Enhancing Exploration in Open World Games Through Level Design and Reward Systems

A study that explores how level design techniques, learning theories and reward systems can be used to increase players' drive to explore an open-world game.  Two versions of a small explorable area were created, The triangle version which uses these techniques to drive players to find rewards throughout the level and the flat version which removes these techniques to see if the rewards would be found despite this.

 A heat map of where testers went throughout the level was recorded as well as the amount of each reward type collected and the time it took to finish the level. It was concluded that using the techniques researched does increase players' exploration by a certain amount. To gain a greater insight into how significant this change is as well as which techniques are the most effective further testing is required.

A 9000+ word written dissertation produced in my final year of university.

The product that was used to test for my results is also provided. The unreal project randomly chooses between the triangle and flat version of the level. If you would like to play the other version of the level please press the reset save button on the main menu.