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ConferenceompanionCHI94* Boston,assachusetts SAo April24-? ,1994 PanelWhat HCI Designers Can Learn From Video Game Designers

Randy Pausch (chair) University of Virginia pamch@virginia.eduRich Gold Xerox PARC richgold@parc.xerox .comTim Skelly Microsoft Research timsk@microsc)ft. comDavid Thiel Microsoft Research dthiel @microsc)ft.com

contact:Randy Pausch

Department of Computer ScienceThornton Hall

University of Virginia(804) 982-2211

ABSTRACT

Computer users have tasks they need to perform, and aretherefore motivated to overcome poorly designed interfaces.With video games, there is no external motivation for thetask if the games interface is not compelling andentertaining, the product fails in the marketplace. Manyaspects of game design, such as an attractor mode to drawusers toward the game, have direct relevance to otherdomains, such as information kiosks. This panel will consistof video game designers who will relate their designmethodologies, techniques, and other experiences whichwill help HCI designers create more compelling, engaging,and effective interfaces.

The panel will consist of panelists presentations followedby a large allocation of time for interaction with theaudiences questions. The panelists presentations willinclude demonstration examples drawn from coin-operatedand computer-based games.

KEYWORDS

video games, design process, direct manipulation, inputdevices, interface design, design methodology, consumeracceptance

PANELISTS STATEMENTS:

Randy Pausch: Why Is This Topic Relevant?

As the computer and entertainment industries continue tomerge, interface designers need to be aware of divergentparadigms and techniques, which will come from a muchwider variety of sources than in the past. At the same time,user expectations are rising. Pong existed over twenty years

ago, and we are now designing for a generation of computerusers who literally grew up on video games. I believe theHCI community can benefit from the lessons learned in the

video game industry, and I am not at all surprised thatcorporations like Xerox and Microsoft are now readilyhiring interface designers whose primary expertise hasformerly been in the gaming and toy industries.

Randy Pausch is an Associate Professor of ComputerScience at the University of Virginia. He is an NSFPresidential Young Investigator and a Lilly FoundationTeaching Fellow; his main research area is Virtual Reality.

Rich Gold: Spreadsheets, F%incesses and Altered UsersAn interface is where one system touches or interacts withanother system. For instance, we can think of a child asinterfacing to a doll when cuddling it. However this is notthe way we usually use the term in computer science whereit has come to mean a third system, usually c)f widgets andcontrol devices, that sits between the user and the realprogram. The doll/child rektionship is different: the childdoes not interface with the exterior of the doll to reach somedeeper dollness, and I be] ieve the same holds for video

games.

There are two areas where we can profitably talk aboutinterfaces and video games. First, almost al I video gamesare interfaces between the (child and an elaborate scoringsystem. This system is tuned such that as the gameprogresses it is harder and harder to score points but thepoints are of larger and larger values. If done just correctlythe effect is a near drug-like high in the child. Most games,it should be noted, fail at this task and hence at the storeshelves. Second, there is a hardware device called ajoystick(or pad or Glove) which interfaces between the child and thegame. A good joystick does not automatically give a highscore, but closes the eyelgamefhand feedback loop in such away as to provide pleasure. Again, we find good and badst icks in about the same ratio as good to bad spreadsheets.

However, the child playing a video game is a dynamicsystem that over time will get better at playing games, willscore higher points and will reach deeper levels even if thegame interface remains constant. This implies actualchanges to the child and the question can be raised as to theeffect of these changes in interfacing to the rest of the

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Panels CID 94- Celebratingnterdependence Conferenceompanion 52

culture he or she is embedded in. It can be said that avideo games job is done when it is purchased from arack at Toys R Us, but the user it creates will last a lifetime. It is becoming belatedly understood that acomputer programs success must be judged in a contextthat extends well beyond the desktop and so it is notclear that by finding the Princess we have found aninterface.

