters, or – more importantly – themselves. While many games already employ this technique to a certain extent, Nevermind’s use of biofeedback technology isolates the problem of fear and stress, making it a concrete, measurable entity that can be identified and addressed on a very direct and personal level. The high entertainment value of the game serves to compel players to push further to find out “what happens next” -‐ and, in turn, the demand to venture into the terrifying unknown and return unscathed (both as a player and as a person) encourages players to push beyond boundaries of fear in their own lives. 1 Chapter One: Introduction Growing up, I loved playing video games. From my very first Nintendo Entertainment System to my beloved Sega Genesis to my Xbox 360, I have never ceased to be inspired by digital interactive experiences. My parents, however, didn’t always see it that way. Sharing, no doubt, the perspective of many other parents over the past few decades, they saw games as being junk-‐food entertainment: to them games were merely a time sink that offered little lasting value to the player. Nowadays I feel that one can point to many examples of how games can be far more than mere escapist entertainment: rather they can, in fact, serve as powerful tools to inspire, educate, and engage. In this day and age, it appears evident that the diversity of experiences offered by video games is fairly well recognized. With increasing interest in the implicit benefits of playing games themselves and the introduction of gestural controls such as the Nintendo Wii, Playstation Move and Microsoft Kinect systems, the potential physical and mental health merits of games have made their way to mainstream discussion – earning features in publications such as NPR 1 , The Wall Street Journal 2 , 1 Allison Aubrey, “Gaming You Way to Fitness,” NPR 15 May 2008, 31 Mar. 2012 < http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90448872>. 2 and National Geographic 3 . Furthermore, the advent of games such as Shadow of the Colossus and Flower, have inspired fields outside of game development to take note of video games’ merit as an art form. 4 Additionally, as evidenced by many grade school computer labs, it has long been suspected that games can be an effective means of sneaking education into fun 5 – much like a savvy parent might drizzle tasty cheese over an otherwise unappetizing serving of broccoli. Even the inherent systems that make up games themselves can fundamentally be related to education systems 6 – creating mutually beneficial opportunities. Video games are an immensely powerful medium. In my mind, their very nature makes them uniquely equipped to prompt, gather, analyze and respond to data to an incredible degree while also being accessible, widely available, and actively sought out by a massive audience. In addition to communicating story, emotions, and 2 Robert L. Hotz, “When Gaming Is Good for You,” WSJ 5 Mar. 2012, 1 Apr. 2012, <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203458604577263273943183 932.html>. 3 John Roach, “Video Games Boost Visual Skills, Study Finds,” National Geographic, 28 May 2003, 01 Apr. 2012, <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0528_030528_videogames.h tml>. 4 "The Art of Video Games," Smithsonian American Art Museum, 800 F Street Northwest Washington, DC 20004, March 16, 2012 – Sep. 30, 2012. 5 Herb Brody, “Video Games That Teach?” Technology Review 1993: 50-‐57 6 James Paul Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). 3 situations to their audience (much like other media), video games uniquely allow their users the opportunity to listen and respond appropriately. As I see it, video games can serve as extremely intelligent and intuitive pieces of interactive art that are capable of having a meaningful conversation with any who opts to engage with them. Throughout my career as a game designer, I have always strived to ensure that the games I create are not only engaging, but also leave a lasting, positive impact on the player. For Nevermind, my goal was to look towards what the future may hold for games (in terms of both technology and user experience) and create what I believe will be the next step in player/game interaction. I feel that the time has come for games to listen to the player in new ways 7 beyond overt, directed input, all the while equipping the player with tools they can truly put to good use throughout their daily lives. In summation, Nevermind was developed with the intent of creating an entertaining, meaningful game with a positive impact, while remaining accessible to the mainstream consumer audience and engaging players in an entirely new way. 7 Latitude, "The Future of Gaming: A Portrait of the New Gamers," Latitude, Aug. 2011, 2 Apr. 2012 <http://latd.com/wp-‐content/uploads/2011/08/Latitude-‐ FutureofGaming.pdf>. 4 Chapter Two: Conventions Pronouns Male pronouns (he, his, etc) are used to represent the player throughout this document. This in no way should indicate that the game is intended only for men, rather it is there to simplify the text as much as possible and avoid verbal clutter. Fear/Stress Terminology The colloquial terms “fear,” “stress,” or “becoming scared” are used in this document refer to the psychological arousal that can occur when the player reacts to an unpleasant event or the anticipation thereof. Intended Audience The content of the following discussion is written from a game designer’s perspective and is intended for other game designers and developers who are interested in leveraging biofeedback technology to create meaningful game experiences. In so doing, this paper discusses the philosophies, methodologies, processes, trials, and successes Nevermind encountered throughout development in our efforts to achieve our goal of enriching players through entertainment. 5 Chapter Three: Project Overview Gameplay Experience Nevermind is a first-‐person adventure game that takes place primarily within the heads of trauma victims who do not remember or cannot process a key traumatic event that forever changed their lives. The player’s goal is to explore deep inside the dark, twisted minds of these patients to discover and identify the origin of the forgotten trauma so that the victim may be able to reconcile their past and begin their path to recovery. Project Philosophy One of the goals for Nevermind was to integrate contemporary medical research and philosophy with game design and development methodologies to create an experience that would both engage and empower the player. Although I believe games have limitless potential in how they can inspire and entertain, for this project, we decided to focus our attention on tackling the issues of stress and stress management. Before getting into the details of the project itself, it is important to establish what we mean by stress. As empirically evidenced from the world around us, stress is a 6 constant force – for good or ill – that we all share. Stress is a biological necessity and it has a dramatic impact on each individual’s mental, emotional and physical health. Stress (clinically categorized as “arousal”), is neither inherently good nor bad – it can have either a positive or negative “tone,” or valence 8 . With a positive valence, stress can motivate an individual to perform and achieve. Even arousal with a negative valence (such as being in a state of distress 9 ) can be a healthy thing in the right circumstances. Distress could trigger a fight or flight reaction 10 – which can be a perfectly appropriate response to a genuinely distressful event (such as being chased by a tiger). Despite its potential benefits, stress with a negative valence (a.k.a. toxic stress) can take its toll on the human body and spirit – especially as a constant force left unmanaged. 11 Although stress is appropriate in some circumstances, many of us can recount several instances in our own lives where negative stress reactions have manifested when they were not truly warranted. How many times have we felt our 8 James A Russell, “A Circumplex Model of Affect,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1980: 1163. 9 Russell 1164 10 NIMH.NIH.gov, “Fact Sheet on Stress,” National Institute of Mental Health, 30 Mar. 2012, 01 Apr. 2012, <http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/stress/fact-‐ sheet-‐on-‐stress.shtml>. 11 NIMH.NIH.gov 7 adrenaline rising to tiger-‐evading levels when we are running late and have misplaced our keys? Naturally, not everyone experiences stress the same way. Some people are very responsive to stressful stimuli, while others are more desensitized. Some are acutely aware of stress, and thus can have very controlled reactions while others may experience stress on a more subconscious level. Some may be able to recover from a stressful scenario in a matter of moments, while others may take hours to fully return to “normal.” 12 Each individual’s response to stress is primarily due to a chemical reaction that is determined during early childhood. 13 Although responses to stress can be changed throughout life, the process must happen slowly and within the comfort of one’s own boundaries. This is where Nevermind comes in. Inspired by the therapeutic process of slowly adjusting one’s responses to stress, the game seeks to help players push their boundaries and become more familiarized with their reaction to stressful situations – ultimately learning how to react in the most constructive, healthy way possible. 12 Mark R. Somerfield and Robert R. McCrae, "Stress and Coping Research: Methodological Challenges, Theoretical Advances, and Clinical Applications," American Psychologist 2000: 620-‐25 13 “The Foundations of Lifelong Health Are Built in Early Childhood,” Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University [Cambridge] July 2010. 8 Nevermind strives to achieve this by increasing the player’s coping self-‐efficacy via presenting him with a series of unpleasant situations and rewarding his ability to persevere through them with both game and narrative progression. The general idea behind this is explained in Predicting performance under acute stress: The role of individual characteristics: “Because people with strong coping self-‐efficacy are more confident in their ability to deal with stressful situations, and believe they can do something to change the situation, they will consequently use more task-‐focused, and less emotion-‐focused, coping behavior.” 14 In other words, Nevermind does not teach stress management itself – rather it aims to bolster’s the player’s emotional intelligence, awareness, and confidence in his stress management skills. As a result, in Nevermind the player is actively encouraged to force himself to proceed into scenarios that he knows will cause stress or fear, fully experience said reactions, and then quickly temper his subconscious response, allowing him to return to a state of calm. In other words, Nevermind encourages – and rewards – “true” bravery: the ability to subject oneself to an uncomfortable or unpleasant experience knowing that doing so will lead to extrinsic or intrinsic progress. This is discussed further in the “Biofeedback” section of this paper. 14 Roos Delahaij, et al., "Predicting Performance Under Acute Stress: The Role of Individual Characteristics," International Journal of Stress Management 2011: 3. 9 In Nevermind, when the player becomes stressed or fearful, the game will actually increase in intensity and difficulty. In turn, when the player calms himself, the game returns to its more passive neutral state. If the player is unable to calm himself, then the game will become increasingly more difficult and intense until, worst case, the player is ultimately removed from the level and given an opportunity to relax before returning to where he left off in the game. The number and degree of stressful encounters are paced as the experience progresses – with earlier moments leaving more opportunities to collect oneself when faced with moments of stress – and later events demanding more active stress management “on the fly”. One aspect that should be emphasized is that Nevermind is not built as a self-‐help program that guides the player on how to handle stress in a didactic manner. Rather, it leads the player to personally discover how to manage his own unique stress triggers – providing plenty of opportunities to practice, refine, and habitually employ these healthy coping strategies both in and out of the game. One of the foremost leaders in Affective Computing, Rosalind Picard, reinforces this strategy in her book “Affective Computing:” Whatever his strategy, the good teacher detects important affective cues from the student and responds differently because of them. For example, the teacher might leave subtle hints or clues for the student to discover, thereby preserving the learner's sense of self-‐propelled discovery. Whether the subject matter involves deliberate emotional expression as is the case with music, or is a "non-‐emotional" topic such as science, the teacher that attends to a student's interest, pleasure, and distress is perceived as more effective than the teacher that proceeds callously. The best teachers know that frustration usually precedes quitting, and know how to redirect or motivate the pupil at such times. They get to know 10 their student, including how much distress that student can withstand before learning breaks down." 15 To provide an engaging experience that places the player in uncomfortable and stressful situations, we chose to make Nevermind an explorative psychological horror game. However, in choosing this genre, it was critical that the standard tropes of traditional horror games did not interfere or conflict with our goals to equip the player with skills and tools that might enable healthy stress management. As such, we made the decision up front to exclude enemies or any other actively aggressive elements. This choice is discussed further in the “Environmental Antagonists” section of this paper. To fashion a horrific atmosphere powerful enough to elicit a psycho-‐physiological response, significant attention needed to be given to the aesthetics and narrative aspects of the game. For the aesthetics, inspiration was drawn from the Surrealist Movement to create an abstract, “horrific” (but not directly threatening) environment. This is discussed in more detail in the “Designing Horror” section of this paper. 15 Rosalind W. Picard, Affective Computing (Cambridge: MI, 1997) 93-‐94. 11 Scope of Project The overall design for Nevermind is representative of a large-‐scale, mainstream game. However, to isolate and fully develop the key components of the game in accordance with its goals, the team focused on completing one “level” of the gameplay experience alongside the interstitial Clinic area that would ultimately serve as the player’s “hub” between all potential levels. Doing so allowed the Nevermind team the time required to experiment, research, develop, and iterate as needed to fully investigate the many questions that the project sought to address. 12 Chapter Four: Design and Narrative Philosophy/Methodology When designing Nevermind, one of our primary goals was to create a game that could stand alone as a fun and compelling experience. If a game is not genuinely engaging, then players are not going to want to spend time with it. In other words, if the player is not captivated, then the emotional impact of the game’s narrative, the inherent beauty of its art, or any potential personal-‐growth opportunities, will all be inconsequential. Accessibility In order to meet our goal that Nevermind could benefit as many people as possible, we knew that it not only needed to be fun, but also accessible to as many different types of users as possible. The execution of this philosophy manifested in a number of ways. For example, many commercial mainstream games available on the market utilize a complex visual language to communicate relevant gameplay statistics and goals – relying on a set of skills a player has presumably learned over the years to ensure engagement and success within the game. Anecdotally, this language can be very intimidating and overwhelming to non-‐gamers and often creates too steep of a learning curve for them to be willing to invest their time and energy long term into the experience. 13 Figure 1 – The game Mass Effect (PC) uses elaborate interface menus and options 16 The Nevermind development team and I wanted even those who had never played a videogame prior to still be able to easily pick-‐up, experience, and enjoy Nevermind. It was important to us that Nevermind was an immersive experience and never felt “too game-‐y.” That is, any reminders of it being a video game – such as an elaborate heads-‐up display or the use of thematically inconsistent sound effects could break the delicate immersive experience that is so critical to evoking feelings of fear and horror in the player. 16 Mass Effect, Joystiq.com, Digital Image, Feb. 2008, 27 Mar. 2012, <http://www.joystiq.com/media/2008/02/mass-‐effect-‐pc-‐490w.jpg>. 