Affective Ludology
I currently work as a postdoctoral research fellow at the HCI Lab of the University of Saskatchewan in Canada on affective computing in games and player experience evaluation. I have a Ph.D. in Digital Game Development from Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden.

Member of the ACM SIGCHI, the IEEE Task Force on Player Satisfaction Modeling, the IEEE Game Engineering Special Interest Group, and the Nordic Game Research Network. Since 2007 I am also a member of the academy for the German game developer awards (Deutscher Entwicklerpreis) and have a vote for the Game Developers Choice Awards. I am currently also in a few conference program committees (e.g., Entertainment Interfaces, GameDays 2010, Nordic DiGRA, Madness Co-Chair for GRAND Annual Conference 2010), and review for game and HCI journals.

The content of this blog expresses my personal opinion and not that of any organization that I may be associated with. All content is copyrighted, so please include attribution and link properly when citing.
    Research Interests

  • Player-Game Interaction: Scientific and empirical studies of game systems and player/user interaction (especially using psychophysiological methodology such as EEG, EMG, EDA or eye tracking) in order to develop systematic knowledge of the affective and cognitive needs of users of interactive entertainment systems.
  • Technology-driven innovation in interactive entertainment systems, supporting emerging technologies (for example player experience and game metrics), development processes and applications.
  • Scientific definition and study of game usability and playability concepts
  • Human-computer interaction techniques for games, such as physiological computing (for example Brain-Computer Interfaces, BCI)

Publications

    Journal Papers

  1. Nacke, L. E., Grimshaw, M. N., Lindley, C. A. 2010. More Than a Feeling: Measurement of Sonic User Experience and Psychophysiology in a First-Person Shooter Game. Interacting with Computers, vol. 22, no. 5. Article in Press. doi:10.1016/j.intcom.2010.04.005 [PDF Draft , View Draft Online] (2009 impact factor: 1.698)
  2. Nacke, L. E., Stellmach, S. and Lindley, C. A. (20XX). Electroencephalographic Assessment of Player Experience: A Pilot Study in Affective Ludology. To appear in special conference issue (Design for Engaging Experience and Social Interaction) of Simulation & Gaming: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Theory, Practice and Research.
  3. Nacke, L. E., Drachen, A. and Goebel, S. (2010). Methods for Evaluating Gameplay Experience in a Serious Gaming Context. International Journal of Computer Science in Sport. April 2010, 9(2010). [PDF, View Online]
  4. Nacke, L., & Lindley, C. (2009). Affective Ludology, Flow and Immersion in a First- Person Shooter: Measurement of Player Experience. Loading… 3(5), journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/view/72. [PDF, View Online]
  5. Nacke, L. E., Nacke, A., Lindley, C. A. (2009) Brain Training for Silver Gamers: Effects of Age and Game Form on Effectiveness, Efficiency, Self-Assessment, and Gameplay Experience. CyberPsychology & Behavior. October 2009, 12(5): 493-499. doi:10.1089/cpb.2009.0013.
    Book Chapters

  1. Nacke, L. (2010). Broken Soft Drink Machines. To appear in UX Storytellers.
  2. Nacke, L. E. and Grimshaw, M. (2011) Player-game Interaction Through Affective Sound. To appear in M. Grimshaw (ed.) Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments. Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Global Publishing. (peer reviewed)
    Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers

  1. Engl, S., Nacke, L.E. 2010. How Mobile is Mobile Gaming? Contextual Influences on Mobile Player Experience – A Model Proposition. In Proceedings of the Mensch & Computer Conference Track Entertainment Interfaces, To appear. (best paper)
  2. Nacke, L.E., Stellmach, S., Sasse, D., Niesenhaus, J., Dachselt, R. 2010. LAIF: A Logging and Interaction Framework for Gaze-Based Interfaces in Virtual Entertainment Environments. In Proceedings of the Mensch & Computer Conference Track Entertainment Interfaces, To appear.
  3. Bateman, C., Nacke, L. E. 2010. The Neurobiology of Play. In Proceedings of Future Play 2010, Vancouver, BC. pp. 24-31. [PDF]
  4. Nacke, L. E. 2010. Wiimote vs. Controller: Electroencephalographic Measurement of Affective Gameplay Interaction. In Proceedings of Future Play 2010, Vancouver, BC. pp. 183-190. [PDF]
  5. Stellmach, S., Nacke, L., Dachselt, R. (2010). 3D Attentional Maps – Aggregated Gaze Visualizations in Three-Dimensional Virtual Environments.
    Proceedings of the International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI 2010). ACM, New York, NY. [LINK]
  6. Drachen, A., Nacke, L.E., Yannakakis, G., Lee Pedersen, A. (2010). Correlation between heart rate, electrodermal activity and player experience in First-Person Shooter games. ACM SIGGRAPH 2010, Los Angeles, CA. [LINK]
  7. Stellmach, S., Nacke, L., & Dachselt, R. (2010). Advanced Gaze Visualizations for Three-dimensional Virtual Environments. Eye Tracking Research & Applications (ETRA 2010). Austin, TX. ACM. [link, PDF, View Online]
  8. Stellmach, S., Nacke, L., Dachselt, R., Lindley, C.A. (2009) Trends and Techniques in Visual Gaze Analysis. In The 5th Conference on Communication by Gaze Interaction – COGAIN 2009: Gaze Interaction For Those Who Want It Most (Copenhagen, Denmark, May 2009). [PDF, View Online]
  9. Nacke, L., Stellmach, S., Sasse, D. and Lindley, C. A. (2009) Gameplay Experience in a Gaze Interaction Game. In The 5th Conference on Communication by Gaze Interaction – COGAIN 2009: Gaze Interaction For Those Who Want It Most (Copenhagen, Denmark, May 2009). [PDF, View Online]
  10. Nacke, L. (2009) From Playability to a Hierarchical Game Usability Model. Conference on Future Play 2009 @ GDC Canada. Vancouver, BC, Canada. [PDF, slides, View Online]
  11. Lindley, C. A., Nacke, L. & Sennersten, C. C. (2008) Dissecting Play – Investigating the Cognitive and Emotional Motivations and Affects of Computer Gameplay. In Proceedings of CGAMES 08, Wolverhampton, UK, 3-5 November 2008. [PDF]
  12. Nacke, L., Lindley, C. A. (2008) Flow and immersion in first-person shooters: measuring the player’s gameplay experience. In Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Future Play: Research, Play, Share (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, November 03 – 05, 2008). Future Play ’08. ACM, New York, NY, 81-88, DOI: 10.1145/1496984.1496998. [PDF, View Online]
  13. Grimshaw, M., Lindley, C. A., & Nacke, L. (2008). Sound and Immersion in the First-Person Shooter: Mixed Measurement of the Player’s Sonic Experience. Audio Mostly Conference 2008, Piteå, Sweden. [PDF, Proceedings (PDF)]
  14. Nacke, L., Lindley, C., and Stellmach, S. (2008) Log Who’s Playing: Psychophysiological Game Analysis Made Easy through Event Logging. In Proceedings of the 2nd international Conference on Fun and Games (Eindhoven, The Netherlands, October 20 – 21, 2008). P. Markopoulos, B. Ruyter, W. IJsselsteijn, and D. Rowland, Eds. Lecture Notes In Computer Science, vol. 5294. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 150-157. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-88322-7_15 [ACM Entry, PDF, slides]
  15. Nacke, L., & Lindley, C. (2008). Boredom, Immersion, Flow – A pilot study investigating player experience. In Proceedings of IADIS International Conference Gaming 2008: Design for engaging experience and social interaction. IADIS Press. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. July 25-27, 2008. (103-107). ISBN: 978-972-8924-64-5 [link, PDF, View Online]
  16. Lindley C. A., Nacke, L., and Sennersten C. (2007). What does it mean to understand gameplay? First Symposium on Ludic Engagement Designs for All. Aalborg University Esbjerg, Denmark. [link, PDF]
  17. Yatim, M.; Nacke, L., Masuch, M. Improving Game Design by Understanding the Gender Differences: The Cognitive Approach. International Conference on Gender in Educational Games and Gender Sensitive Approaches to E-Learning 2006, Donau University Krems, Austria, 2006. [PDF, View Online]
  18. Masuch, M.; Nacke, L. Power and peril of teaching game programming – Mehdi, Quasim (Ed.); Gough, Norman (Ed.: Computer games: artificial intelligence, design and education (5th Game-on international conference Reading, UK, 8-10 November 2004). CGAIDE. Wolverhampton: Univ., 2004, pp. 347 – 351. [PDF, View Online]
    Industry Conference Papers

  1. Nacke, L. (2007). The Fun of Gaming: Measuring the Human Experience of Media Enjoyment published in the Quo Vadis Entwicklerkonferenz 2007 Reader. [Slides]
  2. McCallum, S.; Makie, J. and Nacke, L., 2004. Creating a Computer Game Design Course. In Proceedings of the New Zealand Game Developers Conference. NZGDC. [PDF, View Online]
    Theses and Reports

