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GIST Scientists Develop Model that Adjusts Videogame Difficulty Based on Player Emotions

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Appropriately balancing a videogame’s difficulty is essential to provide players with a pleasant experience. In a recent study, Korean scientists developed a novel approach for dynamic difficulty adjustment where the players’ emotions are estimated using in-game data, and the difficulty level is tweaked accordingly to maximize player satisfaction. Their efforts could contribute to balancing the difficulty of games and making them more appealing to all types of players. 
 
Difficulty is a tough aspect to balance in video games. Some people prefer videogames that present a challenge whereas others enjoy an easy experience. To make this process easier, most developers use ‘dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA).’ The idea of DDA is to adjust the difficulty of a game in real time according to player performance. For example, if player performance exceeds the developer’s expectations for a given difficulty level, the game’s DDA agent can automatically raise the difficulty to increase the challenge presented to the player. Though useful, this strategy is limited in that only player performance is taken into account, not how much fun they are actually having.
In a recent study published in Expert Systems With Applications, a research team from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in Korea decided to put a twist on the DDA approach. Instead of focusing on the player’s performance, they developed DDA agents that adjusted the game’s difficulty to maximize one of four different aspects related to a player’s satisfaction: challenge, competence, flow, and valence. The DDA agents were trained via machine learning using data gathered from actual human players, who played a fighting game against various artificial intelligences (AIs) and then answered a questionnaire about their experience.
Using an algorithm called Monte-Carlo tree search, each DDA agent employed actual game data and simulated data to tune the opposing AI’s fighting style in a way that maximized a specific emotion, or ‘affective state.’ “One advantage of our approach over other emotion-centered methods is that it does not rely on external sensors, such as electroencephalography,” comments Associate Professor Kyung-Joong Kim, who led the study. “Once trained, our model can estimate player states using in-game features only.
The team verified—through an experiment with 20 volunteers—that the proposed DDA agents could produce AIs that improved the players’ overall experience, no matter their preference. This marks the first time that affective states are incorporated directly into DDA agents, which could be useful for commercial games. “Commercial game companies already have huge amounts of player data. They can exploit these data to model the players and solve various issues related to game balancing using our approach,” remarks Associate Professor Kim. Worth noting is that this technique also has potential for other fields that can be ‘gamified,’ such as healthcare, exercise, and education.
This paper was made available online on June 3, 2022 and will be published in Volume 205 of the journal on November 1, 2022.
Let us hope this study paves the way to games that any type of player, whether hardcore or casual, can enjoy!

George Miller (Gyorgy Molnar) started his career in content marketing and has started working as an Editor/Content Manager for our company in 2016. George has acquired many experiences when it comes to interviews and newsworthy content becoming Head of Content in 2017. He is responsible for the news being shared on multiple websites that are part of the European Gaming Media Network.

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Push Gaming releases a sugary sequel in Retro Sweets

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B2B gaming supplier Push Gaming returns to the nostalgic aesthetic of one of 2023’s biggest hits with its latest sequel, Retro Sweets.

Building from the success of Retro Tapes, the slot is again played across a 6×9 matrix but this time swaps audio cassettes with various tasty treats and instant win coins to represent its symbols in this cluster pay outing.

Wild candies make it easier to create winning clusters and also bring the game’s intuitive use of multipliers into play. For each successive win that a wild is a part of, its multiplier increases by 1x while multiplier symbols further increase win potential and provide a progression loop.

Elevating the gameplay further, Retro Sweets introduces the Instant Prize Multiplier which gives regular Instant Prize symbols the potential to form crazy winning clusters.

The now synonymous Cluster Links mechanic also benefits from the sweet collector feature, an augmented version of Retro Tapes’ Magnet mechanic, which gathers all non-clustered coins, symbols and wilds into the same part of the gameboard.

Providing increased player personalisation and amplified replayability, the Push Bet feature allows players to have one or two guaranteed wild candy symbols land on each spin with three needed to enter the bonus round.