14 In light of these goals, we had to be very conscious of how we designed both the overall and moment-‐to-‐moment experiences. In order to do this, we established a series of guidelines to ensure that the final product would be fun, accessible, and immersive. These guidelines included: • Seamlessly Beneficial – Any ”health-‐related” components of the game need to be seamlessly integrated with the game itself. In other words, they should contribute to rather than detract from the fun of the game. • Minimal UI – Any necessary user interface elements need to be as minimalistic and efficient as possible while always feeling appropriate to the world and theme of the game. This is discussed further in the “Aesthetic Philosophy” section. • Accessible Puzzles – Any puzzles or challenges in the game could be solved using skills and knowledge commonly available to any user. This is discussed further in the “Horror Philosophy” section. Given these guidelines, the exploration-‐based adventure game genre was clearly the most natural and logical choice to our team. Narrative Context In order to weave the desired mechanics into a cohesive narrative within the context of the biofeedback/horror theme, we felt that it would be pertinent to challenge the player with the grim task of exploring the minds and memories of 15 psychologically traumatized patients. It was our belief that this gameplay metaphor would create a unique, intriguing environment that would provide ample opportunities to present interesting logic and spatial puzzles, establish a horror aesthetic that could push the player’s stress limits, and present a narrative that not only speaks to the gameplay and environment, but introduces the player to a real-‐ world issue, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) 17 . PTSD and the influence of other concepts from Psychology are discussed further in the “Psychology Influences” section within this paper. A more elaborate explanation of the game’s narrative can also be found in “Appendix C.” Gameplay Nevermind’s gameplay centers around the player traversal of the abstract, unfamiliar territory of patients’ mindscapes in order to find hints of what may have originally caused the trauma that they can no longer recall. Upon entering the patient’s mind, the player is prompted to look for clues within all aspects of the world and make informed decisions about with which objects to interact. Some entities will bring him closer to his goal while others will errantly antagonize the patient’s psyche, triggering events that will stress the player, and/or complicate the scenario further. At its most fundamental level, this exploration/puzzle mechanic 17 Mayo Clinic Staff, "Post-‐traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Definition," Mayo Clinic, 08 Apr. 2011, 01 Apr. 2012, <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/post-‐ traumatic-‐stress-‐disorder/DS00246>. 16 has been successful in many games, including the popular classic Myst. Both Myst and Nevermind inherently draw more upon innate knowledge (such as observation and analysis) for progression rather than medium-‐specific knowledge such as split-‐ second reaction times or deciphering complex user interface systems. Examples of specific puzzles within Nevermind, can be found in “Appendix B.” Figure 2 – Screenshot from the game Myst 18 18 Myst, Kotaku.com, Digital Image, 2008, 27 Mar. 2012, <http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/images/4/2008/08/Myst-‐library_and_ship.jpg>. 17 Figure 3 – A Nevermind screenshot Reflecting upon the progression of Nevermind’s core mechanics over the course of development, the gameplay experience evolved away from the conventions of a traditional video game and more towards that of a virtual reality experience 19 . Ultimately, we aimed to accomplish something akin to the overall experience of ThatGameCompany’s games, which have been described as being “…about the feeling of being somewhere, not about the feeling of solving something.” 20 In other words, we knew the experience fundamentally needed to be something that players could intrinsically understand and relate to. While Nevermind presents the player 19 Robert Switzer, "Over-‐writing the Body: Virtual Reality and Cartesian Metaphysics," Philosophy Today 1997. 20 Ian Bogost, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Game Studio," The Atlantic, 15 Mar. 2012, 01 Apr. 2012, <http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/12/03/a-‐portrait-‐ of-‐the-‐artist-‐as-‐a-‐game-‐studio/254494/>. 18 with goals and puzzles with discrete solutions, the focus ended up being more on the player’s presence within the space rather than the player’s actions upon it. In his essay “Shock, Horror: First-‐Person Gaming, Horror, and the Art of Ludic Manipulation,” Dan Pinchbeck postulates: “…what can be stated confidently is that there is a direct, if reduced, perceptual mapping between avatar and player in FPS games and this has the potential to reduce the emotional distance between world and player. This argument can be supported by the clear shift across the genre to move epistemological and orienting devices within the presented diegesis, rather than relying upon heterodigetic, system level, information (such as save screens, quad damage, pop-‐up instruction). This…is highly suggestive of a drive within the genre towards an unbroken, highly immersive experience.” 21 As such, although our focus on simplicity and intuition in gameplay while eschewing complexity for the sake of immersion may seem to go against the grain of many horror games currently on the market, by Pinchbeck’s logic, immersion actually aligns well with some of best practices within the horror game genre. Psychology Influences In developing Nevermind, we took significant inspiration from psychological research. In many ways, the ideas within this discipline not only drove our high-‐ 21 Dan Pinchbeck, “Shock, Horror: First-‐Person Gaming, Horror, and the Art of Ludic Manipulation," Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play, ed. Bernard Perron (Jefferson: McFarland) 79, Location 1184. 19 level vision (to create an experience intended to evoke a psycho-‐physiological response), but also directly informed the narrative of the game. Given that Nevermind takes place within a clinic designed to treat those with extreme cases of Post-‐traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – and since most gameplay occurs within the minds of these patients, we felt that it was critical for us to become with PTSD and related concepts in order to represent it as accurately as possible within the context of the game. PTSD is described in the DSM-‐IV-‐TR as being “characterized by the reexperiencing of an extremely traumatic event accompanied by symptoms of increased arousal and by avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma.” 22 Part of the criteria for PTSD includes that “the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others” and that “the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.” 23 This definition suggests why the topic of PTSD, from a very practical perspective, was a good fit for Nevermind. One could argue that the world within the mind of the diagnosed individual is, in many ways, a horror game in and of itself. From a 22 American Psychiatric Association, DSM-‐IV-‐TR (Washington: American Psychiatric Association, 2002) Chapter 7, Introduction. 23 American Psychiatric Association, Chapter 7 20 storytelling perspective, we were also attracted to the notion of thematically leveraging PTSD as a means to help raise awareness of the disorder. In both casually speaking with peers and examining my own original assumptions, it became clear that PTSD is most frequently discussed in relation to soldiers, war, and victims of sexual assault. However, PTSD is something that impacts a much wider range of people and can be incurred in a variety of ways, as psychological trauma is simply “a response to a terrible event…” 24 We saw this as a great opportunity to create a variety of twisted, ever-‐threatening, confused, and deeply personal worlds while also subtly raising awareness about an often misunderstood condition. Another key psychological concept was the notion of a “vertical split”. According to NMS Psychiatry: Dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, and dissociative identity disorder tend to occur after some traumatic event, for which these disorder are seen to arise as a defense against. Unlike repression, which creates a ’horizontal’ split in consciousness, disassociation creates a ’vertical’ split leading to a parallel consciousness of sorts. This defense is maladaptive in the sense that it delays ’working through’ the trauma. 25 This concept not only provided an opportunity to create a “mystery” that the player could solve – it also reinforced the viability of legitimately creating an entirely surreal world within which, in a sense, one half of the patient’s mind exists. 24 American Psychological Association, “Trauma,” American Psychological Association, 01 Apr. 2012, <http://www.apa.org/topics/trauma/index.aspx>. 25 Joshua T. Thornhill, VI Dissociative Disorders: B (Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2011) 169-‐170. 21 Figure 4 – In Nevermind Surreal imagery is used to represent the tortured subconscious In some ways, we saw the story of the forgotten trauma as not being too dissimilar to narrative structure of many Japanese horror games, from which Nevermind conceptually and aesthetically drew great inspiration. While analyzing a talk given by Akira Yamaoka, the producer of Japanese Horror Game Silent Hill 3 26 and Silent Hill 4, 27 Survival Horror expert Chris Pruett discusses the “Japanese concept of 26 Daedolon (2965) and Karthik KANE (465), “Silent Hill 3,” Moby Games 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/silent-‐hill-‐3/credits>. 27 Daedolon (2965) and Joyvalley (465), “Silent Hill 4: The Room,” Moby Games 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/silent-‐hill-‐4-‐the-‐ room/credits>. 22 onnen, which is a grudge or need for vengeance that might be manifested even after the person’s death.” 28 Many horror games have onnen manifest as ghosts or other supernatural intangible antagonist. In Nevermind, we made the menacing, intangible antagonist the forgotten memory lurking throughout the environment of the patient’s mind. The trauma memory serves as an omnipresent force that is haunting the patient (and the player) and thus needs to be defeated. As such, we saw that many of the psychological symptoms of PTSD patients actually philosophically align fairly well with many of the tried and true principles of classic Japanese horror game design. The Horror/Terror Experience Before we dig into the specifics of Nevermind’s horror content, it is important to note the type of horror that we were looking to achieve. Nevermind defines itself as a horror game – specifically, a psychological exploration horror game – however, even with a three-‐word qualification, the term horror can be highly ambiguous. In all media – but especially in games – horror can refer to games with a broad variety of aesthetics, subgoals, narrative structures, and player expectations. As explained in Carroll’s The Philosophy of Horror or Paradoxes of the Heart: 28 Chris Pruett, "GDC: Akira Yamaoka and the Atmosphere of Silent Hill," Chris’ SURVIVAL HORROR Quest 13 Mar. 2005, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.dreamdawn.com/sh/post_view.php?index=1715>. 23 The word ‘horror’ derives from the Latin ‘horrere‘ (to stand on end) – as hair standing on end or to bristle -‐ and the old French ‘orror’ – to bristle or to shudder. And though it need not be the case that our hair must literally stand on end when we are art-‐horrified, it is important to stress that the original conception of the word connected it with an abnormal (from the subject’s point of view) physiological state of felt agitation. 29 In other words, per Carroll’s definition, the sense of horror that Nevermind sought to achieve is one that causes the player to “be on edge” and physically feel a sense of dread or aversion to certain moments or areas within the gamespace. Digging into it further, “horror” is actually technically not the correct term for what Nevermind seeks to create. Rather, it would be more accurate to say that Nevermind is a “terror” game. As described in his book “The Gothic Flame,” Devendra Varma clarifies that “the difference between Terror and Horror is the difference between awful apprehension and sickening realization: between the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse 30 .” Per Varma, terror is anticipation of something awful whereas horror is the cathartic moment of encountering the awful. Nevermind rarely shows the player any explicit gruesome details of the events that happened around the trauma. Rather, such events are merely hinted at and alluded 29 Noël Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror or Paradoxes of the Heart (New York: Routledge, 1990) 24. 30 Devendra P. Varma, The Gothic Flame: Being a History of Gothic Novel in England: Its Origins, Efflorescence, Disintegration, and Residuary Influences (Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1987) 130. 24 to so that the player may develop this sense of “terror” as he comes to his own realization of what he believes happened to the patient. To use another quote, Stephen King further defines the concept in stating, “terror – what Hunter Thompson calls “fear and loathing” – often arises from a pervasive sense of disestablishment that things are in the unmaking.” 31 The terror in Nevermind serves two purposes: to elicit a pyscho-‐physiological response in the player that simulates how he may react in “the real world” when encountering an anxiety-‐inducing situation and,to subtly communicate the grim narrative of the patient’s trauma. If the traumatic event were shown more explicitly, through a cut-‐scene cinematic, for example (bringing it more into the “horrific” realm) then the mystery-‐solving aspect of the gameplay would be compromised. Rather, Nevermind subtly reveals through the warped lens of the patient’s memory the devolution, the disestablishment, the “unmaking” of the patient’s once “normal” world into the trauma-‐induced chaos that has become her sub-‐consciousness. King goes on to say that, “If that sense of unmaking is sudden and seems personal – if it hits you around the heart-‐ then it lodges in the memory as a complete set.” 32 31 Stephen King, Stephen King’s Danse Macabre (New York: Everest House, 1981) Location 677 32 King Location 678 25 Allowing the player to engage his imagination alongside the unraveling of the narrative builds anticipation and creates a more potent sense of involvement. As a result, this process may also possibly generate even greater physiological responses in the player, ultimately creating a much more emotionally powerful gameplay experience. Nuances of “terror” versus “horror” aside, within the game industry, any game that seeks to evoke a sense of fear through the use of surreal or extreme circumstances, is generally classified as a “horror game” or a variation thereof (e.g. “survival horror” or “psychological horror”). As such, throughout this paper, the term “horror” will be used to discuss Nevermind’s approach to provoking a physiological sense of agitation based on the anticipation, dread and anxiety surrounding what is to come. Designing Horror The design guidelines above required us to take a new and different approach to designing a horror game, diverging from many of the standard practices that gamers have come to expect from titles within this genre. Horror games have long been a staple of the gaming community. In “Match Made in Hell: The Inevitable Success of the Horror Genre in Video Games,” Richard Rouse III 26 states, “Games have inhabited the horror genre for almost as long as they’ve been in existence.” 33 However, both my observation and anecdotal accounts have led me to believe that many of them can only be fully enjoyed by players with a high level of mechanical skill. For example, many horror games rely on awkward or confusing control schemes, hindering the player-‐character’s movement and the ability to properly orient the camera (the player’s viewport) to clearly identify threats. For example, Silent Hill 2 34 employs a control scheme that is, in my experience, unresponsive and clunky at best. As I understand it, this technique, while sometimes frustrating, is often intentionally used to effectively heighten the sense of vulnerability and intensify the horrific experience. Additionally, many horror games – especially survival horror games – rely on inundating the player with gruesome and resilient enemies that the player is ill equipped to defeat. In the Resident Evil series, the player is sparingly granted limited ammunition to take on zombies and monstrous foes that are coming at him around every corner, often demanding the player to try and desperately evade combat rather than engage in it. These encounters are compounded by the fact that the penalty of failure is generally quite severe (usually death, which effectively leads to 33 Richard Rouse III, “Match Made in Hell: The Inevitable Success of the Horror Genre in Video Games," Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play, ed. Bernard Perron (Jefferson: McFarland) 15, Location 218. 34 MAT (45644), “Silent Hill 2,” Moby Games 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.mobygames.com/game/ps2/silent-‐hill-‐2/credits>. 27 loss of prior progress). This punishing style of game design very clearly raises the stakes (and anxiety levels) for the player across the board. Even when the player is not in combat,s the threat of another intense encounter potentially lurks around every corner. While some may argue that there is nothing wrong with the aforementioned approach to horror game design 35 , as it increases the player’s engagement with the experience 36 , I believe that, as a byproduct, it also inherently creates a learning curve that can be prohibitively steep. The high level of difficulty, intentionally frustrating mechanics, and inability (or unwillingness) to invest the time or energy to overcome the learning curve often prevents these non, casual, or even “average” players from progressing deeply into the game and taking full advantage of all that it has to offer. Since a priority of Nevermind was to create a widely engaging, accessible experience, we chose to implement a simple control scheme and logical, familiar camera system to intentionally avoid the steep learning curve that is common to the genre. 