Topic

In this talk I explore the intersection of game studies, game design, and user experience, examined through the lens of narrative. Over the last two decades, we have seen a shift in the perception of the interplay between people and digital artifacts. Instead of focusing on the purely pragmatic aspects, such as ease of use, we have expanded our understanding to include the full user experience. Similarly, the field of game studies has been working towards a greater understanding of how we experience games and game design.

A common metaphor and unit of analysis for both game studies and user experience is the narrative - stories of what the player has or will experience. By examining and deconstructing narratives into micro-level indicators we can better understand the emergent effects of game design, using theory from game studies in combination with theories about user experience. This micro-level of understanding for the emergent nature of the user experience becomes ever more important with the rising proliferation of artificial intelligence and tools that allow for co-creation or mixed-initiative creation of all parts of games. The importance of this understanding has been further underscored by recent critical failures, such as No Man’s Sky.

Bio

Henrik Warpefelt is an assistant professor of game design at the Department of Game Design at Uppsala University, where he studies the user experience of games from the perspective of game studies and game design. His current focus is how games signal affordances to players, with a special interest in artificial intelligence artifacts. He earned his PhD from Stockholm University in 2016, and has a background as a software developer and systems administrator.