Guiding Game Design Decisions via Eye-Tracking: An Indie Game Case Study

Abstract

Increasingly, videogame designers harness game usability techniques to inform design decisions and reduce costs, but advanced techniques are not commonplace yet—perhaps due to failing to see their benefits or a lack of expertise and facilities. In this paper, we present a case study that demonstrates the value of using eye-tracking to help guide the design process of a narrative game by an independent game studio. The designers of this studio had defined four options of how text should be presented to players (Horizontal, Vertical, Subtitle, and Messenger), and were deadlocked on what to choose. As part of a collaboration with a university, a within-subjects eye-tracking study was conducted with 15 participants to evaluate the options. Combining the eye-tracking data with stated user preferences, designers reached a consensus that the game in question benefits from strategies derived from messenger on smart-phone interaction design—later confirmed with statistical analysis of fixation transition on elements of interest on screen. The use of eye-tracking broke the deadlock and helped inform a final design decision, as demonstrated by a decision making impact analysis that describes the design process. The paper ends with a reflection on the applicability of this academia-industry model to other contexts.