35 Chris Pruett, "Ingredients of Horror: Two-‐Factor and Horror Game Design," Chris’ SURVIVAL HORROR Quest 02 Jan. 2011, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.dreamdawn.com/sh/post_view.php?index=7979>. 36 Chris Pruett, "Pressed by the Dark: Building Emotions with High-‐stakes Play," Game Developer Magazine Feb. 2011: 33-‐38 28 It is important to note that employing the more traditional techniques discussed above may have made the game even scarier and more stressful. However, doing so could have also led to the player’s stress originating more from his frustration with the mechanics of the game itself rather than his own internal sense of building dread in response to his investment in the narrative and atmosphere. Furthermore, it was important that, in Nevermind, the difficulty of the experience would be entirely dependent on the user and his ability to recover after moments of fear rather than “twitch” reflexes common to other games. This is discussed in more detail in the “Biofeedback and Gameplay Philosophy” section of this paper. While it was anticipated that some players would have higher or lower levels of tolerance to Nevermind’s approach to horror, the goal was that most should be able to participate in and enjoy the experience. We wanted the only barrier of entry to be the player’s willingness to proceed into darkness and practice fortifying himself accordingly and, in so doing, ultimately investing in the development of a new gameplay “muscle” that could, in turn, be of use in the real world. Environmental Antagonists Although we felt we needed an antagonizing force in the game to keep it compelling, early in Nevermind’s design a very conscious decision was made to avoid introducing traditional enemies often found in video games (e.g. zombies, monsters, enemy soldiers, etc). As discussed earlier, we wanted to make sure the game would 29 be accessible to a wide variety of players. In my experience as a game designer, I have observed that as soon as one introduces enemies that are attacking and chasing after the player, it becomes very easy for the game to feel too intimidating or difficult for casual or non-‐gamers. My initial concern was that, should these experiences in the game appear too overwhelming, players might not feel comfortable approaching the experience in the first place. We also wanted to be cautious about potentially “de-‐sensitizing” players in real life to events or scenarios in which acting upon fear and stress is a perfectly appropriate reaction. For example, if a knife-‐wielding thug were chasing after the player in real life, we wouldn’t want his first reaction to be to mellow out, we’d want it to be to fight or take flight! In those scenarios, stress and adrenaline is vital to survival. 37 This is yet another reason why we chose to focus more on “terror” – simulating anxiety-‐inducing situations in which peace of mind is more valuable than panic instead of traditional horror, where panic may be the most appropriate response. As a result, we turned to the environment to provide our antagonizing force, wherein the world around the player becomes progressively more intimidating the more their stress levels rise. Focusing on the environment made a lot of sense to us because it is ultimately more familiar and conceptually evocative of those seemingly 37 Julia Layton, “How Fear Works,” HowStuffWorks, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-‐ biology/fear2.htm>. 30 mundane stressful scenarios that we encounter all the time. As noted earlier, when you are running late and can’t find your car keys, doesn’t the room start to feel a little messier, and the more stressed you get, the more chaotic it seems to become? Later, when you have calmed down and aren’t looking for them anymore, somehow the keys turn out to be in the most obvious spot possible. Drawing upon the affordances of the environment helped us capture that very feeling. Furthermore, staying true to our interpretation of PTSD and the subconscious landscapes of those suffering from the condition, we opted to slowly build up a sense of dread and unease with accents of the unexpected – rather than inundate the player with expected and defeat-‐able adversaries. While this intuitive, environment-‐based approach to horror fit our overall goals for the experience, approaching it in a way that actually induced a sense of fear and dread became quite a challenge. Without enemies or any real consequence in the game, we had to rely entirely on the atmosphere and narrative to instill a sense of terror in the player. This is where the aesthetics of the game became essential. Aesthetic Philosophy Given the challenges and goals discussed in the sections above, it was clear to us early on that the overall effectiveness of the game would be entirely dependent on the aesthetics of the environment. These navigational spaces not only convey the 31 embedded narrative of the world, but also play a vital role in both creating the horrific experiences necessary to prompt a response on the part of the player while also providing a means to reflect an increase in stress levels via changes within the environment. Drawing upon influences from art history, Nevermind leveraged conceptual themes found in the Surrealism movement, Cubist movement, and others to create a rich world capable of evoking a psycho-‐physiological response within users in the absence of an active, aggressive threat. Figure 5 -‐ Example of Cubist and Surrealist Influences 32 As the creative director of the project, I knew from the very inception of Nevermind that it would be necessary for me to draw upon my background as both a visual artist and my experience as a game designer to fashion a cohesive vision for the experience as a whole. Having been an illustrator and concept artist for many years before transitioning to game design, I was already equipped with an understanding of how to communicate ideas and express emotions visually. Given our goal to convey the narrative of the trauma almost exclusively though embedded narrative and, in turn, elicit physical reactions from the player, leveraging these skills would be of the utmost importance. It should be noted that, although we had very specific reasons for choosing the dark, surreal aesthetic that we did, much of the overall visual tone was also influenced by my own natural tendencies as an artist to explore intriguing yet disturbing characters and landscapes. Figure 6 – Example of Prior Work, Numberster Series: 2 33 Figure 7 – Example of Prior Work, Ursusmanus Figure 8 – Example of Prior Work, The Unstarblik Series: Maiden 34 Figure 9 – Example of Prior Work, The Creation Series: The Creation 4 As discussed further in the “Game Design” section found later in this paper, an unexpected by-‐product of the use of puzzles in Nevermind was a potential compromise of the game’s ability to immerse the player. Each of these challenges ended up placing an additional burden on the aesthetics. Scenarios had to be disturbing/unpleasant enough to elicit an emotional response from the player, but not so “over the top” that they obfuscate the narrative message. Similarly, all puzzles needed to have strong ties to narrative themes and/or directly encourage interaction with the more disturbing elements of the world to keep them from becoming too detached from the atmosphere of the play experience. 35 Figure 10 – The Nevermind " Garage" depicting the disturbing nature of the aesthetics Aural Landscape While the visual presentation of the game was critically important to properly evoke emotion and communicate our narrative, we felt that the aural landscape equally as important. From our own personal experience, we were aware of the power that atmospherically appropriate music and evocative sound effects could have in amplifying an emotional effect. However, we were concerned that a traditional game soundtrack (e.g. a looping theme that changes only, and often abruptly, when players moved to a new key location) might break the immersion of the experience as a whole. Given this concern, we decided to invest in developing an audio system in which any location-‐based music transitions would occur seamlessly – as if it were 36 an intentional transition that one might find in a film soundtrack. In addition to seamlessly transitioning from location to location, we also added functionality that would allow music to seamlessly transition from stress-‐state to stress-‐state. In other words, if the game detects that the player may be getting stressed, a more “intense” music track will begin to play – acknowledging the player’s increase in anxiety. By virtue of a complex system developed by the team within the Unity game engine and audio tracks that were carefully composed and segmented by the composers, we were able to create an auditory experience that is customized to the player’s unique experience that nonetheless sounds pre-‐scripted and intentional throughout. While this system was implemented relatively late in development and has yet to undergo extensive testing, we feel confident that this dynamic soundtrack will prove extremely valuable in keeping the player immersed in the experience while accentuating both the quiet and intense in-‐game moments respectively. Beyond complimenting the visuals to help ensure emotional engagement, the audio also played another essential role in Nevermind that was key to tying the interaction experience, visuals, and storytelling together – the aural narrative. Although still in development, we will be using the aural narrative to communicate the nuances of the world within the patient’s subconscious via “conversations” between key characters dredged up from the patient’s memories that can be partially heard through the walls of specific rooms. These conversations are 37 intended to subtly define the narrative in each location while making the world as a whole feel richer and more robust. Additionally, while these voices can be heard through the walls, if the player enters into the room from which they came, the voices will cease until the player leaves. We think that this approach will also emphasize the memory-‐like state of the subconscious realm within the game: although the evidence of an event remains, the source and causality is still fuzzy. Symbolism in the Narrative As Nevermind is all about players uncovering the mystery of the patient’s trauma, every detail within the environment needed to be narratively and symbolically significant. The primary level developed to date, “Spilled Milk,” was built around the trauma of a little girl witnessing her own father’s suicide. As such, there was a core concept of taking spaces that seem safe, domestic, and familiar and transforming them into places of fear, guilt, and secrets. For more details on the narrative of the level, please see “Appendix C” later in this paper. In this level, the narrative themes were expressed in subtle but symbolically powerful ways. For example, the motif of milk being interchanged with blood (and vice versa) is often used as a metaphor for the guilt and shame that the patient felt for her father’s death combined with the gruesome event she witnessed that day. The theme of eye contact manifests via the faces of objects throughout the level that 38 will either constantly stare at the player or persistently twist away in disgust. Twisted visages of car wreckages and distortions of her mother symbolize her warped impression of the lie that her father died in a car accident. Jigsaw puzzle pieces serve as a touchstone to the close, playful relationship the girl had with her father prior to his death – in addition to reflecting the fragmentation of the memory that occurred afterwards. Figure 11 – The Nevermind "Kitchen" area showing milk being interchanged with blood As Stephen King describes in Danse Macabre, “A good horror story is one that functions on a symbolic level, using fictional (and sometimes supernatural) events to help us understand our own deepest real fears.” 38 On one level, this symbolism serves to create subtle hints that the player will need to solve the macro and micro 38 King Location 134 39 puzzles within the world. On another, larger level, though, the symbolism is intended to create an extra layer of narrative engagement that grips the player emotionally and, in some of the more grim areas, physically. Game Design I choose to place the Game Design section at the end of the “Project Overview” discussion because that reflects the conception timelines of how we approached the game design of Nevermind. Examining all of the goals described above, we understood that there would be many “moving pieces” throughout the project’s development – several of which would be complete unknowns (e.g. how the sensor would actually work within the game) until later in the process. As such, a conscious decision was made to allow the goals to guide the direction of the design. While I generally feel that the design of the experience should be the driving force behind the game, for this project it made much more sense for game design to serve as the glue to help fit each piece together. This intuition-‐driven approach to game design ended up being a wise decision, as there are several examples wherein various aspects of the game ended up directly informing us what the design would be. For example, the choice for Nevermind to be played from a first person perspective came from the desire to create an immersive experience that enhanced the player’s moment-‐to-‐moment sense of. This enabled the use of environmental antagonists and puzzles to create an experience that could 40 be readily approached by seasoned and novice gamers alike while maintaining a sense of challenge and tension throughout the experience. However, this approach to the game design did present some inherent issues that are still in the process of being resolved. One challenge that we continue to run into is the juxtaposition of the game design goal to maintain a perfect balance between challenge and comfort for the player (later defined as flow state) and the therapeutic principle of pushing the player outside of his comfort zone in order to become stronger (later defined as affect tolerance boundary). These two goals, in many ways, are completely antithetical to each other. For some time, this conflict created an underlying tension in game design that seemed almost impossible to resolve. If we went too far in the direction of placating the player, we risked failing in our goal to create a game that was sufficiently intense to test the player’s boundaries and genuinely help them in doing so. If we went too far in provoking the player, then we risked either boring or overly frustrating him and potentially prompting him to quit the experience altogether. Some skeptics of Nevermind’s overall concept remarked, “why would you want to create a game that rewards players for being bored and actively seeks to frustrate them further when they become flustered?” While this question oversimplifies the underlying mechanics of the game, it encapsulates the crux of the dilemma. 41 We attempted to address this by striking a balance between the two approaches. To simulate the self-‐perpetuating “slippery slope” sensation of stress building into panic, we opted to make the game get harder as the player becomes more stressed. To counteract this scenario the player is encouraged to train himself to calm down, automatically returning the game world to a less stress-‐inducing state. Ultimately, if the player’s stress levels get too high, he is temporarily taken out of the experience and returned to the Clinic area where he can regroup and enjoy a more peaceful setting. Once the player has gathered himself, he can opt to return to the game with the benefit of being in a calmer and more prepared state of mind. If the player is able to stay fully in-‐control of his stress levels for the majority of the game, he may have a less intense experience. However, we expect that he would still remain engaged and entertained by the narrative and puzzle solving aspects of the Nevermind. While informal playtests seem to suggest that we were largely successful in accomplishing this balance, we observed scenarios in which players became discouraged by the challenging nature of the stress response system. We will continue to test and tune the experience in pursuit of testing player’s boundaries while avoiding disrupting the pleasure of his experience. Another design challenge we faced throughout development was the balancing of the immersive qualities of the experience with the cognitive challenges posed to the players via the puzzles. For example, some players would report being deeply 42 engrossed in the world of the game, absorbing the clues and narrative, but then find themselves “snapped out” of the experience by having to stop and think about a challenging puzzle. This risk of distraction concerned us from a design standpoint, as we felt that any break in the immersion could impact the effectiveness of the game’s ability to connect to the player on a level necessary to evoke a psychophysiological reaction. On the other hand, some play-‐testers felt that this break in immersion was actually vital, reporting that it “cleansed the experiential palate” and prevented the player from becoming de-‐sensitized. Nonetheless, we felt that Nevermind could not afford having even only a few of its players’ sense of immersion compromised and, as such, endeavored to resolve it. Although the problem was simple enough to identify, the solution was not. One option, simply removing the puzzles that created a cognitive obstacle, would cause the game to become significantly less engaging – ultimately feeling more like a virtual simulation than a traditional game experience. As we had already avoiding including physical challenges in the game (e.g. traditional game enemies requiring twitch reflexes and mechanics), we were concerned that also eliminating mental challenges (such as the puzzles) would remove conflicts, goals, and resolutions for the player to pursue. Furthermore, we felt that a game lacking in challenges would be highly unsatisfying for players – significantly reducing the likelihood of them spending enough time with the game for it to have any potentially positive impact. 