Challenge in digital games: Towards developing a measurement tool

Alena Denisova, Christian Guckelsberger, David Zendle

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Challenge is arguably the most important experience that players seek in digital games. However, without a measure of how challenged players feel during the act of play, it is hard to design games that are neither too easy nor too hard and, therefore, truly enjoyable. Especially in industry, challenge is dominantly assessed by means of manual play testing in ad-hoc trials. The aim of this research is to create a more systematic, complete, and reliable instrument to evaluate the level of players' experienced challenge in games in the form of a questionnaire. This paper presents the key results from an extensive literature survey which will inform further development. We survey definitions of challenge, challenge types, and their relation to player experience based on the observations of game designers. We furthermore draw from empirical findings in a diverse range of fields such as game studies, human computer interaction (HCI) and artificial intelligence (AI).

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI 2017 Extended Abstracts - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publicationExplore, Innovate, Inspire
PublisherACM
Pages2511-2519
Number of pages9
ISBN (Electronic)9781450346566
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 May 2017
Event2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2017 - Denver, United States
Duration: 6 May 201711 May 2017

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
VolumePart F127655

Conference

Conference2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2017
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityDenver
Period6/05/1711/05/17

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
CG is funded by EPSRC grant [EP/L015846/1] (IGGI).

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2017 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. (ACM).

Keywords

  • Challenge
  • Difficulty
  • Digital games
  • Player experience
  • Questionnaire
  • Survey

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