Competitive Assessment Archives

Qualitative Research

Description As part of Dr. Sharritt's doctoral research, Making History: The Calm & the Storm by Muzzy Lane was compared with two other commercial games: Civilization IV by Firaxis / 2K Games, and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 by Atari. Research was designed to compare learning and usability of the three games in educational settings. RollerCoaster Tycoon [...]

Description Konami revived a classic game from Nintendo when releasing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. We explain to clients that QA (Quality Assurance) is similar to testing code for bugs, while user-experience (UX) research is similar to testing a game’s design. Our prior research indicates that game players move through early phases of learning the game [...]

Description Having studied Civilization IV extensively (many of our publications involve research done with Civilization IV), we will discuss some of Civilization V's many changes and the associated trade-offs in terms of player engagement and motivation. Civilization V has made many improvements to game operations, such as hexagonal tiles and movement, and the inability to [...]

Description With the release of Grand Theft Auto V, one of the most popular video game series in history, we conducted a free review of the game highlighting narrative design and its impact on gameplay. Over the years, most games have had a mediocre storyline, and only a handful have really invested in great story [...]

Description One measure of a good game is its ability to scaffold for players of different abilities: something easy to learn but difficult to master. Madden ’11 and its redesigned GameFlow user-experience helps teach new players about football strategy, while allowing advanced players the ability to create custom playbooks, players and teams. When paired with [...]

Qualitative Research

Game Usability Review

Game Review

Game Narrative Review

Gameplay Analysis