Bibliographic details and abstracts are available to all. Downloads of full-text dissertations are restricted to University of Portsmouth members who must login. MPhils may be accessed by all.

Abstract

In order to answer the posed question, a playable demo of a first-person shooter was created in Unreal Engine 4, incorporating multiple user interface elements typical for the genre. This demo is split into two variants; one displays these elements to the player in a non-diegetic framing, whilst the other uses a diegetic framing which treats the elements as objects that exist within the game’s world. The demo was distributed to multiple participants alongside a survey to evaluate their experience, composed primarily of questions from the 2013 Gameplay Experience Questionnaire alongside additional questions used to categorise data or gather more direct responses.
Analysis of the received data shows a stronger shift in the player’s mood and opinion in favour of the diegetic UI, yet direct questioning claims the opposite to be true. Dissecting the data further shows that the minimap, ammo counter and cell tracker benefit most from diegetic methods, whilst the health bar was overwhelmingly preferred when used non-diegetically. This opens the door for a hybrid implementation of both designs, employing diegetic methods on an element-by-element basis for maximum effectiveness.

Course: Computer Games Technology - BSc (Hons) - C1671

Date Deposited: 2022-02-11

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13778.html