Rich Gold is a composer and cartoonist who co-foundedthe League of Automatic Music Composers, the firstnetwork computer band. As an internationally knownartist he invented the field of Algorithmic Symbolism,an example of which, The Party Planner, was featured inScientific American. He was head of the sound andmusic department of Sega USAs coin-operated videogame division and the inventor of the award winningLittle Computer People (Activision), the first fullyautonomous computerized person you could buy. Forfive years he headed the electronic and computer toyresearch area at Mattel Toys and was the manager of,among other interactive gizmos, the Mattel PowerGlove. After working as a consultant in Virtual Reality

he joined Xerox PARC, where he is now a researcherworking on ubiquitous computing, an artist in residenceprogram, tiny hand held devices and the philosophy ofstuff

Tim Skelly: The Design Process& Usability Testing

There are many diverse categories of video games:arcade game beat-em-ups, computer-based graphicadventures, puzzles, simulations of societies andsimulations of flight. The task underlying these ornateand diverse interfaces is to help the user reach a kind offocused, highly engaged state of mind, the Flow state.It is a pleasant and self-motivating condition that wouldbe desirable in any user. The way each video game

facilitates reaching that state is similar from one game tothe next: Step one, present a goal; Step two, provideclear-cut feedback to the user as to their progresstowards the goal; Step three, (and this is the step atwhich good video games excel) constantly adjust thegames challenges to a level slightly beyond the currentabilities of the player. Thats it simple, but still aformidable design challenge. How each game designerdeals with that challenge usually depends on theeconomic realities of the marketplace. Luckily, videogames are virtually all interface. No one can complainthat the product is shipping without enoughdevelopment resources devoted to UI.

PC-based games live or die in the same marketplace as

more conventional software. Developers of this class ofgames, like their productivity tool counterparts, mustcontend with marketing promises and guesses, and ever-shifting deadlines. As such, an examination of PC-basedgame development offers few novel guide posts towardseffective UI. Coin-operated arcade games exist in thesame economic world as jukeboxes, pinball machinesand vending machines. How does UI development differ

here? Video game players are users that will turn awayfrom a bad product at the drop of a quarter, Because ofthis, coin-operated game distributors will not buy arcadegames that do not have promising coin-collectionreports. This means that arcade game developers mustput their machines through the most brutal usabilitytesting in the software world prototype games onlocation with real players spending real money. For anarcade game to show large weekly earnings, the gameinterface must cater to a players every need. Playersmust be able to immediately understand how to operatethe game, and user help (if necessary at all) must befully context sensitive. Success rates improve whenproducts undergo exhaustive testing and iterativeredesign. Designers of coin-operated games andprogrammers follow these vital developmentdisciplines, not because they think it is a good idea, butbecause manufacturers of coin-operated video gamescant even give away their failures.

Tim Skelly is a Researcher with Microsofts AdvancedTechnology group. A fifteen year veteran of the videogame industry, his credits include the worlds first co-

operated video game, Rip-Off, the FASA BattleTechCenter and SEGAS Sonic the Hedgehog II.

David Thiei: Effective Use of Sound in Games

All video games are not paragons of virtue in their useof sound. They are just a venue where a lot ofimplementation energy has produced a considerablebody of work in a new field. Much can be learned fromthe things that video games (and pinball machines) havedone with auditory feedback, both right and wrong.

Within the framework of the previous statement I willdiscuss some of examples that deal with issues emergingfrom the following questions:

Is there a difference between interactive sound andtraditional music and sound post-production? What are the challenges and constraints that interac-

tion places on sound designs for user interfaces? What kind of sound production capability is nominal

for good user interface interaction? Does music have a place in interface? Who is equipped to do it?

David Thiel joined Microsoft Research in July 1993.David has designed and implemented sound driversused in over 70 interactive entertainment products; in allcases providing sound effects, voice and music. In 1990David was the project manager and designer for fourvideo games using a novel gesture-based input device.

He demonstrated these games at the Vh-tual RealityGallery of SIGGRAPH. Adlib and Yamaha havecontracted David as an FM synthesis consultant. Hemost recently wrote the English manual for YamahasFM synthesizer chip 0PL3. David has experience in allforms of commercial synthesis and has written sounddrivers that provide responsive sound support forasynchronous interaction.

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