Player Decentered Design

Abstract

This thesis presents Player Decentered Design as an alternative approach to creating videogames that actively opposes and subverts a more traditional User Centered Design process. Player Centered Design is a concept that developed alongside academic game studies through the incorporation of research from Human Computer Interaction. Both academia and the games industry are seen to increasingly incorporate Player Centered Design knowledge into teaching and game design, yet this approach has been subject to little critical evaluation. Such arguments against Player Centered Design include that the approach stifles creativity or promotes negative behaviour in players. The study presented here explores works of visual arts and design research, as well as a variety of videogames, in consideration of what an alternative to Player Centered Design could look like. The thesis documents a design process in which an experimental videogame is developed by the author, and can be categorised as a form of research through art and design. The creative process was recorded through the use of a reflective design diary over a six month period. This process is presented in the thesis as an autoethnography, allowing for an authentic retelling of a unique and timely research project. Befitting a project of research through art and design, the value of this research is not in any finalised design but rather in the knowledge that was gathered in the process. This thesis concludes by presenting Player Decentered Design as an alternative approach to game creation; a set of five rules that arose from the design process, and that can be utilised by others in future game development and research.