game system engineering lecture: game metrics
TRANSCRIPT
Game Systems Engineering
Game Metrics
Lennart Nacke
Blekinge Institute of Technology
Department of Interaction and System Design
Game and Media Arts Laboratory
http://gamescience.bth.se/teaching/courses/game-systems-engineering
Outline
What are Game Metrics?
Metrics Visualizations and Examples
What are Game Metrics?
Statistical data
– Game-focused Times (cumulative playing time, time for task completion)
Death counts (map, time, difficulty)
– Player-focused Behavioral
Attitudinal
Physiological
Everything you can measure…
Numbers ≈ knowledge
– Scientific evaluation
– Allows for computation…
Adaptive measures
– Affective gaming
Metrics in Level Design
Player character in-game metrics balancing
– Physical properties (distance, speed, interaction/movement type)
– Temporary modifiers (power ups, ammo, etc.)
In-game environmental metrics
– Tweakable system parameters (rain, terrain, effects, etc.)
– Distribution of modifiers, NPCs
– Points of player interaction
Time (of interaction)
Type (of interaction)
Space (e.g. where attack takes place)
Preferences of players
– Difficulty, character classes, playing styles, etc.
Metrics for game designers
Identify problems
– Location
– Type
– Cause
Designing for player experience
– Measure all the playing facts you can gather
– Reconstruct player identities
– Discover causes for experiential phenomena
Game analysis is numerically reliable
Metrics as communication with the community
Metrics mean data
Good analysis requires data mining
Better results by visualizing the data
Statistical data
– Visualization as decision helpers (e.g. histograms)
Game metrics is a young field
– Few people
– Industry neglected so far…
– Ongoing scientific groundwork (usability, playability, behavior)
Example visualizations
Xfire Game Rankings by Invested Playing Time
From http://www.xfire.com/cms/stats/
Heatmaps in Halo 3
From http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=12943
Heatmaps in Half-Life 2, Episode 2
From http://www.steampowered.com/status/ep2/ep2_stats.php
From http://orbusgameworks.com/blog/article/35/quake-iii-heat-maps
Frag Vectors in Quake 3
Time spent on map and jumping arcs (Quake 3)
From http://orbusgameworks.com/blog/article/35/quake-iii-heat-maps
Half-Life 2 Gunfire Metrics (Safe Zones)
From http://orbusgameworks.com/blog/article/42/half-life-2-gunfire-metrics
Game Metrics in Hitman: Blood Money
From Canossa, A. “Play personas and Game Metrics”
Eye Tracking Visual Attention Metrics
From Nacke, L., Lindley, C. (in preparation) ”Distribution of Visual Attention on Game-Interface Menus”
Game and Physiological Event Logging
From Nacke, L., Lindley, C., Stellmach, S. (2008) “Log Who’s Playing: Psychophysiological Game Analysis Made Easy through Event Logging” LNCS Fun and Games 2008
References
Mellon, L., Kazemi D. (2008) “Wake Up and Smell the Metrics” Austin GDC
Nacke, L., Lindley, C., Stellmach, S. (2008) “Log Who’s Playing: Psychophysiological Game Analysis Made Easy through Event Logging” LNCS Fun and Games 2008– http://www.springerlink.com/content/f3560134p7017541/
Kim, J.H., Gunn, D.V., Schuh, E., Philips, B., Pagulayan, R.J., Wixon, D. (2008) “Tracking Real-Time User Experience (TRUE): A comprehensive instrumentation solution for complex systems” CHI 2008
Canossa, A. (2008) “Play personas and game metrics, analysis of Hitman: Blood Money”, presentation in PhD Seminar
Tychsen, A., Canossa, A. (2008) “Defining Personas in Games Using Metrics” Proceedings of ACM Future Play 2008.
Byrne, E. (2005) Game Level Design, Chapter 7
Orbus Gameworks, http://orbusgameworks.com
Valve Steam, http://store.steampowered.com/stats/
Xfire, http://www.xfire.com/cms/stats/
Bungie, Microsoft, http://www.bungie.net, http://mgsuserresearch.com
Thank you for your attention!