Internship at Blackbird Interactive, Social Game
Analytics: Using Metrics to Improve Player Engagement
|
This research
was financially supported by MITACS
and Blackbird
Interactive
Inc. In this project, I developed a combination of
Data mining models, and
Visual Analytics systems to capture the players
performances and engagements. The main goal of this
project was to design and develop scientific and
engineering methods and tools to help people from
Design, Production, and Marketing in the company, to
better understand the users’ behaviours and interests
toward their product. the research and development
cycles were based on demanding questions from
aforementioned group of people. Please see the published
papers:
1.Assistive design and production in computer games: Parametric systems, data mining, visual analytics
2.Game Analytics for Game User Research, Part 1: A Workshop Review and Case Study
|
Collaborative Project, Electronic Arts and Simon
Fraser University: Triangulating telemetry with other
User experience measurements |
This research was financially supported by
GRAND
and
Electronic Arts
Inc. In this Research, I was focusing on two different
sub-projects including : 1.Visual Analytics to
triangulate different user experiences. 2.Developing
Data mining methods to investigate and explore users’
behavioural patterns. In first project, I
developed a visualization system which triangulates three
different sources of data
including 1. Game telemetry 2.User Bio-Feedback 3.Eye
Tracking video , which
could help game user researches to better observe and
understand the correlations among Bio-Feedback sensory data , game-play events, and
objects players were tracking inside the game screen. the
system was used for some
user studies for NHL hockey,and NBA game, and results were
explained and depicted at
Canadian Game Conference. The second project was
done for
Bioware,
and on game telemetry data from
Dragon Age Origins. the main goal of the project
was to explore the users’ quitting behaviours and their
navigation patterns.
the results of this project was published as
a book chapter in Game
Analytics, 2013. Springer-Verlag .
|
Collaborative Project, Bardel
Entertainments and SFU : Developing Methods for
Evaluation of Virtual Worlds and Understanding User
Experiences
|
This research was financially
supported by
GRAND
and
Bardel Entertainments
Inc. In this Research, I was focusing on developing
visual analytics and reporting systems which can better
presents a collection game metrics developed through a
collaborative process with other colleagues at SFU, and
Bardel Entertainment, and other independent researchers.
I used the Jasper Server reporting engine to develop
some visual reports which represented the developed
metrics for a virtual world named
TokiWorld, a virtual
world game developed to promote the sustainability
concepts for kids. the system was tested with some
internal user studies, and game telemetry acquired from
that, and presented as a paper in
FuturePlay 2010, and a poster presentation in Grand
2010. |
Internship, Co-operative Experience Game Design |
| This research was financially supported by
GRAND
,
Bardel Entertainments
Inc, and MITACS.
In this collaborative project, we did a big user study
on cooperative games to explore the innovative and
successful design patterns used in this genre. we also,
developed a qualitative and quantitative metric
framework to measure the users’ experience in this
games. and finally we designed and developed some
prototype games for Bardel Entertainment Inc, based on
developed design framework. The reseults were published in
CHI
2010 as a full paper, and some part of that later
claimed as my master thesis. Please see this
link
for more information. |
Body Buddies: Social Signaling
through Puppeteering (Research Assistant) |
This research was financially
supported by
GRAND
, and was made possible through an international
collaboration with other universities and faculty
members, including. 1.Magy Seif El-Nasr (SFU),
2.Katherine Isbister(NYU), 3.Jeffery Ventrella
(Independent), 4.Chelsea Hash (NYU), 5.Mona Erfani
(SFU), 6.Jacquelyn Morie (USC), and Leslie Bishko (Emily
Carr). In this project, we designed a 3D avatar based
interface using Unity Game Engine on top of Skype
platform, in which different social signals could be
send through avatar puppeteering and animation methods.
I mainly concentrated on architecture design of software
system, and implementing the system on top of Skype peer
to peer API, while connecting network , and user
commands to appropriate procedural or baked animations.
Also, I helped in a user study which was developed for
this framework to understand how people interact with
system vs Skype interface, and how they feel connected
after experiment. the result was published as a paper in
HCII 2011. Please see this
link for a demo.
|
Assassin’s Creed II Study (Research Assistant) |
| This research project was an international academic
collaboration between different universities and faculty
members, including: 1.Researchers from Simon Fraser
University 2.IT University Copenhagen 3.Malmo
University, and some other independent researchers. This
project was following different goals by designing a big
multi-cultural study over a significant cultural game.
In this research, I developed and applied data mining
methods including cluster and classification analysis to
explore different game-play styles and audience
segments, while trying to develop descriptive models
such as decision trees which better explain users’
styles and behaviours. The initial results sent for
Ubisoft Playtest
lab, and they encouraged and validated our
findings.The final results of this work was
published in Game
Analytics, 2013. Springer-Verlag . |
GTT: Gesture Turing Test
(Research Assistant) |
This research was financially
supported by NSERC, and was made possible through a
collaboration between Simon Fraser University, School of
Interactive Art & Technology, with Emily Carr University
of Art and Design Motion Capture Studio. In this
project, we focused to develop a variation of Turing
Test method for body language communication in Virtual
worlds, and measuring the AI believability through body
gestures. I mainly worked on software architecture
design, and some parts of test AI development. we used
real-time Vicon Data, and we feed that inside a Unity
game engine application, to make the virtual AI and
human communication possible. The results of this
project was published as a workshop paper in AAMAS 2010
International Workshop. Please see following
link
for more information.
|
Visual Motion Game: Design and Effects on Visual
Load (Research Assistant) |
| This research was financially supported by
GRAND,
and made possible through a collaborative efforts by
colleagues, and researchers in Simon Fraser University,
and Northeastern university, college of computer
science. This project considers, topics such as visual
motion design in video games, and how players perceive
this visual load. In this project, I developed a
technology on top of Unity
game engine which uses
Tobii eye tracker API to explore 3D objects which
players look, while playing the game. I used a ray
casting technique which calculate the mapping between 2d
points in the screen ,acquired from eye tracker, and 3D
objects inside the game environment. I also, developed a
telemetry collection component which gathers game events
inside a local file system. the system was used in a big
user study over 105 participants, to explore different
goals of project, and results of this study is going to be presented
at Foundation of Digital Games conference 2013. (FDG Accepted Papers) |
