Developing Games that Capture and Engage Users

Time: Friday, May 31, 11:00-12:30

Magy Seif El-Nasr

Northeastern University

Description

Developing games that can capture and engage users is not an easy process. There is no one set process to accomplish this goal. Currently the game industry is increasing in terms of size, delivering a variety of games, and adopting many different business and software development models. One trend that started to appear in the recent years is the use of data to guide the design process and provide insights on all different aspects of development, including software work processes, usability, monetization, and marketing, to mention a few. In this technical briefing, I will concentrate on the role of data in the game software development process and how data can be used to derive insights and design action items. I will use case studies of collaborative work we have accomplished with different game companies and a variety of game types as examples to demonstrate the utility of the approach.

Magy Seif El-Nasr is an associate Professor in the Khoury College of Computer and Information Sciences and Arts, Media and Design, where she directs the GUII (Game User Intelligence and Interaction) Lab. Dr. Seif El-Nasr earned her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Computer Science. Her research focuses on two goals (a) developing automated tools and techniques for authoring, adapting, and personalizing virtual environments (e.g., interactive narrative, believable characters, and visuals), and (b) developing methodologies to model and understand players’ behaviors and motivations through the development of novel mixed-methods approaches that use machine learning and visualization tools. She published the first book on the subject of game data science, called Game Analytics: Maximizing the Value of Player Data. Her work is internationally known and cited in several game industry books, including Programming Believable Characters for Computer Games (Game Development Series) and Real-time Cinematography for Games. She has received several awards and recognition within the game research community. Notably, she received four Best Paper Awards and several citations in industry books and magazines. She is on the editorial board of: IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence in Games and IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing. https://web.northeastern.edu/magy/.

Magy Seif El-Nasr is an associate Professor in the Colleges of Computer and Information Sciences and Arts, Media and Design, where she directs the GUII (Game User Intelligence and Interaction) Lab. Dr. Seif El-Nasr earned her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Computer Science. Her research focuses on two goals (a) developing automated tools and techniques for authoring, adapting, and personalizing virtual environments (e.g., interactive narrative, believable characters, and visuals), and (b) developing methodologies to model and understand players’ behaviors and motivations through the development of novel mixed-methods approaches that use machine learning and visual analytics tools. She recently published the first book on the subject of game analytics, called Game Analytics: Maximizing the Value of Player Data. Her work is internationally known and cited in several game industry books, including Programming Believable Characters for Computer Games (Game Development Series) and Real-time Cinematography for Games. She has received several awards and recognition within the game research community. Notably, she received four Best Paper Awards and several citations in industry books and magazines. She is on the editorial board of: IEEE Transactions on Games and IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.