More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/

research-article

SuBViS: the use of subjunctive visual programming environments for exploring alternatives in game development

Authors:

Daniel MacCormick,

Loutfouz ZamanAuthors Info & Claims

FDG '19: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

Article No.: 27, Pages 1 - 11

https://doi.org/10.1145/3337722.3337740

Published: 26 August 2019 Publication History

Abstract

Game development is a naturally iterative process where many ideas are tested and prototyped before final decisions are made. Given the increased usage of visual scripting systems in game development recently, it is apparent that these tools must be able to support every aspect of this process. One aspect that is not well captured is the exploration of alternatives. SuBViS was developed as a solution to this problem. It is a visual scripting system for exploring parallel ideas in game development through the use of alternatives at graph and node levels. These two levels of exploring alternatives can be combined or used separately. This paper presents a use case example, which demonstrates how SuBViS can improve workflow and communication between team members. It also discusses a small-scale user study and the results obtained therein. SuBViS was developed on top of Unreal Engine's existing Blueprint Visual Scripting system.

References

[1]

Bueno, C., Crossland, S., Lutteroth, C. and Weber, G. Rewriting History: More Power to Creative People. OzCHI 2011 62--71.

Digital Library

[2]

Cristie, V. and Joyce, S. 2017. Capturing And Visualising Parametric Design Flow Through Interactive Web Versioning Snapshots. IASS Annual Symposium 2017 "Interfaces - Architecture. Engineering. Science." (Hamburg, Germany, Sep. 2017).

[3]

Egenfeldt-Nielsen, S., Smith, J.H. and Tosca, S.P. 2015. Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction. Routledge.

Digital Library

[4]

Elkhaldi, M. and Woodbury, R. 2015. Interactive Design Exploration with Alt.Text. International Journal of Architectural Computing. 13, 2 (Jun. 2015), 103--122.

[5]

Fujima, J., Lunzer, A., Hornbæk, K. and Tanaka, Y. 2004. Clip, connect, clone: combining application elements to build custom interfaces for information access. Proceedings of the 17th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology (New York, NY, USA, 2004), 175--184.

Digital Library

[6]

Guenther, J.R. 2016. Shiro - A language to represent alternatives. Simon Fraser University.

[7]

Hailpern, J., Hinterbichler, E., Leppert, C., Cook, D. and Bailey, B.P. 2007. TEAM STORM: Demonstrating an Interaction Model for Working with Multiple Ideas During Creative Group Work. Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI Conference on Creativity & Cognition (New York, NY, USA, 2007), 193--202.

Digital Library

[8]

Hartmann, B., Follmer, S., Ricciardi, A., Cardenas, T. and Klemmer, S.R. 2010. d.note: revising user interfaces through change tracking, annotations, and alternatives. CHI 2010 (New York, NY, USA, 2010), 493--502.

Digital Library

[9]

Hartmann, B., Yu, L., Allison, A., Yang, Y. and Klemmer, S.R. 2008. Design as exploration: creating interface alternatives through parallel authoring and runtime tuning. UIST 2008 (New York, NY, USA, 2008), 91--100.

Digital Library

[10]

Hsu, W. and Woon, I.M.Y. 1998. Current research in the conceptual design of mechanical products. Computer-Aided Design. 30, 5 (1998), 377--389.

[11]

Jantke, K.P., Lunzer, A. and Fujima, J. 2005. Subjunctive Interfaces in Exploratory e-Learning. Proceedings of the Third Biennial Conference on Professional Knowledge Management (Berlin, Heidelberg, 2005), 176--188.

Digital Library

[12]

Kolarić, S., Erhan, H. and Woodbury, R. 2017. CAMBRIA: Interacting with Multiple CAD Alternatives. Computer-Aided Architectural Design. Future Trajectories (Jul. 2017), 81--99.

[13]

Lunzer, A. 2004. Benefits of Subjunctive Interface Support for Exploratory Access to Online Resources. Proceedings of the 2004 International Conference on Intuitive Human Interfaces for Organizing and Accessing Intellectual Assets (Berlin, Heidelberg, 2004), 14--32.

Digital Library

[14]

Lunzer, A. and Hornbæk, K. 2006. An Enhanced Spreadsheet Supporting Calculation-Structure Variants, and Its Application to Web-Based Processing. Federation over the Web (2006), 143--158.

Digital Library

[15]

Lunzer, A. and Hornbæk, K. 2006. RecipeSheet: Creating, Combining and Controlling Information Processors. Proceedings of the 19th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (New York, NY, USA, 2006), 145--154.

Digital Library

[16]

Lunzer, A. and Hornbæk, K. 2003. Side-by-side display and control of multiple scenarios: Subjunctive interfaces for exploring multi-attribute data. Proceedings of OzCHI 2003. (2003), 26--28.

[17]

Lunzer, A. and Hornbæk, K. 2008. Subjunctive Interfaces: Extending Applications to Support Parallel Setup, Viewing and Control of Alternative Scenarios. ACM TOCHI. 14, 4 (Jan. 2008), 17:1--17:44.

Digital Library

[18]

Lunzer, A. and Hornbæk, K. 2004. Usability Studies on a Visualisation for Parallel Display and Control of Alternative Scenarios. Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (New York, NY, USA, 2004), 125--132.

Digital Library

[19]

Marks, J., Andalman, B., Beardsley, P.A., Freeman, W., Gibson, S., Hodgins, J., Kang, T., Mirtich, B., Pfister, H., Ruml, W., Ryall, K., Seims, J. and Shieber, S. 1997. Design galleries: a general approach to setting parameters for computer graphics and animation. Proceedings of the 24th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques (New York, NY, USA, 1997), 389--400.