43 We resolved to keep the puzzles in place and instead iterated on their execution and abstraction in the world to ensure that they were as narratively relevant and non-‐ obtuse as possible. Our theory in doing so was that by reducing the amount of time required to think about each puzzle, the player would be less at risk of being mentally taken out of the game. Furthermore, by ensuring the puzzles felt like an integral part of the world, perhaps the player wouldn’t have his immersion compromised at all. Some puzzles were more effective in accomplishing this than others. For example, we observed in playtests that the safe puzzle in the Bedroom seemed to be more effective in keeping players within the world than the jigsaw puzzle in the Living Room (for more on these puzzles, please see “Appendix B”). More refinement of the existing puzzles and experimentation with new puzzles will continue to be done in order to further explore how to effectively to balance cognitive challenge with immersion in the world of the game. Gameplay Implementation Process While the basic gameplay mechanics of Nevermind are by no means unique in and of themselves, the ultimate challenge was to integrate these mechanics in a fashion that supports our goal of training users to identify and manage their stress levels. This made for a development process that was inherently different from the traditional development cycle for most games. 44 When starting development, we understood that the game had to be fun, receptive to the biofeedback sensor, communicate the narrative, and universally accessible. As it was initially unclear exactly how (or even if) all these goals could be accomplished, the team developed the game feature-‐by-‐feature. We started with the overall navigation mechanics, layout of the level, and broad strokes of the puzzles, then we began digging into the subtle nuances to ensure the game felt sufficiently rich and textured. Fortunately, as the overall structure of the game itself was fairly straightforward, the engineers on the team had enough flexibility and bandwidth to experiment and invest in making sure our key feature – biofeedback integration – was implemented properly. Once the game was far enough along to communicate the core concepts, it was playtested and iterated upon regularly to verify that all of our goals were being met and to identify areas that needed further development. More about information on our playtesting sessions can be found in both the “Usability” section and “Appendix D.” 45 Chapter Five: Biofeedback State of the Art in Biofeedback As evidenced by popular media, blending biofeedback and games (or virtual interactivity) appears to be something that mainstream culture has both fantasized about and feared for at least the past couple of decades. In the 1999 film eXistenZ 39 , players connect to games through a “bioport,” an orifice that is created in one’s back specifically for gaming purposes. Similarly, films like The Matrix 40 and The Cell 41 also discuss the implication of being physically connected to a virtual reality system that responds to the participant’s physical state. 39 eXistenZ, dir. David Cronenberg, perf. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law, DVD, Alliance Atlantis, 1999. 40 The Matrix. dir. Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski, perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-‐Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano, DVD, Warner Bros. Pictures, 1999, DVD. 41 The Cell, dir. Tarsem Singh, perf. Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio, DVD, New Line Cinema, 2005. 46 Figure 12 – Image from the film The Cell 42 Although these films propose a not-‐so-‐distant future in which virtual systems are capable of adjusting to every nuance of a player’s internal state, it appears that the current state of innovation suggests that we are still far away from this reality. In March 2010, NPR published an article regarding new “mind reading” technology in development that would allow them to determine which of three short films people were thinking about. However, the article quotes Eleanor A. Maguire, one of the authors of the study as saying, “This is a major step forward… but it falls short of what most people would call mind reading.” Maguire goes on to say, “We can’t put 42 Scene from “The Cell,” Sulekha.com, Digital Image, 1 Apr. 2012, <http://mimg.sulekha.com/english/the-‐cell/stills/cell7.jpg>. 47 somebody in a brain scanner and immediately know what thoughts they are having.” 43 While significant work is being done in a variety of industries surrounding psychological metrics as a tool to inform interactive experiences, the majority of research I have seen is currently taking place in the realm of medical research rather than in games and entertainment. Ultimately, this seems to suggest that it will still be some time before the day eXistenZ pods can be found on the shelves at GameStop. Regardless, several mainstream game developers and publishers, such as Valve Software, 44 have integrated biofeedback sensors into some of their existing products and synched that data with gameplay behavior during play sessions. Unfortunately, this technology has been primarily used as a feedback tool during development to gather player biophysical metrics as part of usability testing. It is implemented for research purposes only and thus is not available to, or intended for, the end user. 43 Jon Hamilton, "Computers One Step Closer To Reading Your Mind," NPR, 11 Mar. 2010, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124581153>. 44 Mike Ambinder, "Biofeedback in Gameplay: How Valve Measures Physiology to Enhance Gaming Experience," Valve Software, 1 Apr. 2012 <http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2011/ValveBiofeedback-‐ Ambinder.pdf>. 48 There are some examples of companies who have developed biofeedback-‐based games and experiences that were made available to the consumer market – most notably the brain-‐wave headset manufacturer Neurosky 45 and Wild Divine 46 . The Neurosky games and apps that are currently available are made to be played using Neurosky headsets. Many of the applications available are mental training programs such as, “Speedmath,” 47 “HD Mynd Meditation: Light Evolution,” 48 or “Meditation Journal.” 49 While some of the apps are more game-‐like, such as “The Hare and the Tortoise,” 50 “Wizard Balls,” 51 or “Paranormal Mynd: Exorcism,” 52 in my opinion, most of the applications seem to lack the robustness of what is expected in a traditional fleshed-‐out gameplay experience. More often than not, they seemed to be 45 “NeuroSky – Brainwave Sensors for Everybody,” NeuroSky, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.neurosky.com>. 46 “WildDivine,” WildDivine, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.wilddivine.com>. 47 “SpeedMath,” NeuroSky, 01 Apr. 2012. <http://store.neurosky.com/products/speedmath>. 48 “HD Mynd Meditation: Light Evolution,” NeuroSky, 01 Apr. 2012. <http://store.neurosky.com/products/hd-‐mynd-‐meditation-‐light-‐evolution>. 49 “Meditation Journal,” NeuroSky, 01 Apr. 2012. <http://store.neurosky.com/products/meditation-‐journal>. 50 “The Hare and the Tortoise,” NeuroSky, 01 Apr. 2012. <http://store.neurosky.com/products/the-‐hare-‐and-‐the-‐tortoise>. 51 “Wizard Balls,” NeuroSky, 01 Apr. 2012. <http://store.neurosky.com/products/wizard-‐balls>. 52 “Paranormal Mynd: Exorcism,” NeuroSky, 01 Apr. 2012. <http://store.neurosky.com/products/paranormal-‐mynd-‐exorcism>. 49 simply short-‐form experiences intended to primarily show off the technology of the headset. For example, “Journey to Wild Divine,” Wild Divine’s flagship product, is described as follows in this PC Magazine review: The goal of Journey to Wild Divine is to teach you how to control your body's alertness and relaxation levels. Biofeedback hardware that measures your heart rate and skin conductivity (both stress indicators) is included in the box along with the software. As you wander through an idyllic landscape, guides introduce you to meditative exercises. You then attempt to master onscreen activities such as juggling and archery by consciously becoming calmer or more alert. Wild Divine is innovative and fun, and even better, it's very effective. 53 While the reviewer’s enthusiasm is encouraging support for Nevermind’s potential efficacy, “Journey to Wild Divine” falls more into the realm of self-‐improvement and self-‐help programs than that of a traditional game. The experience is based entirely on the player passively manipulating his stress levels rather than engaging with “a closed, formal system that engages players in structured conflict and resolves its uncertainty in an unequal outcome” 54 as a game is defined in “The Game Design Workshop.” 53 Carol Mangis, “Journey to Wild Divine,” PC Magazine, 20 Apr. 2004, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1556141,00.asp>. 54 Tracy Fullerton, et al., Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games (Amsterdam : Elsevier Morgan Kaufmann, 2008) 43. (my formatting) 50 The Wii Vitality Sensor perhaps came the closest of all biosensor-‐based products to potentially bridge the gap between games and biofeedback. At the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Nintendo released a press statement claiming, “Nintendo’s newest groundbreaking product, the Wii Vitality Sensor, expands the appeal of video games. It will initially sense the user’s pulse and a number of other signals being transmitted by their bodies, and will then provide information to the users about the body’s inner world.” 55 Unfortunately, since this press release, the sensor has yet to be released. While Nintendo maintains that the project has not been canceled outright, it has been suggested that it may be some time before the sensor and its games make it to the market. 56 While biofeedback-‐based games are currently scarce, one cannot ignore the examples above alongside the seemingly increasing popularity of non-‐game biometric-‐gathering consumer products such as consumer grade heart-‐rate monitors, pedometers, glucometers, and even mobile apps designed to approximate 55 “ADDING MULTIMEDIA Nintendo Introduces New Social Entertainment Experiences at E3 Expo Nintendo Unveils New Mario and Metroid Games and Pulse-‐ Sensing Device; Integrates Photos with Facebook,” Business Wire, 2 June 2009, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_ view&newsId=20090602005750&newsLang=en>. 56 JC Fletcher, “Iwata: Vitality Sensor Delayed until It Works with 99% of Customers," Joystiq, 3 May 2011, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.joystiq.com/2011/05/03/iwata-‐vitality-‐sensor-‐delayed-‐until-‐it-‐ works-‐with-‐99-‐of-‐custom/>. 51 one’s sleep cycles. These all seem to indicate that market interest and science are aligning to encourage more innovation and development in the area – both in the game industry and beyond. Why Biofeedback? Before we dive into our approach to biofeedback in context of the game itself, we should discuss our decision to include a biofeedback component in the first place. After all, Nevermind could have achieved many of its goals by simply striving to be an accessible horror and/or stress-‐therapy game for casual audiences. Reflecting upon the evolution of how players interact with video games, I strongly believe that biofeedback technology is the next step for player interaction in interactive entertainment. The earliest games started as experiences that could be controlled via a very simple button (maybe two) and perhaps a knob or joystick. Each moment of interaction was a result of a highly deliberate choice made by the player via a piece of external hardware connected to the game system. The trend over the past couple of years, however, reflects an evolution from discrete button-‐ based control schemes to more generalized gestural inputs – essentially the ability to implicitly use one’s body or less explicit motion to communicate one’s intention to the game. 52 With the recent advent of touch-‐screen and motion-‐sensor based game systems, the player’s desire to have a less abstracted, more direct connection with the games they play to express his intentions (and even skill levels) to the game more completely, is becoming clear. By this observation, it appears as though biofeedback enhanced game experiences are among the major next steps in gaming evolution. By using biofeedback sensors, the game is able to not only listen to the player’s conscious intentions, but also to listen to the player’s subconscious feelings and raw reactions. This possibility adds an entirely new level of immersion to the experience. To clarify, I don’t feel that biofeedback input alone will replace conventional interfaces entirely (such as use of a game controller, computer keyboard, or gestural inputs), but I do feel that it is only a matter of time before biofeedback-‐enhanced experiences leveraging both sensors and conventional interfaces become an expected feature in games. Biofeedback Gameplay Philosophy and Execution As noted earlier, Nevermind was initially conceived as an accessible horror game experience that could add positive value to the player via stress management “training.” Encouraged by the research being done in this area, we felt that if we could create a game that could reach a wide range of audiences, we would ultimately 53 fashion an engaging experience that could uniquely benefit a wide assortment of individuals. In a 2009 paper investigating connections between video games and stress, the authors describe the potential merits of video games, like Nevermind, that seek to help users better manage their stress levels: The term allostasis relates to a person’s ability to adapt to adverse stimuli (McKewen, 1998). Allostatic load is con-‐sidered the neurochemical, hormonal and immunological costs of adapting to stress (Sternberg, 1997). The allostasis model consists of four different causes of allostatic load that require biological responses. 1. Frequent exposure to stress 2. Inability to habituate to repeated challenges 3. Inability to terminate a stress response and 4. Inadequate allostatic response (Webster, Tonelli & Sternberg, 2002). Under normal circumstances a person can manage their allostatic load. However too often the demands of life overwhelm a person’s normal coping abilities and additional help is needed. Unfortunately, these self prescribed interventions often involve potentially devastating after effects i.e. the use of food, alcohol or drugs. Hence, people need to learn and practice healthy methods to decrease stress and improve mood. 57 Stress management also appealed to us in a practical sense, given that stress and anxiety is a pyscho-‐physiological state that can, to a limited degree, be discretely measured and recognized during gameplay. Other, more esoteric emotional responses that often arise while playing video games – such as joy, a sense of flow, a sense of being challenged – are all complex combinations of valence (or positive or 57 Carmen V. Russoniello, Kevin O’Brien, and Jennifer M. Parks, "The Effectiveness of Casual Video Games in Improving Mood and Decreasing Stress," Journal of CyberTherapy & Rehabilitation 2009: 54. 54 negative reactions) and arousal (the intensity of those reactions). On the other hand, stress, when induced in specific, non-‐ambiguous settings (as it is in Nevermind), can be identified (for the game’s purposes) as simply elevated levels of arousal. All of these goals and constraints also directly contributed to the execution of the environmental antagonist approach discussed earlier. When the player enters a specific area of the game that was designed to be particularly stressful, the game will give him a visual indication that he is in an “active area” that directly responds to stress. While in this location, the game will respond according to the player’s stress levels. If the player remains calm, the environment will generally remain in its non-‐ antagonistic “default” state. However, if the player starts to become stressed or scared, the environment will start to “attack” the player’s ability to solve puzzles or complete objectives. Certain aspects of the environment (such as lighting or contrast) will start to become altered to make gameplay goals more difficult. As a result, the more scared or stressed the player becomes, the more difficult the game becomes. For example, in the Kitchen area milk will begin to flood the room as the player becomes more stressed and/or scared. The more milk that pours into the environment, the more slowly the player will walk; once the player is submerged, the harder it is to see through the foggy liquid. Should the player become less stressed, the milk will recede and, once the milk is gone (and the player is fully calm), the player can continue to proceed through the level unfettered. 