Research Article
Dynamic Suspense Management Through Adaptive Gameplay
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-030-95531-1_7, author={Robert Levin and Skyler Zartman and Ying Zhu}, title={Dynamic Suspense Management Through Adaptive Gameplay}, proceedings={ArtsIT, Interactivity and Game Creation. Creative Heritage. New Perspectives from Media Arts and Artificial Intelligence. 10th EAI International Conference, ArtsIT 2021, Virtual Event, December 2-3, 2021, Proceedings}, proceedings_a={ARTSIT}, year={2022}, month={2}, keywords={Affective computing Game design Suspense}, doi={10.1007/978-3-030-95531-1_7} }- Robert Levin
Skyler Zartman
Ying Zhu
Year: 2022
Dynamic Suspense Management Through Adaptive Gameplay
ARTSIT
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-95531-1_7
Abstract
Suspense is an important emotion for the enjoyment of games. Various methods have been proposed to manage suspense in games. Most existing works focus on managing suspense via storytelling or artifacts, such as sound effects. However, little work has been done in studying how to use gameplay to manage suspense. In this paper, we present a study in which we developed a horror-adventure game with a built-in suspense manager based on adaptive gameplay. We conducted a small user study to evaluate the effect of dynamic suspense management on game players. Our results showed that gameplay could potentially be used to manage the level of suspense experienced by players, independent of the story and artifacts in the game. The work discussed in this paper will provide game designers with new tools for suspense management in non-narrative-based games.
