Reactive animation and gameplay experience

Abstract

Using procedural animation systems introduces different work practices and represents adoption costs for game and simulation developers, so it is helpful to uncover whether and how it adds to the end user experience. The benefit of procedural content has been assumed, but given the challenge and risks inherent with implementation, we decided to conduct a study to find out whether this assumption was merited in player response. Players rated reactive systems highly and continued to play longer with reactive systems, but gave inconclusive responses to survey items aimed at uncovering what about reactive animation improved the experience. In this paper we present results and implications for use of procedural animation.