  1. Nacke, Lennart E. (2009) Affective Ludology: Scientific Measurement of User Experience in Interactive Entertainment. Ph.D. Thesis. Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden. [PDF, website]
  2. Nacke, L. (2005). Facilitating the Education of Game Development. Department of Simulation and Graphics. Magdeburg, Otto-von-Guericke University. Diplom (Master’s Thesis): 153 p. [GameCareerGuide, PDF, Presentation Slides (PDF)]. Awarded best thesis in Computervisualistik 2006.
  3. Nacke, L. (2005). Co-Development, Delivery and Structural Analysis of a Computer Game Course. University of Otago and Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. Research Report (Bachelor Thesis): 112p. [PDF]
    Workshop and Panel Organization

  1. Nacke, L. E., Niesenhaus,J., Engl, S., Canossa, A., Kuikkaniemi, K., Immich, T. (2010) Bringing Game Design and Affective Evaluation to User Research and User Experience. Entertainment Interfaces Workshop, Duisburg, Germany.
  2. Calvi, L., Gualeni, S., Nuijten, K., Nacke, L., Poels, K. (2010). Playability and player experience of casual games. International Conference on Fun and Games 2010 Workshop. Leuven, Belgium. ACM. [LINK]
  3. Kuikkaniemi, K., Turpeinen, M., Ravaja, N., Chanel, G., Korhonen, H., Nacke, L. (2010). BioS-Play: Workshop on Multiuser and Social Biosignal Adaptive Games and Playful Applications. International Conference on Fun and Games 2010 Workshop. Leuven, Belgium. ACM. [LINK]
  4. Girouard, A., Solovey, E.T., Mandryk, R., Tan, D., Nacke, L., Jacob, R.J.K. (2010) “Brain, Body and Bytes: Psychophysiological User Interaction.” In Proc. ACM CHI 2010 Extended Abstracts. [PDF]
  5. Nacke, L., Drachen, A., Korhonen, H., Kuikkaniemi, K., Niesenhaus, J., van den Hoogen, W. Poels, K., IJsselsteijn, W., de Kort, Y. (2009) DiGRA Panel: Playability and Player Experience Research. September 1, 2009. DiGRA 2009: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory, Brunel University, West London, UK. [PDF, @Digiplay, @DiGRA DL, slides]
  6. Nacke, L., Ambinder, M., Canossa, A., Drachen, A., Mandryk, R., Pinelle, D., Stach, T. (2009). Future Play Panel: “Game Metrics and Biometrics: The Future of Player Experience Research”. May 13, 2009. Conference on Future Play 2009. [PDF, slides]
    Position and Workshop Papers

  1. Nacke, L.E., Mandryk, R.L. (2010). Affective Input and Game Design. Poster at GRAND Annual Conference 2010.
  2. Drachen, A., Nacke, L. E., Yannakakis, G., Pedersen, A. L. (2010). Psychophysiological Correlations with Gameplay Experience Dimensions. CHI Workshop Proceedings of Brain, Body, Bytes: Psychophysiological User Interaction. [PDF]
  3. Nacke, L. (2008). A Methodology for Psychophysiological Player Logging. Position paper presented at the Nordic Game Research Network PhD Seminar: Game Research Methods, Aalborg, Denmark. June 18, 2008. [link]
    Keynotes, Presentations and Seminars

  1. Affective Ludology: Researching Fun, Affect, and User Experience in Games. Serious games seminar presentation for ERPsim Lab at HEC Montreal
  2. Affective Ludology: Researching Fun, Affect, and User Experience in Games. Research (CIM-REPARTI) Seminar Presentation at the McGill Centre for Intelligent Machines [link]
  3. Affective Ludology: Scientific Measurement of User Experience in Interactive Entertainment. Keynote at GameDays Conference 2010: Serious Games for Sports and Health. Darmstadt, Germany. March 25, 2010. [link]
  4. Affective Ludology: Reflecting on Fun, Physiological Measurement, and User Experience in Interactive Entertainment. University of Saskatchewan, Department of Computer Science. January 29, 2010. [link]
  5. “Affective Ludology: Game Usability Research and KOM.” Invited presentation at TU Darmstadt, Multimedia Communications Lab, Germany. January, 22.
  6. “Affective Ludology: Reflecting on Fun, Measurement, and User Experience in Interactive Entertainment.” Invited presentation at University Duisburg-Essen (Interdisciplinary Games Research: DUE you play?), Germany. December 7, 2009. [link, abstract (PDF)]
  7. “Affective Ludology: Thoughts on Measuring User Experience in Interactive Entertainment.” Invited presentation at the Center for Computer Game Research of the IT University Copenhagen, Denmark. November 19, 2009. [link]
  8. “Next Generation Testing: Biometric Analysis of Player Experience”, presentation at the GDC Canada 2009, Vancouver, CA, in the track “Finalling”. May 12, 2009. [link, slides]
  9. “Game Experience: Components and Methods of Measurement”, invited presentation at the second FUGA Mini Symposium at Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, Finland. April 3, 2009. [link [DOC]]
  10. “Measuring players’ experience of games and real-time simulations”, invited presentation at the iTEC08, Darmstadt, Germany, in the session “Serious Games” on track “Hot Topic: Games”. November 6, 2008. [link, slides (PDF)]
  11. “Future Game Design: Biofeedback and Player Experience”, refereed seminar presentation at Futureplay 2008, Toronto, Canada. November 3, 2008.
  12. “How eye tracking and psychophysiological data logging improves game design” (new scientific metrics for game design) Invited presentation at Fraunhofer IGD. Darmstadt, Germany. July 15, 2008. [link]
  13. Experimental game studies – What are those and why would you want to do them? Invited lecture as part of the course “Forschungsgegenstand Computerspiele” at the Institut für Publizistik, Mainz University. Mainz, Germany. July 9, 2008. [link]
  14. So, why would you want to be a game researcher? Invited presentation at game developer Reakktor Media GmbH. Hannover, Germany. July 7, 2008. [link]
  15. Game Experience Research – How to gather valuable information from players. Invited talk at the Institute for Media and Communication Research, TU Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany. July 2, 2008.
  16. Evaluating Game Usability – How game research will change the face of software applications. Invited talk at the user interface colloquium. Computational visualistics/Software engineering group, University of Magdeburg. Magdeburg, Germany. June 30, 2008. [slides]
  17. Full day invited game research seminar: “Game Experience Logging – Tools and Techniques” in the course Game Design II 07 at the Games Academy GmbH. Berlin, Germany. June 12, 2008. [link]
  18. Focus on your players – Psychophysiological player experience logging as a powerful tool for gameplay analysis. Presentation at the Quo Vadis German Game Developer Conference. Berlin, Germany. May 7, 2008. [slides]
  19. Game Design and Player Emotions. Invited talk at FUGA mini-symposium at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT). Helsinki (Espoo), Finland. April 24, 2008. [link]
  20. Focus on your players – An approach to Game Design and Development – Invited talk at the School of Future Entertainment. Karlshamn, Sweden. March 3, 2008. [link, slides]
  21. “The Fun of Gaming: Measuring the Human Experience of Media Enjoyment”. Presentation at Quo Vadis Entwicklerkonferenz. Berlin, Germany. 2007.
  22. Principles of iterative development within games. Lecture within the course Advanced Game Design. Högskolan på Gotland. Visby, Sweden. 2007.
  23. Lean, effective and scientific presentations. Lecture within the course Advanced Game Design. Högskolan på Gotland. Visby, Sweden. 2007.
    Media and News

  • Sydöstran (2010): Idag blir han doktor på dataspel [Today he will be a doctor of computer games]. Published Monday, January 18, 2010. [Available online in Swedish]
  • Karlshamns Allehanda [Blekinge Läns Tidning] (2010): Doktor i Datorspel [Doctor in Digital Games]. Front Page Article [Scan (Swedish)]. Published Tuesday, January 19, 2010. [Scanned Article (Swedish)]
  • Sveriges Radio P4 Blekinge (2009): Äldre gillar faktiskt dataspel [The elderly actually love video games]. Radio Interview with Rebecka Gyllin. Published Wednesday, September 30, 2009. [Available online in Swedish]
  • Videnskab.dk (2009): Dine øjne skal dræbe [Your eyes shall kill]. Published online on May, 28, 2009. [Available online in Danish and Norwegian]
  • Golem.de (2008): EEG, Eyetracking und Blutdruck: Spiele-Testing für Profis [EEG, Eye Tracking and Blood Pressure: Game Testing for Professionals]. Online Article in German IT Magazine Golem. [Available online in German]
  • Sydöstran (2007): Forskare jagar det roliga i dataspel [Scientists hunt down the fun in video games]. Published September 11, 2007. [Available online in Swedish]
  • Nacke, L., Hartmann, K., Röber, N., Yatim, M.H.M. and Masuch, M. (2006) Universität Magdeburg: Akademische Spieleforschung [University of Magdeburg: Academic Game Research] Published in /GameStar/dev magazine, section Campus/Studium. Issue: 01/2006. [PDF (German)]