Emotion Design for Video Games: A Framework for Affective Interactivity

Abstract

Emotionally evocative games hold great potential for both industry and our basic understanding about human affect. The question of how best games elicit and respond to player emotion brings together research from psychology, design, and human-computer interaction (HCI). However, there is much confusion regarding the nature of emotions, emotional game-player interaction, and the process of creating emotional games. This article reviews important work from relevant fields to provide an interdisciplinary model that integrates current theories and highlights conceptual gaps for relevant fields. Based on this model, we propose a methodological framework that provides a step-by-step process of developing an emotion-adaptive game. This framework is open to different models of emotion, and its modular nature allows games to adapt to developments in the science of emotion and technological innovations in emotion detection. Together, the theoretical overview and framework can help reduce the confusion that surrounds creating and researching emotions in games.