55 Figure 13 – Example of the Kitchen area's reaction to the player's stress levels While the highlights of the biofeedback-‐based gameplay occur in specific areas with specific events (e.g. the milk rising in the Kitchen), the game constantly provides the player with feedback on his detected stress levels via visual and aural cues. These include (among others): changes in screen saturation, increased visual noise, and the fading in of a music track dedicated to stress indication. Based on playtesting and observation, we observed that players needed to be constantly aware of their perceived stress levels in order for them to trust that the game is actually “listening” and responding to them. Giving them more active feedback allows them to “test” the system early on, letting them practice adjusting their stress levels prior the in-‐game moments when a success or fail state is dependent on it. 56 Figure 14 – A scene from Nevermind without the “stress static.” Figure 15 – A scene from Nevermind with the “stress static.” With all this in mind, we intended to test and prove that consumer-‐ready biofeedback sensor integration within games is both very achievable from a 57 technical standpoint and completely viable in the context of creating a fun and intrinsically beneficial experience. We strived to accomplish this not only for the benefit of Nevermind itself, but also to prove that this technology is readily available for the game industry as a whole. The game’s reaction to the data from the sensor could not feel arbitrary or forced, lest it detract from the fun and integrity of the gameplay experience as a whole. Furthermore, the biofeedback component needed to dynamically adjust in-‐game content to reflect the player’s stress levels, deterring him from letting his anxiety escalate and rewarding him for learning how to manage his stress and stay calm in tense situations. Gameplay Flow The figures below demonstrate the progression pattern of the game. For the most part, the game is not designed to be overly challenging. However, there are peaks in which the player is expected to be challenged in terms of both accomplishing gameplay objectives and controlling his own reactions. Each time the player succeeds and proceeds, he becomes stronger (both in the game and in reality) and is progressively able to take on more and more challenging scenarios. 58 Figure 16 – The biofeedback gameplay loop 59 Figure 17 – Biofeedback-‐based difficulty progression One might observe that these diagrams are not too dissimilar to Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s diagram of Flow and Alan Schore’s diagram of Affect Tolerance (both figures included below): 60 Figure 18 – Flow 58 58 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper & Row, 1990) Location 1588. 61 Figure 19 – Window of Affect Tolerance 59 This similarity is not mere coincidence. Csíkszentmihályi argues that flow, “the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it” 60 is essentially the “optimal experience.” 61 Flow occurs when there is a balance between challenge and ability; it is often considered a 59 Allan N. Schore and Judith Schore. "Right Brain Affect Regulation: An Essential Mechanism Of Development, Trauma, Dissociation, And Psychotherapy," Right Brain Affect Regulation: An Essential Mechanism Of Development, Trauma, Dissociation, And Psychotherapy 2007, 01 Apr. 2012, <http://www.yellowbrickprogram.com/papers_by_yellowbrick/RightBrainAffectRe gulation_p8.html>. 60 Csikszentmihalyi Location 212 61 Csikszentmihalyi Location 212 62 fundamental goal in designing engaging gameplay. 62 Most game designers strive to create an experience that escalates in challenge as the player’s proficiency in playing the game increases – crafting an experience that is neither too difficult nor too easy for the player at any given point in time. Given our goals with Nevermind we were a bit more aggressive with manipulating the player relative to their flow state. As one can observe in comparing the two charts above, we intentionally periodically pushed the player outside of what would be the “flow” channel in order to encourage him to go outside of his comfort zone in an effort to simulate the stressors of “real life” experiences. However, if and when the player did venture too far and were overwhelmed, he would soon need to bring himself back into a sort of “anxiety middle-‐ground” in order to continue playing the game. In essence, much like many other games, Nevermind does encourage the player to maintain a certain state of flow, however the breadth of the flow window was intentionally wider than most. Similarly, this pushing of players’ boundaries relates to the Diagram of the Window Affect Tolerance (Figure 19). As Allan Schore explains: Growth-‐facilitating experiences of at the regulatory boundaries thus promote the ‘affective building blocks of enactments’ (Ginot, 2007). The patient’s increased ability to consciously experience and communicate a wider range of positive and negative affects 62 Fullerton 88 63 is due to a developmental advance in the capacity to regulate affect. 63 In relation to Nevermind, this theory supports the idea that, by exposing the player to situations of high stress and pushing him outside of his comfort-‐zones, the player actually becomes more capable of enduring stressful scenarios as he becomes more tolerant and accustomed to the areas outside of his comfort zone. 63 Schore 64 Chapter Six: Implementation Development Cycle Nevermind was developed by a team of approximately 12 people. In order to accomplish all of the goals discussed above while remaining within the scope of the team’s resources and availability, the production cycle had to be very carefully planned. Over the 12-‐month cycle of development the first four months were used for research and pre-‐production. This included seeking out and examining prior art, gathering references, establishing the visual style and language of the game, developing the narrative, and prototyping out the core game design mechanics. The remaining 8-‐months were invested in developing the game, technology, and overall user experience. Throughout the fall semester of the 2011-‐2012 academic year, the team focused on building the game experience and performing research and development on sensor integration. The spring semester was focused on fully integrating the two and polishing the experience as a whole. Platform Nevermind was developed using Unity 3D, a cross-‐platform development toolset. This engine provided a variety of platform options available – including Mac, PC, mobile, web browsers, and game consoles (such as the Xbox 360). The PC platform 65 was ultimately selected as our main platform both because it aligned with our goal to create a game that could be accessible by a large assortment of users, and also due to the fact that it was the most seamlessly compatible with our sensor hardware and software technology. However, the potential future for Nevermind to be ported onto other platforms still remains very bright. Several iPhone 4 apps have been developed that monitor a player’s HRV, such as StressDoctor 64 by Azumio. Looking ahead, it would be very interesting to apply a similar technology in the future for Nevermind. Sensor Technology Overview One of the biggest overall challenges that Nevermind faced was finding a reliable sensor that met the accessibility goals of the game, provided adequate measurements, and could communicate clearly with the game engine. Quite a bit of work has been done over the past few years surrounding the integration of biofeedback sensors into a digital interactive medium, most notably at MIT’s Affective Computing Lab under Rosalind Picard. However, while it was encouraging to learn that this technology was actively being developed and studied, many of the sensors used in those environments were difficult to access due to both cost and availability to the general public. Furthermore, many of the sensors currently on the 64 "Azumio | The Mobile Health Revolution Has Begun! Azumio," Azumio, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.azumio.com/>. 66 market are not designed to be used with any external software beyond the niche proprietary tools for which they were specifically developed. As such, finding a sensor that was functionally sound, reasonably accessible, and appropriate for real-‐ time integration with Nevermind was a significant, ongoing challenge throughout development. Availability issues aside, finding a sensor that could detect arousal in the player was our primary criteria in selecting which type of device to work with. Prior research demonstrated success in using Galvanic Skin Resistance (GSR) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Both GSR and HRV detect activation in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and can report when activity in sympathetic nervous system (SNS), such as fear or stress, is occurring. 65 Heart Rate Variability (HRV) We researched a wide variety of projects to determine what would ultimately be the most appropriate variable to interpret for Nevermind. We found that projects such as iCalm use GSR (sometimes also referred to as EDA -‐ Electrodermal Activity). 66 65 Richard R. Fletcher, Ming-‐Zher Poh, and Hoda Eydaghi, “Wearable Sensors: Opportunities and Challenges for Low-‐Cost Health Care," 32nd Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS 2010: 1763-‐1766. 66 Fletcher 1763-‐1766. 67 Other projects, such as the study described in “The Effectiveness of Casual Video Games in Improving Mood and Decreasing Stress,” use HRV: Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a physiological measurement that directly reflects a balance of the autonomic nervous system regulation, which has control over the human body. HRV is a multidimensional measurement of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system innervations of the heart. HRV reflects the state of sympathetic (stress, anxiety) or parasympathetic (relaxation, calmness) activation in the body. Heart rate variability (HRV) is considered a marker of cardiac parasympathetic and sympathetic activity and is of great interest to health care practitioners (Malliani, Lombardi & Pagani, (1994); Kleiger, Stein, Bosner & Rottman, (1992); Pomeranz Macaulay & Caudill, (1985). 67 In brief, HRV is based on the notion that the time in-‐between heartbeats is not actually always consistent – in fact, the less consistent, the better. When a person is in a calm but alert state (generally considered to be ideal), his body is constantly swapping back and forth between his ‘revved up’ (sympathetic) system and his ‘mellowed out’ (parasympathetic) system. The system that is dominant at any given moment determines the length between heartbeats. When the systems are rapidly switching back and forth, the length varies from beat to beat. However, when an individual becomes scared or stressed, his sympathetic system leaps into action and takes full dominance while he’s in that state of anxiety. The time in-‐between beats becomes consistent since only one system is regulating your heartbeat. 67 Russoniello 57. 68 Admittedly, a person could also achieve a consistent heartbeat by going into a very relaxed, zen-‐like state, allowing for the parasympathetic system to take over. However, since he would likely have to be in a near-‐sleep or meditative state for this to occur, we were not too concerned about players “tricking” the game in this fashion. Ultimately, as a result of our research, it was confirmed that HRV was a suitable choice to represent the player’s internal state of stress. This was also encouraging, given that there were a number of relatively low cost HRV sensors that we could acquire. Sensor Hardware Originally, Nevermind began developing integration with PN Pulse 1 Heart Rate Variability Finger Sensor from the Biocomp Research Institute 68 . Using photoplethysmography (or PPG), the sensor would clip to a player’s finger and detect his heart rate and blood oxygenation by shining a light from one side of the finger and detecting the amount of light that passed through from a camera on the other side of the finger. 68 "PN Pulse 1 Heart Rate Variability Finger Sensor," Bio-‐medical.com, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://bio-‐medical.com/products/pn-‐pulse-‐1-‐heart-‐rate-‐variability-‐finger-‐ sensor.html>. 69 Figure 20 – PN Pulse 1 Heart Rate 69 Although the sensor recommended that it only be used with specific proprietary software, even as an intermediary between it and other applications, it was ultimately determined that, to get near real-‐time results, the data had to pass directly from the sensor to the game via specific custom plug-‐ins. Quite a bit of research was done in an attempt to determine the best way to find and extract clean data from the sensor and translate it from the device to the game in a meaningful fashion. However, we came to the conclusion that the device, much like most sensors currently available, was a “black box”: it was designed to work in a very specific way and not be modified or altered to work outside of its intended design. While we were able to gain an understanding of how it worked internally and even developed a plug-‐in that would allow it to communicate with our game engine, the 69 PN Pulse 1 Heart Rate Variability Finger Sensor, Digital image, 1 Apr. 2012 <http://bio-‐medical.com/products/pn-‐pulse-‐1-‐heart-‐rate-‐variability-‐finger-‐ sensor.html>. 70 data we received was indecipherable (due to the original intent to be read only by proprietary software) and thus, unusable. Once we determined that we could not proceed further with the PN Pulse 1 HRV Finger Sensor, new sensor options were investigated. Based on the advice from other professionals in the field, we chose to explore the Garmin Heart-‐Rate 70 Monitor with a Garmin USB ANT+ 71 Stick 72 . After tremendous hard work and investment, along with the gracious assistance and support of other researchers 73 , the Nevermind engineers were able to develop a system through which the sensor could pick up raw heart rate data from the user. A system was implemented in-‐game that enabled it to process that data and convert it into Heart Rate Variability, enabling us to deduce the arousal levels of the player within our acceptable window of approximately 5 seconds of state-‐change. One of the primary advantages to developing the game around the Garmin Heart-‐ Rate Monitor lies in the consumer accessibility of the device. Unlike many of the sensors on the market that can range anywhere from hundreds to thousands of 70 "Premium Heart Rate Monitor (Soft Strap)." Garmin, 1 Apr. 2012 <https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=15490>. 71 "This Is ANT, the Wireless Sensor Network Solution," ANT, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://thisisant.com/>. 72 "Garmin | Accessories | USB ANT Stick." Garmin, 1 Apr. 2012, <https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=10997>. 73 Tim Clark, Conversation, 31 Oct. 2011. 71 dollars, the Garmin sensor and receiver that Nevermind uses costs well within the range of many accepted game peripherals, such as the Rock Band 74 instrument set. The accessibility and availability of these sensor peripherals is crucial to the future success of biofeedback sensor based games. If no one is willing or able to purchase the devices, then no one will be able to experience and ultimately benefit from them. 74 "RockBand.com," Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.rockband.com/>. 72 Chapter Seven: User Testing Throughout the development process, it was important to regularly test Nevermind in order to assess the current state of the game and iteratively improve the experience. Testing sessions lasted for a total of approximately 12 hours and involved 8-‐9 players, each focusing on different aspects of the game. For more details on the testing process and results, please refer to “Appendix D.” First-Stage Testing – Initial Gameplay The purpose of the first-‐stage testing was to determine if the core gameplay experience (exploration and puzzle solving) engaged the user as we had planned. Results The players reported that they enjoyed the overall concept, although it was clear from player observation and player self-‐reporting that the puzzles, level layout, and progression design were all, on average, too difficult or obtuse and were causing unintended frustration. As a result, we modified the gameplay to create an easier and more intuitive experience. 73 Second-Stage Testing – Final Gameplay The purpose of the second-‐stage testing was to revisit the core gameplay experience with the changes made since the previous playtest, along with a number of the horror elements developed out to a much greater extent. Results Based on the player feedback received, this playtest showed that players had an easier and more enjoyable experience interacting with puzzles than those from the previous session. Given this response along with our observations, we concluded that with only a few fixes and improvements to specific areas, the game was ready to be integrated with the sensor. Third-Stage Testing – Sensor Integration This test was the first session that included the sensor-‐integrated build. During this session we tested 9 players. Of those 9 players, 8 provided usable data. Results During this session, both observation and recorded data showed that players did demonstrated heightened arousal at the points in the game we had anticipated. 