Author Archives: lankoski

Methods, History, and Impact: Directions in Game Design Research

Forgot to blog about New Research Perspectives on Game Design and Development Education workshop paper. Hartmut Koenitz, Christian Roth, Elisa D. Mekler, Staffan Björk, Petri Lankoski, Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari, Annakaisa Kultima, & Ben Medler Abstract Research into the design aspect of games has proliferated since the early 1970s. Currently, early historical overviews appear and categoricalContinue reading “Methods, History, and Impact: Directions in Game Design Research”

2018 DiGRA Distinguished Scholar

I have the honor to be selected as one of 2018 DiGRA Distinguished Scholars. In 2016 DiGRA established the Distinguished Scholars program to recognize senior scholars in the field of game studies who have been at the forefront of the development of rigorous scholarship, the establishment of game studies and game development programs, and whoContinue reading “2018 DiGRA Distinguished Scholar”

A simple save system in Unity

Saving game data is a task that I need regularly. Using serialization and writing data to a file is an approach that I have used much, but that does not work in WebGL builds. Instead, I wrote data in a PlayerPrefs string. In this way I do not need to keep a details about whatContinue reading “A simple save system in Unity”

Measuring aggression, the effects of violent games (and other media)

According to Anderson et al. (2010) there is a link between violent games and aggressive behavior. However, that meta-analysis has been criticized. In addition, studies have found little evidence that violent games relates to violent behavior in real life, for example, as aggravated assault or homicide. (see my previous post). Again, this is not aContinue reading “Measuring aggression, the effects of violent games (and other media)”

Violent game effects?

This is not anything like systematic review, but more notes for myself. The long debate of how violent games effect on behavior. Anderson, et al. (2010) argue that there are violent games increase aggression and lower empathy: The evidence strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressiveContinue reading “Violent game effects?”

A brief history on how a new thing are bad for you

In 1795, author J. G. Heinzmann insisted that such devotion [to novels] caused “weakening of the eyes, heat rashes, gout, arthritis, hemorrhoids, asthma, apoplexy, pulmonary disease, indigestion, blocking of the bowels, nervous disorder, migraines, epilepsy, hypochondria and melancholy.”Anslow (2016) Anslow covers stuff that what is claimed to be bad for you from novels to comicsContinue reading “A brief history on how a new thing are bad for you”

Game design research: An overview

Petri Lankoski and Jussi Holopainen In: Lankoski, P. and Holopainen, J., eds., 2017. Game design research. An introduction to theory & practice. ETC Press, pp.1-24. Available at http://press.etc.cmu.edu/index.php/product/game-design-research/ (Printed book, e-pub, or free PDF) Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) Game design aims to solve a design problem of “how do we create this specificContinue reading “Game design research: An overview”

Forthcoming – Game design research: Theory & practice

Something Jussi Holopainen and I have been working on: Lankoski, P. and Holopainen, J. forthcoming. Game design research: An Introduction to Theory & practice. ETC Press. EDIT: the book is out.  More in the post Game design research: An overview. Table of contents of the book: Game design research: An overview / Petri Lankoski andContinue reading “Forthcoming – Game design research: Theory & practice”