Not only does this make entry to the bonus easier, but raises the potential of landing a greater number of wilds – more wilds mean more spins, opportunities to form connecting coins clusters and more maximum wins – continuing the Retro franchise’s synonymity with big prizes.

Retro Sweets blends nostalgic iconography and sound design with innovative mechanics that made the original title a multi-award winner. It follows other notable hits from the studio, including DJ Cat, Samuari’s Katana and Wild Swarm 2.

Senior Game Producer, Ihor Lozinskiy at Push Gaming, said: “Retro Sweets is a mouth-watering, mechanically rich title that amplifies the use of multipliers and offers more ways to win big. The evolved features are set to engage players and allow them to enjoy the slot in a variety of ways, tailored to their play style.

“We’re excited to be expanding upon the success of Retro Tapes and returning to the Cluster Link mechanic for one of our sweetest releases of the year.”

The post Push Gaming releases a sugary sequel in Retro Sweets appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Department of Trust set to meet challenges of new affordability checks

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Department of Trust (dotrust.co.uk), the award-winning provider of financial risk assessments for safer gambling is poised to meet the challenges of the newly announced regulations on frictionless financial checks by the UK Gambling Commission and Betting and Gaming Council.

Under the new rules published by the Gambling Commission, operators have until August 30th to implement frictionless checks on all customers making £500 net deposits in any rolling 30-day period. These frictionless checks form part of a new regime designed to protect players at risk of financial harm and replace the current ad hoc approach to affordability checks.

Department of Trust also welcomes the interim voluntary code published today by the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), the standards body representing over 90% of UK-regulated market operators. This code focuses on how responsible operators should support customers spending above the lower threshold set out by the Gambling Commission.

The supplier’s DoTrust Complete solution offers an integrated suite of frictionless and enhanced financial risk checks with a high level of automation capability -the only such tool built solely for safer gambling – and is perfectly positioned to help businesses navigate the newly regulated waters.

Charles Cohen, CEO of Department of Trust, said: “These important announcements flag the end of gambling’s ‘sus law’ where players faced seemingly arbitrary requests for personal information, operators were placed under a significant burden, and no one won

“We now know that in 120 days, every operator will need to perform frictionless checks on all players with net deposits in a 30-day rolling period of £500. A few months later this will fall to a much lower level.

“If operators want to protect their business, keep their customers and reduce costs, smart automation is the only answer.

“Department of Trust has spent over two years building the leading plug-and-play solution specifically for the gambling industry. Complete already automates over 90% of the processes required in both the new LCCP and BGC code. Now we know what the requirement will be, we are today committing to the goal of 100%. We want every operator and player to have instant assessments and sensible decisions cost-effectively. No one needs to lose sleep over this.”.

The post Department of Trust set to meet challenges of new affordability checks appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Energame appoints Nicholas Tymoshchuk as CEO

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Energame, a global business consultancy and investment firm in online entertainment, announces the appointment of Chief Executive Officer Nicholas Tymoshchuk who will provide strategic direction for the company at an exciting time of growth and expansion for Energame and the iGaming industry.

Nicholas’s background includes 15 years of managerial experience and 6 years as a CEO. His career in business spans multiple sectors: energy, tech, real estate and investment management. He has represented international majors, built asset managers from the ground up, scaled up businesses and overseen international M&A.

Nicholas was previously Energame’s Corporate Affairs Director, a role in which he built Energame’s relationships with stakeholders worldwide, helping to steer the company through the industry’s rapidly changing landscape and playing an integral role in strategy, and business development.

Nicholas Tymoshchuk, CEO of Energame said: “Energame has an amazing team and a great entrepreneurial culture. We work across four continents and in some of the most dynamic and fast growing markets in the world. iGaming is one of the largest yet undiscovered industries in the global economy, and we at Energame believe it has an enormous potential. I’m very lucky to be leading our team into our exciting future.”

The post Energame appoints Nicholas Tymoshchuk as CEO appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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