74 These included moments of intense narrative reveals, startling moments, and extremely surreal and disturbing areas. However, we also saw the sensor and game reacting in areas that we did not anticipate to elicit arousal. These included moments such as when the player first started the level and when they approached the exit of a maze. During these instances, it was unclear if the player was feeling arousal with positive or negative valence. While some theories point to the player feeling a sense of excitement as he started the level or approached the end of the maze, other theories suggest that he was feeling a sense of dread as he didn’t know what to expect next. These observations highlights one drawback to the sensor that is currently being used in Nevermind – and that is the inability to empirically understand the valence of the arousal in the player from the HR and HRV data alone. Future research, including the integration of player sound and movement, is currently being done to assist in better interpreting the responses that we’re recording. However, this is an issue that many researchers in this realm face. 75 Chapter Eight: What We Learned Entertainment and Enrichment Can Co-Exist Based on our observations and feedback from informal playtests, the team and I believe that Nevermind achieved its fundamental goal in creating an engaging game that leverages biofeedback technology to heighten the player’s awareness of his stress levels. Furthermore, we feel that observational evidence suggests that Nevermind was successfully developed for a wide audience, both in terms of gameplay accessibility (having tested it amongst players with varying skill levels) and logistically, as players could inexpensively acquire the sensor itself from retail or online stores. Sensor Peripherals and Games Are Possible In our discussions with playtesters, it was reported that the sensor itself was non-‐ intrusive and, although it required a little more set-‐up time than most traditional games, it did not impede the gameplay experience itself. While more research needs to be done to fine-‐tune the accuracy of the sensor’s readings, the game’s response to stress levels often appeared to be convincing to players enough to create an increased awareness of one’s stress levels at any given point during gameplay. Given the scope of the project, we saw this not only as a success in terms of our goal to 76 potentially increase the player’s coping self-‐efficacy, but also an indication that biofeedback-‐based sensors for games do not necessarily need to be 100% accurate all of the time in order to be effective. Diversity in Reactions One of the most difficult design challenges the Nevermind team faced was developing scenarios in-‐game that would evoke a scared or stressed physiological response in all players. Throughout our casual playtest sessions, it was apparent that there is no “once size fits all” brand of horror. While certain techniques were used to touch upon some of the most common sources of discomfort and anxiety, not everybody reacted to them in the same way. In fact, while there were many cases of people having intense emotional reactions to the game, there were also several cases of players who reported having experienced no sense of arousal while playing. However, we did feel that we were successful in making a potentially daunting genre available and accessible to those who may have been interested in it prior but were previously deterred due to gameplay complexity. We were especially proud of the fact that, during our informal playtests, even players who had little to no gaming background reported enjoying the experience. 77 Motion Sickness and Virtual Reality It should also be noted that some players reported feeling motion sickness when playing Nevermind. In these players, there seemed to be little consistent correlation to atmosphere, level location, or external environment. The issue may have derived from inherent issues the player had with first-‐person cameras or the in-‐progress build’s performance levels. There has also been general correlation between FPS games (First Person Shooters – a genre that shares Nevermind’s camera system) and motion sickness 75 . We suspect that it would only be logical that Nevermind inherits some of the potential issues FPS games may create some players. 75 Ian Spence and Jing Feng, "Video Games and Spatial Cognition." Review of General Psychology 2010: 92-‐104. 78 Another theory is that Nevermind’s similarities to virtual reality experiences may cause some players to feel “cybersickness” or “simulator sickness,” a phenomenon that sometimes occurs during VR experiences 76 . In fact, many studies on virtual reality and virtual environments report some users having a negative experience due to the onset of motion sickness. 77 One report from the U.S. Army Research Institute states that: Although there is debate as to the exact cause or causes of simulator sickness, a primary suspected cause is inconsistent information about body orientation and motion received by different senses, known as the cute conflict theory. For example, the visual system may perceived that the body is moving rapidly, while they vestibular system perceives that the body is stationary. Inconsistent, on-‐natural information within a single sense has also been prominent among suggested causes. 78 It is possible that Nevermind creates simulator sickness in some players because the person perspective within an immersive environment can cause subconscious confusion between the body and senses. Possible resolutions for the Nevermind 76 Jay Kist, “How Virtual Reality Can Affect You,” Current Health Teens 1996: 27-‐29 77 Kalman Glanz, Albert (Skip) Rizzo, and Ken Graap, "Virtual Reality for Psychotherapy: Current Reality and Future Possibilities," Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training 2003: 55-67. Nicholas Maltby, et al., "Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for the Treatment of Fear of Flying: A Controlled Investigation." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 2002: 1112-‐118. 78 United States, U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, Simulator Sickness in Virtual Environments (Alexandria: U.S. Army Research Institute, 1995). 79 team to consider in future development would be to employ techniques used by successful VR experiences to counteract this negative effect. For example, we could provide ways to bridge the body and senses through a stereoscopic and/or gestural interface, such the one used in the game Seymour Deeply 79 , a head mounted display, and/or increased physical agency within the world, such as giving more control over the camera and thus perception of the world. However, these steps are beyond the scope for this iteration of Nevermind, and will require further exploration and development to determine if these steps can potentially resolve the motion sickness issues encountered. Design Challenges Unique to any other video game that I have ever had to design, Nevermind presented interesting, but highly challenging design complexity. The overarching tension between creating an engaging experience that achieves flow state in the player while also pushing the player’s comfort levels in an attempt to expand his window of affect tolerance is one that we feel we never fully resolved. Reflecting upon the project, this was in part due to the constraints of our overall development schedule and the interdependencies of the design on what technology we could successfully integrate. First and foremost, we needed to establish the 79 Michael Annetta, “Seymour Deeply,” University of Southern California, 2012. 80 overall infrastructure of the game. We built a game world and system representative of the interactive experience we wanted to achieve and developed the sensor technology to the extent that we were minimally getting subjectively convincing results. At that stage, the design challenges we expected to confront were still only speculative. Once the game was in a state in which we could objectively examine the specific challenge of staying within flow state versus pushing the player’s window of affect tolerance, we did not have enough development time left to extensively experiment with the game design. While we feel as though the design infrastructure inherently allows for a balance between the two to exist (as discussed in “Biofeedback: Gameplay Flow”), we feel that only now having a full proof of concept before us, we are equipped to examine what specific additional steps need to be taken in the game design to find a true balance between the two interaction philosophies. Our other major design challenge, the conflict between cognitive problem solving and immersion, was one that we were able to begin addressing earlier on, prior to the sensor. Although we had more time during development to explore finding the balance between immersive experiential engagement and concrete cognitively challenging interactions, we still have yet to truly determine the best scenarios for including both without one detracting from the other. However, based on what we have observed as the more successful moments in achieving this balance (as well as those less successful moments), it would seem that the solution lies in creating 81 engaging scenarios that do not require the player to stop and think about a problem like solving the refrigerator puzzle (figures 62, 63), but rather scenarios when the player is implicitly led and otherwise asked to make micro-‐choices along the way like the Car Lot Maze (figures 67-‐71). The lesson learned here is that the game design of therapy-‐oriented games can be especially challenging in that it presents a chicken and egg problem. In my experience as a game designer, the stronger sense one has of the constraints and goals one is working within, the more consistent and confident the game design will be. In creating traditional games, often, that goal is to simply create an entertaining experience for the player. With that goal in mind, there are many resources such as books and online video presentations – as well as examples of prior art – that discuss techniques in accomplishing this. Although this goal is by no means an easy one to accomplish, it nonetheless seems to be relatively well understood, with plenty of data with which to inform one’s decisions. Given that therapeutic games are seemingly still relatively new territory – in which the disciplines of game design, therapeutic psychology, and education are, in my experience, only just now starting to communicate with one another – the goal of creating a fun and beneficial game is far less understood. 82 As I have found in developing Nevermind and other successful beneficial games such as “Trainer 80 ,” one needs to first create the game system with both the game and therapeutic elements intact. Then, as soon as possible, that initial system needs to be tested to make sure that it is both engaging and suggests that it will ultimately elicit the desired results. From the testing, one must determine where the weak and strong points are and then iterate from there. In short, you need to have an idea of the game design in order to build it, but you need to build it in order to determine the best direction to take the game design. Fortunately, the approach to solving this problem is the same approach used to refine the game design of any interactive experience: implement, test, observe, iterate, and repeat 81 . Nevermind is still going through this cycle, and we are hopeful that, as future iterations are completed, we will learn that much more about the design challenges cited above and will be able to take steps to help resolve them accordingly. Translating the Sensor’s Results One issue we encountered in usability testing was that it was very difficult to compare players’ stress data against each other, as illustrated in figures 95-‐102 in 80 Erin Reynolds, et al., “Trainer,” Trainer – No One Is Alone on the Road to Health! May 2010, 1 Mar. 2012 <http://www.davidvillatoro.com/games/trainer/play>. 81 Fullerton 249 83 Appendix D. Since Nevermind is a fairly linear game that never offers the player more than only a few places to go at any given time, the player still had the ability to determine where (amongst those few locations) he would go and for how long we would stay. In comparing, for example, Playtester 19’s stress levels (figure 97) throughout his gameplay experience with Playtester 21’s (figure 98) stress levels, the moment-‐to-‐moment experiences varied so much that we were unable to deduce a clear determination of which areas and moments were most physiologically intense and the average duration of arousal per location. Throughout all of our playtests, we learned that we were able to extrapolate a great amount of information about the player, such as heart rate, HRV, duration spent in specific locations, mouse and keyboard usage. Furthermore, with the addition of a little more code, we could also potentially gather data about the player’s vocalizations during the game via the computer’s microphone, as well as player movement via a webcam. Our thoughts on incorporating and analyze this data are detailed further in the “Next Steps” section below. We discovered that, in order to process this wealth of potentially highly valuable data, we needed another person on the team who is equipped with the knowledge and understanding of these metrics to organize and analyze player statistics in order to glean the information needed to help us improve the game experience further. 84 Recommendations for Those Who Come After Us Nevermind was developed with the intent of initiating a conversation about the feasibility and potential of video games and biofeedback sensors. We hope that those interested in this topic can learn from our triumphs and mistakes. Below is a summary of our findings. Review Technology from all Sources Biofeedback sensor technology is constantly changing and evolving. Even over the course of Nevermind’s development, two sensor options that we did not deem ideal for our purposes at the beginning of the development cycle have since released new versions that could now be viable options for the game. Additionally, in our research we were surprised to find that sensor technology is being explored in a wide variety of fields. For example, throughout development, we ended up investigating sensor options available through medical outlets (e.g. bio-‐medical.com), academic research outlets (e.g. Affectiva 82 ), commercial outlets (e.g. Garmin 83 ), and even independent projects such as the Pulse Sensor on Kickstarter.com. 84 82 “Affectiva,” Affectiva, Inc., 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.affectiva.com/>. 83 "Garmin," Garmin, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.garmin.com/us/>. 84 Yury Gitman, "Pulse Sensor: An Open Source Heart-‐rate Sensor That Rocks," Kickstarter, 20 July 2011, 01 Apr. 2012 <http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1342192419/pulse-‐sensor-‐an-‐open-‐ source-‐heart-‐rate-‐sensor-‐that>. 85 While having so many options provides more flexibility in choosing the right sensor for the project, finding that perfect fit can be overwhelming. Our recommendation would be to not only do a comprehensive search online and review of contemporary research, but also to speak with as many people as possible who are actively doing work in similar fields. We found that many of our most fruitful findings came from conversations with professors, advisors, and fellow students with aligned interests. Design and Clinical Tension As discussed previously, designing a game and a potential therapeutic tool can create conflicting goals. In reflecting on Nevermind’s journey and process, we would advise defining 1 to 3 concrete goals for the game, and then build a prototype that achieves these goals (one could argue that Nevermind’s prototype took up the majority of development). From there, extensively test the prototype and iterate as needed, continuing to test as frequently as possible. To our knowledge, although research can help guide development to make smarter initial decisions, there is no real shortcut to identifying and resolving the key challenges that will come up throughout the testing and iteration process. Do Not Underestimate the Value of a Good Team Games like Nevermind that leverage new technologies to bridge entertainment with potential therapeutic applications inherently require expertise in many disciplines. Game design, health and medical theory, software and hardware development, art, 86 and music are only a few of the areas that need support. Originally, I started Nevermind with the intent of executing the entire project as the only full-‐time developer on it. Had I continued down that path, it would have easily been the biggest mistake I could have made. Fortunately, I was given the opportunity to work with an incredible team at the beginning of production. By the end of development, Nevermind had four software engineers (each with their own specializations), a hardware engineer, a technical producer, a usability lead/creative producer, two audio composers, a sound designer, a game designer/technical artist, an external team of visual artists, a marketing associate, and about a dozen advisors/consultants. We likely would not have been able to reach our current standards for success had even one of those team members not been involved. My advice to any leader on a project that has similar goals to Nevermind’s would be to make sure that every aspect of the project has a person with the appropriate expertise assigned to work on it. Managing all of the many disparate pieces is a full time job but an extremely important one. I strongly feel that bridging the gap between each of the different areas of expertise is essential to creating a successful and effective game/experience. 87 Consider Testing Processes and Results Analysis Early on in the Process As discussed in both the “Translating the Sensor’s Results” section above and the “Next Steps” section below, Nevermind could have benefitted greatly from determining how to make best use of the data we were receiving during testing earlier in the development process. We would encourage anyone considering using any biometrics in their games to begin test and analysis planning as early as pre-‐ production, defining what type of data they need to receive from the player, the best method to gather it, and how best to interpret it. Nothing is Impossible One of my favorite parts of working on Nevermind was the process of meeting so many incredibly brilliant and passionate people who shared an interest in one facet or another of the project. I began Nevermind limiting myself in terms of what I felt was “realistic,” however, over the course of development, I learned that for every “out there” idea, there is someone with the expertise and passion to provide the insight and guidance needed to make that idea possible. Even the internal Nevermind team consistently surprised me by somehow making what I had originally thought to be “out of scope” features possible, often through clever techniques that I never would have imagined. My biggest piece of advice per my experience with Nevermind is this – if it is important to your vision of the project, 88 never consider any feature or idea impossible. If you know where to look, and are working with the right people, chances are you will find a way to make it happen. 