“It started as a joke”: On the design of idle games

Katta Spiel; Sultan A. Alharthi; Andrew Jian Lan Cen; Jessica Hammer; Lennart E. Nacke; Phoebe O. Toups Dugas; Tess Tanenbaum

doi:10.1145/3311350.3347180

“It started as a joke”: On the design of idle games

Katta Spiel, Sultan A. Alharthi, Andrew Jian Lan Cen, Jessica Hammer, Lennart E. Nacke, Phoebe O. Toups Dugas, Tess Tanenbaum

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

With idle games, active withdrawal from the game comprises an essential part of gameplay as players wait for the game state to change over time. This mode of interaction is paradigmatic for the change of roles technologies have in our lives. However, the design elements of idle games are less well understood, particularly from the perspectives of developers. We interviewed six designers of six different popular idle games and inquired into their individual approaches. Via thematic analysis, we refine and expand on existing definitions of idle games as a genre, shed light on ethically charged practices of care in their design, and identify shared core characteristics between the games and processes. We then generate intermediate-level knowledge on the design of idle games. Our work contributes designers’ perspectives on idle games and their design to a growing body of literature on the genre.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play
Editors	Phoebe O. Toups Dugas, Vero Vanden Abeele
Place of Publication	New York NY USA
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages	495-508
Number of pages	14
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450366885
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3311350.3347180
Publication status	Published - 2019
Externally published	Yes
Event	ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play 2019 - Barcelona, Spain Duration: 22 Oct 2019 → 25 Oct 2019 Conference number: 6th https://chiplay.acm.org/2019/ https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3311350

Conference

Conference	ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play 2019
Abbreviated title	CHI PLAY 2019
Country/Territory	Spain
City	Barcelona
Period	22/10/19 → 25/10/19
Internet address	https://chiplay.acm.org/2019/ https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3311350

Keywords

Ambient interaction
Design
Idle games
Thematic analysis

Access to Document

10.1145/3311350.3347180

Cite this

Spiel, K., Alharthi, S. A., Cen, A. J. L., Hammer, J., Nacke, L. E., Toups Dugas, P. O., & Tanenbaum, T. (2019). “It started as a joke”: On the design of idle games. In P. O. Toups Dugas, & V. Vanden Abeele (Eds.), Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (pp. 495-508). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/3311350.3347180

@inproceedings{dff4810e00904ad9a7d4d2df03bad367,

title = "“It started as a joke”: On the design of idle games",

abstract = "With idle games, active withdrawal from the game comprises an essential part of gameplay as players wait for the game state to change over time. This mode of interaction is paradigmatic for the change of roles technologies have in our lives. However, the design elements of idle games are less well understood, particularly from the perspectives of developers. We interviewed six designers of six different popular idle games and inquired into their individual approaches. Via thematic analysis, we refine and expand on existing definitions of idle games as a genre, shed light on ethically charged practices of care in their design, and identify shared core characteristics between the games and processes. We then generate intermediate-level knowledge on the design of idle games. Our work contributes designers{\textquoteright} perspectives on idle games and their design to a growing body of literature on the genre.",

keywords = "Ambient interaction, Design, Idle games, Thematic analysis",

author = "Katta Spiel and Alharthi, {Sultan A.} and Cen, {Andrew Jian Lan} and Jessica Hammer and Nacke, {Lennart E.} and {Toups Dugas}, {Phoebe O.} and Tess Tanenbaum",

note = "Funding Information: The first author of this work was financially supported for this work by TU Wien through the Christiana H{\"o}rbiger Prize and by Google through a Disability Scholarship. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. IIS-1651532 and IIS-1619273. We want to thank our interviewees for their time, patience and knowledge that they shared with us. Further, we thank Fares Kayali and Kathrin Gerling for reading earlier versions of this work and providing invaluable feedback, next to the twelve reviewers who studied it and through loving critique made it as sound as it is now. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} held by the owner/author(s).; ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play 2019, CHI PLAY 2019 ; Conference date: 22-10-2019 Through 25-10-2019",

year = "2019",

doi = "10.1145/3311350.3347180",

language = "English",

pages = "495--508",

editor = "{Toups Dugas}, {Phoebe O.} and {Vanden Abeele}, Vero",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)",

address = "United States of America",

url = "https://chiplay.acm.org/2019/, https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3311350",

}

Spiel, K, Alharthi, SA, Cen, AJL, Hammer, J, Nacke, LE, Toups Dugas, PO & Tanenbaum, T 2019, “It started as a joke”: On the design of idle games. in PO Toups Dugas & V Vanden Abeele (eds), Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York NY USA, pp. 495-508, ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play 2019, Barcelona, Spain, 22/10/19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3311350.3347180

“It started as a joke”: On the design of idle games. / Spiel, Katta; Alharthi, Sultan A.; Cen, Andrew Jian Lan et al.
Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. ed. / Phoebe O. Toups Dugas; Vero Vanden Abeele. New York NY USA: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2019. p. 495-508.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

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“It started as a joke”: On the design of idle games

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

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