Is a Change as Good as a Rest? Comparing BreakTypes for Spaced Practice in a Platformer Game

Abstract

The development of skill in games is of interest to players and designers. Spaced practice in games, i.e., adding breaks to core gameplay, has been shown to improve performance over playing continuously; however, it is unclear if the benefits of spaced practice apply in complex games that combine several skills and elements. Further, many break-like activities are already present in games (e.g., cutscenes, mini-games, leaderboards, loading screens) and we do not know whether engaging with these as breaks reduces the benefits of spaced practice. We built a custom 2D platform game in which players wall-jump, swing, via a grapple hook and double-jump through an obstacle course and used it as the core gameplay activity in two experiments---one to test if spaced practice improves performance in a complex game, and another to determine how spaced practice is affected by the choice of in-game break activity. We show that spaced practice significantly improves skill development in a complex platformer game; that spaced practice is effective across several types of ecologically-valid break activities; and that the use of short breaks does not subvert flow states during play.