@inproceedings{1dda2c24cbfc44d78f2574f68519cdcf,
title = "Game Mechanic Alignment Theory",
abstract = "We present a new concept called Game Mechanic Alignment theory as a way to organize game mechanics through the lens of systemic rewards and agential motivations. By disentangling player and systemic influences, mechanics may be better identified for use in an automated tutorial generation system, which could tailor tutorials for a particular playstyle or player. Within, we apply this theory to several well-known games to demonstrate how designers can benefit from it, we describe a methodology for how to estimate {"}mechanic alignment{"}, and we apply this methodology on multiple games in the GVGAI framework. We discuss how effectively this estimation captures agential motivations and systemic rewards and how our theory could be used as an alternative way to find mechanics for tutorial generation.",
keywords = "game mechanic, mechanic, player behavior, playstyle, tutorial, video game",
author = "Green, {Michael Cerny} and Ahmed Khalifa and Rodrigo Canaan and Philip Bontrager and Julian Togelius",
note = "Funding Information: Michael Cerny Green would like to thank the OriGen.AI education program for their financial support. Rodrigo Canaan gratefully acknowledges the financial support from Honda Research Institute Europe (HRI-EU). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 ACM.; 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2021 ; Conference date: 02-08-2021 Through 06-08-2021",
year = "2021",
month = aug,
day = "3",
doi = "10.1145/3472538.3472571",
language = "English (US)",
series = "ACM International Conference Proceeding Series",
publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",
editor = "Allan Fowler and Johanna Pirker and Canossa, {Alesandro Alessandro} and Arya, {Ali Ali} and Casper Harteveld",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2021",
}