https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/124088 2026-05-02T04:45:45Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/124198 Title: Gameworlds and worldbuilding in dystopian video games Abstract: This thesis explores gameworlds and the worldbuilding process in dystopian video games. Dystopian fiction, from its premises, creates another world to support a reflection on realworld events or societies. In dystopian video game worlds, we argue that the worldbuilding process relies on the medium visual and interactive aspects. Visuals and interactivity contribute to the world's believability while transmitting a range of information through different means. The visual world relies on signs and patterns to convey meaning, while the interactive world relies on player affordances. Through these elements, the game can reflect themes, ideas, cultural, and social elements tied to dystopian fiction and dystopian societies while creating a reflection around them and offering the players to reflect on them. Plus, the interactive possibilities of video games also provide new ways to explore dystopian fiction by allowing the player to navigate, interact with, and alter a dystopian world in significant ways. Description: M.Sc.(Melit.) 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/124196 Title: The construction of the implied designer Abstract: The main objective of this thesis was to test whether the newly developed concept of the implied designer (Van De Mosselaer & Gualeni, 2020) could be leveraged for game design and analysis. It set out to test if a design approach reliant on the implied designer would afford designers with more control and awareness of the possible messages that players could interpret whilst playing their games. While this thrust towards greater awareness is partly ideologically motivated, it was also driven by literature which supports the notion that designers aware of how players could interpret their games tend to produce works of greater diversity, sensibility, and nuance. The overarching theoretical framework of this thesis was the implied designer. In order to anchor this concept within the theoretical background of game studies, this thesis first introduced its analogon (and predecessor) from the field of literature, the implied author. The thesis then focussed on game studies and discussed procedural rhetoric (Bogost, 2007), ‘free play’ (Sicart, 2011), and the relation of values to meaning (Flanagan & Nissenbaum, 2014), then outlined its understanding of meaning going forward. It summarised the concept of the implied designer, its potential uses, and how it relates to the research questions of this thesis. Finally, it introduced its understanding of satire and the board game Construction BOOM! (Gualeni & Schellekens, 2020), which had been chosen for the experiment because the implied designer was integrated into its design process. Crucially, the designers had also documented their reasoning in a paper of their own (Schellekens et al., 2020), affording this thesis a unique opportunity to contrast and compare designer intentions to player interpretations. In order to analyse the game and how its players construct the implied designer, the thesis chose thematic analysis as its methodology. The study was composed of a quantitative questionnaire, a game session between two players, and a subsequent semi-structured interview. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, several limitations were imposed on the study, chief among them the fact that the board game had to be adapted into a digital environment. The discussion described the process by which the participants interacted with the game, their observations, and the patterns that emerged. This included the (mostly negative) effects of the digital environment, the participants’ complex attitude towards the player manual, and their tendency to adopt the vocabulary and perspective of the player roles. While many of the satirical strategies were successfully interpreted by the participants as the designers had intended, there were some issues with the visual layer and the themes of the game. While the former was largely due to the digital environment, the latter carried implications about the importance of the player’s culture, background, and transludic knowledge. The thesis then presented a framework for the construction of the implied designer in satirical board games; a process it posited as constant, iterative, and recursive. It explained how crucial interpreted values were in this process, their effects on the construction of the implied designer, and how this construct ultimately affected their interpretation of the game’s message. Finally, the thesis presented several avenues for further research that could broaden our understanding of the implied designer. Description: M.Sc.(Melit.) 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/124194 Title: Under the surface of animal playfulness : the transformative experience of co-designing with bottlenose dolphins and game design as a diagnostic tool Abstract: The purpose of this research is to “dive” under the preconceived anthropocentric notions of what is nonhuman animal play, with a special focus on bottlenose dolphins. The research in this thesis has come mainly from experiential creative Research through Design as a result from a six-month internship as “marine mammal animal carer and veterinarian assistant researcher” under the constant guidance of professionals. After multiple observations of a specific group of bottlenose dolphins, a number of tailor-made playful prototypes were made, from which seven are being featured in this documentation. The utility of these artifacts was to create a safe space of interspecies communication between human and non-human animal. The ultimate goal was to co-design with the b. dolphins to embrace and listen to their needs instead of projecting anthropocentric notions of playfulness. Multiple ways of approaching designing for animals and designing with animals, mostly under human care, are being mentioned in this paper while concluding to the most efficient ones. The optimal way proposed through this project is the embracing of experimental creative Research through Design, along with Participatory Design and Intuitive Design among others. The Animal Computer Interaction Manifesto is being mentioned and juxtaposed to the research done for this thesis while underlining the strengths and the weaknesses that have made their appearance through the passage of time. Additionally, the MDA framework is also examined and found dysfunctional when applied to non-human animal users/players. This realization is then followed by a detailed explanation on why doing Research through Design should be an acceptable way of producing knowledge and how to successfully evaluate the knowledge produced. This project constantly revolves around the concepts of “care” “intra-action” and “attention through dis-attending”. The research had two main objectives: 1. the production of playful prototypes that would function both as interspecies meeting points but also as a form of tangible enrichment for the individuals involved 2. The creation of a tailor-made Ethogram constructed from all the exhibited playful behaviors ready to use for future projects. The Ethogram produced along with an updated model of evaluating whether a prototype can be considered successful or not, opens up the possibility of using artifacts as diagnostic tools. There are multiple areas for possible future research proposed by the end of the document. The whole project revolves around the transformative experience of the participants/players’, the viewers’ and the designers’; questioning what the potential of change is through game design for all those involved. The artifacts produced are being treated as Diagnostic Tools towards “dolphin realities”. Description: M.Sc.(Melit.) 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z