Designing Game Analytics For A City-Builder Game
Korppoo, Karoliina (2015)
2015
Informaatiotutkimus ja interaktiivinen media - Information Studies and Interactive Media
Informaatiotieteiden yksikkö - School of Information Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2015-06-11
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201506241815
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201506241815
Tiivistelmä
The video game industry continues to grow. Competition is tough as games become more and more popular and easier for the users to get, thanks to digital distribution and social media platforms that support games. Thanks to the readily available internet connections and games using them, data of player behaviour can be acquired. This is where game analytics come in. What sort of player actions provide meaningful information that can be used to iterate the game? Typically game analytics is applied to multiplayer games or free-to-play social network games, not to single player games.
This case study focuses on the design of game analytics for Cities: Skylines (Paradox, 2015), a modern city-building sandbox game. The writer of the thesis is the lead designer of Cities: Skylines, so the perspective to the work is from inside the games industry and on how metrics are designed alongside game design.
The results of this study show that some practices used with free-to-play game’s analytics can be used with more classic games, but that sandbox simulation games are very challenging for game analysis. This is due to how sandbox games strive to support player self-expression and cater to many different playing styles.
This case study focuses on the design of game analytics for Cities: Skylines (Paradox, 2015), a modern city-building sandbox game. The writer of the thesis is the lead designer of Cities: Skylines, so the perspective to the work is from inside the games industry and on how metrics are designed alongside game design.
The results of this study show that some practices used with free-to-play game’s analytics can be used with more classic games, but that sandbox simulation games are very challenging for game analysis. This is due to how sandbox games strive to support player self-expression and cater to many different playing styles.