Touching is GoodGame Design for the Nintendo DS

Nick BaloghComputer Science Senior Project

Union CollegeProf. Burns

Nintendo DS

DS Game Design

Design Challenges

Question

•How do you design a “good” game for the DS??

My Approach

•Good Game Design Principles•Game Development•User Testing•Evaluation of player feedback

Buttons vs. Stylus

My Game

Game cont…

Experiment•User plays with both control schemes•Survey

• Challenge• Rewarding• Preference• Score• Mastery• Learning Curve

Results

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Stylus Buttons

•More challenging control scheme

•Rewarding on success

n= 15

More Results

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Stylus Buttons

•Preference to play again

•Score better with

n=15

Conclusions

•The touch screen controls provide a better way to interact and play the game

•DS Games in general•Touching is Good!

Future Work•Additional testing

• Different tests

•Expand Combos• Complex actions

• Multiplayer

•Another game to test screen variations

Questions?

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