89 Chapter Nine: Next Steps The focus of this initial phase of development in Nevermind was to create a viable proof of concept, to show that a game can be fun, meaningful, and leverage a technology that takes immersion and the potential for user state responsiveness to the next level. The next stage of development includes extensive testing as outlined below. More Data Despite performing numerous playtests, the sample set used in assessing our current findings is relatively small. Drawing data from approximately 25 players – only 8 of which including sensor-‐based data – provides too limited a data set to enable us to draw any definitive conclusions. With the first level in a final state, we would want to perform enough formal playtests to have a significant amount of data to analyze in order to properly determine and confirm that the data being collected represents the results we speculate we are getting. Furthermore, we would endeavor to collect data not only from the sensor but, minimally, from other inputs available on most standard computers (such as the microphone and webcam). From the microphone we would be able to capture 90 involuntary audible reactions (e.g. gasps) from the player to the game. Naturally, this would only work if the user were playing with headphones (so as to avoid picking up audio output from the game). However this data, in conjunction with the webcam’s ability to pick up player movement (in the event that the player might react to moments by jumping or fidgeting) might help further inform and support the data being received by the heart rate sensor and enabled us to logically deduce valence. If the data from these other inputs proves to enhance the game’s responsiveness to the player, then it could be included in a future release of Nevermind to the consumer. If not, it could be limited to calibration and research testing only. Finally, to support calibration and research of the player’s physiological reactions to the game, further testing with additional devices such as a GSR sensor or an electroencephalogram (EEG) that would not necessarily be available to the consumer, would be beneficial to the development team’s refinement of the game. Additional Devices Further investigation into sensors that could be potentially be released or used in tandem with the game, would be merited. The HRV sensor currently in use, while accessible to the users, requires a fairly involved initial set-‐up that may create too high of a barrier of entry for the player. The Garmin Heart Rate Monitor currently requires the user to place electro-‐conductance jelly on the HRV strap and then place the strap beneath their shirt. A device that can be attached to an already exposed 91 area of the body – preferably without the conductance jelly – would be most ideal. Something that works similarly to the PN Pulse 1 Heart Rate (i.e. clipping to the user’s finger) would be perfect. Devices that are integrated into headphones, similar to what is described in “Heartphones: Sensor Earphones and Mobile Application for Non-‐obtrusive Health Monitoring,” 85 would be a possible solution as well. Perhaps the most ideal scenario would be to develop a sensor device that is seamlessly integrated into a standard game controller (imagine a subtle capacitive sensor layer on the sides). With this technology, a player would be able to engage with Nevermind without even having to be overtly aware of the fact that a sensor is reading his data. Longitudinal Testing Up until this point, the primary focus of testing in Nevermind has been on making sure that both the experience works (i.e. the game is ”fun and engaging”) and the technology works (i.e. is the right sensor data being communicated to and properly interpreted by the game). As we’ve demonstrated, these questions can be answered via short term testing such as traditional game playtesting. However, to answer the question, “Does this experience actually help users learn how to better manage stress?,” we would need to perform much longer-‐term testing –occurring over a 85 Ming-‐Zher Poh, et al., "Heartphones: Sensor Earphones and Mobile Application for Non-‐obtrusive Health Monitoring," Proc. of 2009 International Symposium on Wearable Computers 2009: 153-‐154 92 series of weeks, months, or even years. This level of testing would ultimately need to be performed in a more clinical manner than most video games traditionally employ and may require more game content to be developed in order to properly sustain it. More Casual Gamer Playtesting As Nevermind was intended to be developed for as wide an audience as possible, we wanted to ensure that it was approachable and enjoyable by both casual and non-‐ gamers alike. However, we found casual and non-‐gamers to be the most difficult demographic to include during mid-‐development playtests. Their inexperience with video game conventions caused them to be especially vulnerable to confusion and frustration due to incomplete features or assets and common mid-‐development in-‐ game bugs. The data we received when testing these players earlier in development was invariably more directed towards technical glitches and practicalities (many of which were known issues) as opposed to core underlying effectiveness of the design and supporting systems. Novice player feedback would be most valuable toward the latter stages of development. Now that Nevermind’s first iteration of content and systems is complete, we feel the game is ready to be fully exposed to casual and non-‐ gamers alike in order to determine what further adjustments may need to be made to the experience in order to ensure that it is both broadly enjoyable and impactful. 93 Deeper Feedback Response Now that Nevermind’s proof of concept has been developed to the extent that we can assess the player and sensor feedback loop, we feel that an important next step in enhancing the overall experience is to refine the game’s response to the sensor. Currently, the game has a very discrete one-‐way response to detected fluctuations in the player’s stress levels. That is, if the player becomes more stressed, the game becomes more difficult via audio and visual distortions as well as, in some locations, increased motion impairment. However, finding ways to dynamically manipulate the environment, especially when the player calms down, might add an element of positive feedback via the sensor, potentially creating a richer and ultimately more engaging experience. Refined Gameplay As discussed in the “Design Challenges” portion of the “What We Learned” section above, additional investment in design and development experimentation is needed to find a superior resolution to both the affect tolerance versus flow issue as well as the “immersive experience” versus “cognitive challenges” design conflict. More Gameplay Although only one level was built over the course of the first phase of development, Nevermind was designed to sustain over 10 individual levels for the player to 94 explore. Each level could address a different trauma, creating more unique content for the player to engage with as well as additional opportunities to expose the player to concepts in relation to PTSD and the nature of trauma. Expanded Art I find that one of the most exciting prospects of video games is that it grants us the ability to create a world that doesn’t abide by the laws of reality. While we have already employed a surreal artistic aesthetic, we feel that the degree of surrealism in Nevermind can be pushed to a much greater extent. Moving forward, we intend to continue exploring new, compelling ways to show visual representations of abstract memories, ultimately pushing the art further beyond the boundaries of traditional representation. Further Exploration into VR As discussed in the “Motion Sickness and Virtual Reality” section of the “What We Learned” section above, a logical next step for the development of Nevermind would be to apply the research, literature and hardware used in Virtual Reality systems to not only help resolve the motion sickness issue, but also to find ways to make the game even more immersive, evocative, and effective. 95 Better Playtesting Metrics Analysis Now that the team is capturing a tremendous amount of data about the player as he engages with Nevermind, one of our next steps in this realm would be to find ways to interpret and analyze this data, as well as determine what additional data would be helpful for us to record. One feature, for example, that we would like to start using in the near future is an automatically generated “heat map” of the player’s stress levels locally correlated to areas within the world. This would provide the team a visual indicator of what, on average, the general intensity ranges are for each of the areas within the level. We could also allow the player to see this map once he has completed a level so that he can reflect on his experience and even return to the level at a later point in time to improve his reaction response to those areas that affected him the most. 96 Chapter Ten: Conclusion Games have the potential to be a tremendously powerful, immensely enriching and truly beneficial medium within our society and culture. In my opinion, Nevermind serves as a great example of one direction that the future of video games may take and demonstrates the potential entertainment and enrichment value that biofeedback input can add to a gameplay experience. After spending significant time designing, implementing, and testing biofeedback-‐ based gameplay, we are confident that this direction and technology is extremely viable as a major step for the industry as a whole. 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Woolf, Beverly, Winslow Burleson, Ivon Arroyo, Toby Dragon, David Cooper, and Rosalind Picard. “Affect-‐aware tutors: recognizing and responding to student affect.” Int. J .Learning Technology, 4.3 (2009); 129-‐164 108 Appendix A – Original Nevermind Concept Art Figure 21 – Atmosphere Concept Art 109 Figure 22 – Atmosphere Concept Art Figure 23 – Atmosphere Concept Art 110 Figure 24 -‐ Patient Pod Concept Art 111 Figure 25 -‐ Clinic Reception Concept Art 112 Figure 26 -‐ Clinic Tree Concept Art 113 Figure 27 -‐ Car Lot Concept Art 114 Figure 28 -‐ Funeral Storyboard 115 Appendix B – Game Documentation Note: In some screens, the sensor debug data can be seen in the upper right corner. This data is visible only in development versions of the game and will not be viewable by the player in the final version. Figure 29 – Opening Screen 116 Figure 30 – Data Entry The player is asked to enter in some personal data. This will be used later in the game to incorporate his personal information into the environment. Figure 31 – The Clinic Atrium 117 The Neurostalgia Institute is aesthetically a combination of a spa and clinic. This is where the player selects which patients to visit as well as where they can calm down during intense moments within the game. Figure 32 – The Clinic Pod This is a pod containing a patient. It also serves as the entry point into the patient’s mind. 118 Figure 33 – The Yard This is the first scene of the “Spilled Milk” level. The player must collect this photo before proceeding to any of the other main areas of the level. Figure 34 – The Yard 119 Whenever the player collects a photo, it teleports to this tree. The tree acts as an in-‐ world inventory system for the photos. It is on this tree that the player will eventually need to arrange the right photos in the right sequence to recreate the trauma narrative. Figure 35 – Clean Hall When the player first enters into “The House,” everything is in a “clean” state. This represents the patient’s life and circumstances prior to the trauma. 120 Figure 36 – Clean Hall: Detailed view Figure 37 – Clean Kitchen Everything within this patient’s mind is scaled to be larger than the player may expect. This choice in sizing was made to help convey to the player that he is seeing the world through the memories of a 6-‐year-‐old child. 121 Figure 38 – Clean Kitchen: Alternate Angle Figure 39 – Clean Living Room The Living Room was designed to help communicate to the player that this event occurred at some point approximately during the 1970’s. 122 Figure 40 – Clean Stairway These stairs lead up to the patient’s father’s bedroom. Figure 41 – Clean Bedroom 123 The Bedroom before the trauma occurs. In the game, there is a flickering light. When the light is on, the Bedroom appears to be “normal” as it is in this image. When the light is off, the Bedroom transforms into its dark, warped state. Figure 42 – Clean Bedroom When the player turns off this lamp, the entire level transitions to its “Dark State.” That is, the patient’s world after the father’s suicide. 124 Figure 43 – Dark Bedroom This is the appearance of the Bedroom after the lamp has been turned off. Once the level is in its Dark State, the player can begin engaging in puzzles. Figure 44 – Dark Bedroom Until the player solves both puzzles within the Bedroom, he cannot leave the room. The Bedroom serves as a tutorial on how to find and solve puzzles within the game. 125 Figure 45 – Dark Bedroom This safe is one of two puzzles within the Bedroom. Figure 46 – Dark Bedroom In order to open the safe, the player must discover the correct combination. 126 Figure 47 – Dark Bedroom There are books next to the safe that provide a clue as to where the combination might be found. The books’ spines say (from left to right), “The Solution,” “vol. 2,” “That Which Lies Before You,” “Can Be Realized Through,” “That Which Has Been Left Behind You…” Figure 48 – Dark Bedroom 127 The solution to the safe combination lies in the paintings placed on the opposite wall. The image on the left is a painting of a cow whose udders drip blood every time the player faces away from it. The image in the middle is that of a gun permit as the patient remembered it. The image on the right is a distorted wedding photo of the patient’s parents in which the father’s head is crossed out and the mother is crying. The safe’s combination is “milk,” “gun,” and “sorrow.” Figure 49 – Dark Bedroom The tea cup placement task is the second puzzle in the Bedroom. The player needs to find, pick up, and place the three teacups within the room on the three saucers on the dresser. This puzzle is intentionally simple. It exists to familiarize the player with the skills he will be using in future, more complex puzzles. 128 Figure 50 – Dark Staircase The literally twisted staircase the player must descend to return to the rest of the House. Figure 51 – Dark Hallway This is the dirty and unpleasant Hallway after the Dark State has been initiated. 129 Figure 52 – Dark Hallway This door represents the bathroom door. When the player interacts with it in the Clean State, he will hear the patient’s mother say “go see your father” amidst shower sounds. When he interacts with it in the Dark State, he hears a much more distorted, angry version of the mother. The “Bathe In Woes” text serves as a clue to the refrigerator puzzle in the Dark State of the kitchen. 130 Figure 53 – Dark Hall This image is an example of the player’s personal information being used. The player’s current address is depicted as a painting in the Hallway. Figure 54 – Dark Hallway 131 The photos the player collects in the Dark Hallway. The photo says “Me trying to pour some milk. I made such a mess.” Figure 55 – Dark Living Room The Dark Living Room features a jigsaw puzzle. The player must first collect the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle before he can complete it. Each puzzle piece is lit in the very dark room in order to guide the player toward it. However, as the player becomes stressed, the light dims; making it more difficult for the player to find them. If the player becomes maximally stressed, the lights completely disappear until the player returns to a more calm state. 132 Figure 56 – Dark Living Room This image shows the jigsaw puzzle partially completed. Figure 57 – Dark Living Room As the player collects pieces, there are “faced” objects that antagonize the player should he get too close to him. 133 Figure 58 – Dark Living Room This is an example of the jigsaw puzzle almost fully complete. The image shows the Funeral scene and serves as foreshadowing for what lies ahead of the player. When the player completes the puzzle, a statue holding a photo appears behind him. Figure 59 – Dark Living Room 134 When the player enters an area in which the world is actively responding to his stress levels, like the Living Room, the insignificant portions of the location become blurred out. We do this to communicate to the player what area is important and what area is not. When the player leaves the active area, the visuals return to “normal.” Figure 60 – Dark Kitchen The Dark Kitchen represents where the patient spilled the milk. Here, we play with the theme of milk and blood as well as dirty and pure. This symbolism represents the patient’s unresolved sense of guilt for being responsible for her father’s death. 135 Figure 61 – Dark Kitchen Blood having spilled from the milk carton. Figure 62 – Dark Kitchen The refrigerator puzzle is the primary challenge in the kitchen. The player is presented with magnetic letters that spell “White As Bone.” 136 Figure 63 – Dark Kitchen The player must rearrange these letters to spell “Bathe In Woes.” Figure 64 – Dark Kitchen When the player correctly rearranges the letters, the refrigerator opens up to reveal a maze of abstracted barriers and ambiguous hanging bags. The player must traverse through the maze to find the photo and escape. 