Digital Library

[20]

Smith, B.N., Xu, A. and Bailey, B.P. 2010. Improving interaction models for generating and managing alternative ideas during early design work. Graphics Interface 2010 (Toronto, Ont., Canada, Canada, 2010), 121--128.

Digital Library

[21]

Terry, M. and Mynatt, E.D. 2002. Recognizing creative needs in user interface design. Creativity and Cognition 2002 (New York, NY, USA, 2002), 38--44.

Digital Library

[22]

Terry, M. and Mynatt, E.D. 2002. Side Views: Persistent, On-demand Previews for Open-ended Tasks. Proceedings of the 15th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (New York, NY, USA, 2002), 71--80.

Digital Library

[23]

Terry, M., Mynatt, E.D., Nakakoji, K. and Yamamoto, Y. 2004. Variation in element and action: supporting simultaneous development of alternative solutions. CHI 2004 (New York, NY, USA, 2004), 711--718.

Digital Library

[24]

Wang, L., Shen, W., Xie, H., Neelamkavil, J. and Pardasani, A. 2002. Collaborative conceptual design---state of the art and future trends. Computer-Aided Design. 34, 13 (2002), 981--996.

[25]

Woodbury, R., Mohiuddin, A., Cichy, M. and Mueller, V. 2017. Interactive design galleries: A general approach to interacting with design alternatives. Design Studies. 52, (Sep. 2017), 40--72.

[26]

Zaman, L., Neugebauer, C., Stuerzlinger, W. and Woodbury, R. 2018. GEMNI+: Leveraging Difference Visualization and Multiple Displays for Supporting Multiple Complex Generative Design Alternatives. Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (New York, NY, USA, 2018), LBW106:1--LBW106:6.

Digital Library

[27]

Zaman, L., Stuerzlinger, W. and Neugebauer, C. 2017. MACE: A New Interface for Comparing and Editing of Multiple Alternative Documents for Generative Design. Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Symposium on Document Engineering (New York, NY, USA, 2017), 67--76.

Digital Library

[28]

Zaman, L., Stuerzlinger, W., Neugebauer, C., Woodbury, R., Maher, E., Shireen, N. and Terry, M. 2015. GEM-NI: A System For Creating and Managing Alternatives In Generative Design. CHI 2015 (Seoul, Korea, 2015).

Digital Library

Cited By

Chueca JVerón JFont JPérez FCetina C(2024)The consolidation of game software engineering: A systematic literature review of software engineering for industry-scale computer gamesInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107330165(107330)Online publication date: Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107330
Hossain MZaman L(2022)NCAlt: Alternatives and Difference Visualizations for Behavior Trees in Game Development LearningProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35495086:CHI PLAY(1-31)Online publication date: 31-Oct-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3549508
Versaw RSchultz SLu KZhao R(2021)Modular Reinforcement Learning Framework for Learners and EducatorsProceedings of the 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games10.1145/3472538.3472583(1-5)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3472538.3472583

Index Terms

SuBViS: the use of subjunctive visual programming environments for exploring alternatives in game development
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Interaction paradigms
      1. Graphical user interfaces

Recommendations

NCAlt: Alternatives and Difference Visualizations for Behavior Trees in Game Development Learning
CHI PLAY

When learning how to develop AI behavior it is common for students to test different ideas before settling on a desired outcome. This functionality is not available in modern behavior tree systems beyond the traditional methods of duplication and ...
Modding Support of Game Engines
FDG '21: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

This paper aims at showing how different game engines support modding. To this end, the concepts of modding and game engines alongside their historical evolution are introduced first. Additionally, some well-known game engines and mods are presented, ...
Game engines in game programming education: experiences from use of the CAGE game engine
Koli Calling '11: Proceedings of the 11th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research

Game engines are the most important tools in modern game development. We have developed a novel game engine CAGE and used it in a game programming course for three years. The CAGE game engine was developed in summer 2008 in Tampere University of ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

FDG '19: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

August 2019

822 pages

ISBN:9781450372176

DOI:10.1145/3337722

Conference Chair:
Sebastian Deterding
University of York
,
General Chair:
Foaad Khosmood
California Polytechnic State University
,
Program Chairs:
Johanna Pirker
Graz University of Technology
,
Thomas Apperley
CEGCS Tampere University

Copyright © 2019 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 26 August 2019

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

FDG '19

FDG '19: The Fourteenth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

August 26 - 30, 2019

California, San Luis Obispo, USA

Acceptance Rates

FDG '19 Paper Acceptance Rate 46 of 124 submissions, 37%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 152 of 415 submissions, 37%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

3
Total Citations
View Citations
121
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)15
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0

Reflects downloads up to 15 Jan 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Chueca JVerón JFont JPérez FCetina C(2024)The consolidation of game software engineering: A systematic literature review of software engineering for industry-scale computer gamesInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107330165(107330)Online publication date: Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107330
Hossain MZaman L(2022)NCAlt: Alternatives and Difference Visualizations for Behavior Trees in Game Development LearningProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35495086:CHI PLAY(1-31)Online publication date: 31-Oct-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3549508
Versaw RSchultz SLu KZhao R(2021)Modular Reinforcement Learning Framework for Learners and EducatorsProceedings of the 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games10.1145/3472538.3472583(1-5)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3472538.3472583

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents