Taistelupelien visuaalisten vihjeiden tehokkuus
Luukas Rautakallio · Aaltodoc (Aalto University) · 2026
The dynamic and high-speed nature of fighting games necessitates clear and readable user interfaces as well as cues that are legible in both cognitively and perceptually demanding situations. Because there are few, if any, studies on fighting game user interfaces, the principles of effective visual design may not be immediately clear or based on empirical data. Therefore, this thesis assessed whether essential cues in fighting games support the rapid discrimination and interpretation of important game information by means of empirical study. The study consisted of a survey and a visual test. The test comprised brief exposure tasks and peripheral detection tasks and compared results both overall and across games and skill levels. Survey results indicated that participants found the selected cues clear and legible. Visual differences in certain functionally equivalent between-game cues supported the notion of between-game differences in cue effectiveness. Similarly, the perceived timeliness of cues varied especially between the selected games. The mean accuracy results of the experiment exhibited relatively little variation, suggesting that fighting game cues are especially effective in actual function. Results between games and skill levels were largely consistent, although any observed variation or lack thereof could be interpreted as a result of a lack of statistical significance. Overall, the obtained results indicated that visual cues in fighting games are effective and that visual and mechanical differences between games noticeably affect cue effectiveness. Nevertheless, the study’s small sample size limited the statistical significance of its results and justifies the need for further research.