Design patterns of focused attention
David Milam, Lyn Bartram, Magy Seif El‐Nasr · 2012
This paper explores game design patterns specific to the visual presentation of game elements. Informed by the similarity theory of visual perception coupled with designers' tacit knowledge, we establish an empirical basis to investigate visual balance, specifically in terms of maintaining, disrupting, and swapping the focus of attention. Since visual balance is a concept that is intertwined with difficulty and depends on users' expertise, we also explore the differences in novice vs. expert designs by collecting design configurations from designers, thus uncovering designers' tacit knowledge in regards to expertise. This is accomplished through the creation of a toolset to explore game elements in a railed shooter game comprised of targets, non-targets, and visual feedback with variables of size, speed, and density. Eight expert game designers encoded settings where the theory is evaluated. As a result of this investigation, we identify patters of similarity, noise, and ramps.