137 Figure 65 – Dark Kitchen If the player becomes stressed at any point while in the kitchen, milk will begin to flood the room and impede his visibility and movement. Figure 66 – Dark Kitchen 138 When the player collects the photo at the end of the maze, all of the barriers disappear and the player can walk out through the refrigerator door and back into the kitchen. Figure 67 – Car Lot Maze After the player has collected all of the photos in the House, he is able to go to the Car Lot Maze. The Car Lot Maze is a representation of the mother’s lie to the patient about her father’s death. As such, it is intended to be the most surreal and unpleasant areas of the entire level. 139 Figure 68 – Car Lot Maze This photo that the player finds in the first portion of the maze is a “red herring” photo. It is not one of the five photos that tells the true story of the trauma’s narrative. Figure 69 – Car Lot Maze 140 The Car Lot Maze is like the Kitchen Refrigerator Maze in that it presents the player with a claustrophobic gauntlet of twists and turns through which he must navigate. However, the Car Lot Maze uses audio cues to help guide the player along. There is a persistent sound of a car horn playing throughout the maze. When the horn is loud, the player is going in the right direction. When the horn starts to fade out, the player is going in the wrong direction. The more stressed the player becomes in the Car Lot maze, the more distorted the visual and aural landscape becomes, making it significantly more difficult to navigate through the maze. Figure 70 – Car Lot Maze When the player runs into a dead end, he must confront an aspect of the patient’s memory. 141 Figure 71 – Car Lot Maze At the end of the Car Lot maze is a room that reveals the lie to the player both visually and aurally. Figure 72 – Yard 142 When the player completes the Car Lot Maze he will have nine of the ten photos required. The final photo can be found in the Funeral area which is inaccessible until the competition of the Car Lot Maze. Figure 73 – Funeral To reach the puzzle within the Funeral area, the player must first proceed through several rows of moving church pews. The pews are constantly moving and whenever they touch the player, he will take damage. The more stressed the player becomes, the faster the pews move. 143 Figure 74 – Funeral Sitting on the pews are figures who stare at the player as he proceeds through. Figure 75 – Funeral After the player has escaped past the pews, he must then complete a water-‐wheel puzzle using teacups to open the coffin and obtain the final photo. 144 Figure 76 – Funeral When the coffin is opened, the father and his gunshot wound is revealed inside the coffin. The player will now be able to collect the final photo and attempt to rearrange the photos to reconstruct the patient’s memory of the trauma. 145 Appendix C – Narrative The Neurostalgia Institute The Neurostalgia Institue is a clandestine organization that exists to help individuals who have suffered a terrible event in their past, ultimately guiding them to a state in which they can start to recover from the trauma. The labs achieve this via a highly unorthodox procedure that involves one of their trained clinicians, “a Neuroprober” to virtually enter into the mind of the patient and try to piece together the memories of what occurred at the time of the trauma. Once the event has been successfully reconstructed, the patient can start to understand and accept what happened to him or her and, from there, finally begin the journey towards recovery. The player character is one of the newest Neuroprobers on the team – so new, in fact, that the game starts with the player having to fill out his entry paperwork prior to starting his first day on the job. Everyone at the lab is very excited for the player’s arrival. While it seems as though they’re simply eager for a new, sharp Neuroprober to be joining the team, unbeknownst to the player-‐character, their forced optimism is more due in part to the fact that all of the previous advanced Neuroprobers have had to go into intense therapy and rehabilitation themselves after witnessing some of what they encountered within the “advanced-‐trauma” minds. 146 Seeing what happened to their colleagues, the lower-‐level Neuroprobers all declined “promotions” to fill their advanced predecessors’ shoes – no matter how many assurances the officials made that safeguards have since been implemented into the system to prevent their employees from consumed by madness. Nonetheless while the player character isn’t exactly sure why he is met with so much enthusiasm or why he is hired as an advanced Neuroprober despite his lack of experience, he is eager to get started. In brief, the procedure that every Neuroprober follows involves virtually going inside the patient’s mind. Within these minds, the inside is fragmented and – by normal standards – completely illogical, dark, and twisted beyond rational comprehension. Inside the mind, the Neuroprober must find pieces of the memory of what happened at the time of the trauma. These pieces are represented to the Neuroprober as Polaroid photographs. Not all photographs pertain to the missing memory some may have been wrongly absorbed from unrelated events in the patient’s life – while others may have been completely fabricated. As such, it is the Neuroprober’s responsibility to always be aware of his surroundings while Intra-‐mentus (within the patient’s mind). If the Neuroprober is savvy enough, the mind will inadvertently provide all the clues he’ll need to be able to piece the puzzle together. Once the Neuroprober feels he has successfully 147 constructed the memory by placing the right photographs in the correct order, he will leave the mind, wake up the patient, and observer the results of his actions. Fortunately for the player, the experts who architected the Nevermind process learned from the unfortunate consequences of sending even top Neuroproers into the most fragmented minds -‐ and have since set up safe guards for the new Neuroproers who have come in to replace them. As such, the Neuroprober will be closely monitored – if the darkness of the patient’s mind starts to seep into the psyche of the Neuroprober’s mind, the lab will eject the Neuroprober, give him a chance to regroup, and let him enter again once he is ready. This safeguard is particularly important as “the darkness” can seep in via a couple of ways. First and foremost, the imagery can be so disturbing that it impacts the Neuroprober on a deep and personal level. Additionally Nevermind Labs have found that the dangers within the patient’s mind are driven by deep emotional resonance, and thus are amplified when it detects the Neuroprober’s fear and anxiety. These dangers can become so pronounced that they can literally lash out and attack the Neuroprober. Nevermind Laboratories sincerely hopes that, with these new safeguards, you will find more success than your predecessors. After all, you are now their only chance for finally helping the patients that have suffered the most. 148 Spilled Milk – The World Inside the Patient’s Mind After a happy summer day playing tea party outside, Patient A – at the age of 6 – returned home, thirsty for a glass of milk. Despite a herculean effort even getting the milk in the first place, when it came time to pour it from the carton, it slipped from her tiny hands and spilled all over the floor. Stricken with shame and guilt, and too young to know to simply clean it up herself, she panicked and looked for a parent to tell what happened. She rushed upstairs and saw that her parents’ bedroom door was slightly ajar. As she pushed the door open to ask her parents what to do, she saw her father holding a gun to his head, muttering to himself. Shocked by her sudden arrival, his gaze met hers for a split second, and then he shot himself in the mouth. Patient A witnessed everything – but, after even only a few days, remembered nothing. Trying to protect her daughter from ever remembering the horrendous experience, her mother started telling her that daddy simply died in a car accident – being careful that none of their friends or acquaintances ever indicated otherwise. With the memory clouded over and no reason not to believe her mother, the patient grew up believing that she lost her father in a car accident. However her buried trauma still lurked within her, and she always carried a tremendous amount of guilt 149 that she never was able to understand. Even at the funeral, she couldn’t help but feel that everyone there was angry with her and blamed her for the event. As the years passed, she never gave these issues too much consideration – attributing them only to lingering grief over the loss of her father. However, very shortly after the passing of her mother, what was once slight discomfort became unbearable agony. The guilt and repressed memories that had been festering within her subconscious were flooding into her life and destroying everything in her path. She suddenly found herself unable to tolerate any kind of eye contact and began to drown herself in debilitating guilt for even the smallest, most trivial mistakes. As a result, her neuroses slowly compromised her career, her friendships, and – ultimately – the ability to function in the real world. Despite this sudden change, she still was unable to remember what happened to cause this downward spiral and neither she – nor any of her therapists – have been able to discover the root of the trauma. As such, she was sent to the Clinic in the hope that a Neuroprober might be able to discover the problem and help her finally put a face to this unknown demon. It is only then that she will be able to identify, own, and finally process the events that have been secretly haunting her for all these years. 150 Appendix D – Usability Report The following data was prepared by Nevermind’s usability lead, Konstantin Brazhnik. The Test Plan was authored by Konstantin Brazhnik and Nevermind game designer, DuckSoo Choi. Excepts from Test Plan: Test Plan Introduction: As Nevermind is a horror game, the goals in the game can be intentionally hidden from players. Also, as we are planning for a first playtesting session of Nevermind at its early development stage, the arts and assets that represent the storyline of the game might not be applied by our testing date. Thus our goal from this usability testing might not necessarily focus on the final ‘win’ state of the game. Rather, our goal will focus on the maneuver of in-‐game character, readability of small goals, and possibly more User Specification: Age: 15+ As Nevermind will deeply involve physiological aspects of the human mind often with gruesome imagery, the game will be strictly advised against children. Gender: Any Player Category: Casual 1 – 3 hours gameplay per week 151 Casual group will provide us information about the usability/playability of Nevermind for general public. Hardcore 10 hours or more gameplay per week Hardcore group will provide us information about the difficulty/fun level of Nevermind for the audiences with game experience. Platform Nevermind is at the moment developed for PC. But for future reference, asking which platforms our playtester base owns can be a valuable information.(And possibly how many hours on each) Previous Games Played Puzzler Nevermind has a lot of puzzle elements in the game. It might be interesting to know how puzzlers evaluate our puzzles. List most famous puzzle games: Myst, Gears, Wood Labyrinth, etc Horror Games Even though there’s separate section for Horror genre, it would be good to know what kind of horror games player has played. Listing some major horror games like Alan Wake would be good but also leaving some parts blank for them could be more helpful If there’s any particular set of games we’d like our players played, add here. Sensibility Toward Horror Genre Newbies Less than 1 horror movie or any other entertainment media per year This group will give us respective fear level for general public and possibly provide design insights on what makes people fear. Fearless 5+ horror movies or any other entertainment media per year Identify themselves good at handling fears This group will give us information on the uniqueness of Nevermind’s fear factors and possibly the differences with other horror genres (as the game relates to actual psychological theory) Medical History MDAT? Nevermind is designed to recreate a person’s mind that has certain medical conditions. The game’s final goal might be to aid the people with these illnesses but at the moment, the game is on very early stage to expect what the outcome might be. To be certain, it seems good idea to not select anyone who might have similar conditions as the in-‐game 152 character has. In case we do decide to test such person, we should absolutely warn the player for its contents before the game actually start. Other possible medical conditions Maybe not directly asking a name of illness, it might be wise to ask if player has any personal experience that resembles the one of in-‐game character. The question shouldn’t be too obvious but should be able to warn us for possible undiagnosed psychological trauma. Discussion Details:  Each playtesting session will last approximately 30 minutes, 20 minute playtime and 10 minute briefing/feedback time.  Main things that will be tested on this build/usability session will be the puzzles and general play experience of Spilled Milk level.  It might be a good idea to not tell anything to one group and tell basic objectives (and possibly high concept) to another to see if there’s any difference in experiencing Nevermind. Also, we may start a playtester without no background information and fill him in with information after the half of his playtime. Game Mechanic Goals: In 1 minute: Player knows how to control character and have no problem identifying interact-‐able objects in game. In 5 minutes: Player figures out correct routes to progress through the level and not confused of short-‐term goals. Win State: The win state is clearly distinguishable and easily recognizable at the end of each puzzles and levels. Difficulty Level: Player can finish each puzzle within expected time. Atmosphere changes: Player notices changes within game level as he progresses. Entertainment Value: Player enjoys/gets scared playing Nevermind. Graphics: Player recognizes the arts in the game and fails to comprehend the arts in the game on places the game intends to do so. Study Setup: Test Room Setup: Simple Single Room Setup Location: RZC Usability Lab at 2nd Floor 153 Test Schedule per user Total 30 minutes 3 Minute Briefing Test monitor educates the player wit Think Out Loud concept Test monitor erases the player from feeling judged Test monitor removes the player from being polite and nice about the game Test monitor tells the limit of his/her ability to provide information about the game during gameplay Test monitor tells the player to start playing the game (after properly setup) 20 Minute Gameplay No specific information is given to player during gameplay One person drives player through mic while other writes down briefly player’s movements, actions and reactions. 7-‐10 Minute Post Game Questionnaire and Debriefing Ask prepared questions Ask if player has any recommendation about the game Post Game Questionnaire: Have you enjoyed playing our game? Describe the scale from 1 to 10, 10 being best. How hard was the game for you? How long did you take and in that time, did you think you were not good at this game? Was the goal of this game clear to you at every single moment? Do you think this game was easier to beat than holding actual transparent labyrinth cube on your hands? Do you have any future suggestion for this game to make it more fun or accessible? 154 Playtest 1 Date Held: October 13, 2011 Number of Participants: 8 User Reported Data: Figure 77 – Playtest 1: User Reported Data Figure 78 – Playtest 1: User Reported Data 155 Figure 79 – Playtest 1: User Reported Data Figure 80 – Playtest 1: User Reported Data 156 Figure 81 – Playtest 1: User Reported Data 157 Playtest 2 Date Held: November15, 2011 Number of Participants: 8 User Reported Data: Figure 82 – Playtest 2: User Reported Data Figure 83 – Playtest 2: User Reported Data 158 Figure 84 – Playtest 2: User Reported Data Figure 85 – Playtest 2: User Reported Data 159 Figure 86 – Playtest 2: User Reported Data Figure 87 – Playtest 2: User Reported Data 160 Figure 88 – Playtest 2: User Reported Data 161 Playtest 3 Date Held: Februrary, 2012 Number of Participants: 9 User Reported Data: Figure 89 – Playtest 3: User Reported Data Figure 90 – Playtest 3: User Reported Data 162 Figure 91 – Playtest 3: User Reported Data Figure 92 – Playtest 3: User Reported Data 163 Figure 93 – Playtest 3: User Reported Data Figure 94 – Playtest 3: User Reported Data 164 User BPM and DVANN Rates in Playtest 3: The figures below show 8 of the 9 players’ BPM and DVANN rates as they play through the level. DVANN represents the standard deviation of the RR values that was calculated over the course of five minutes – from which we extrapolate an approximation of the players’ Heart Rate Variability. In other words, this is the measure we use to determine the player’s stress levels. The red line indicates the DVANN and the blue line indicates the BPM. Figure 95 – HR and DVANN Data from Playtester #17 165 Figure 96 – HR and DVANN Data from Playtester #18 Figure 97 – HR and DVANN Data from Playtester #19 166 Figure 98 – HR and DVANN Data from Playtester #21 Figure 99 – HR and DVANN Data from Playtester #22 167 Figure 100 – HR and DVANN Data from Playtester #23 Figure 101 – HR and DVANN Data from Playtester #24 168 Figure 102 – HR and DVANN Data from Playtester #25

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