Design Principles Guide Meaningful Play by Improving Ease and Intentionality of Game Design

Abstract

This project examines the role of design principles and how they impact the experience of players using a digital minigame created and inspired by the CLUE board game. We examine the role of design principles in guiding users toward finding hidden clues and whether or not users are drawn to spots with design principles predetermined and embedded. We investigate this by examining if pre-selected spots with design principles are perceived as more intentional than a baseline of spots identified by random points, mediated through the GroundingDINO object detector. Results showed that players were twice as likely to find design principles spots than randomly selected spots. Players found the design principles spots more intuitive and perceived intentional than the random baseline. In addition, results showed that there were varying effects from different design principles and can improve game design and allow designers to control the difficulty of the game experience.