Academic Research

Cornell MPS Information Science Project

Game Designer/Arist for Nutritional Video Game / Fall 2015

Within the lab of People Aware Computing at Cornell, I and 3 other students took the fall semester to work on a future mobile app about nutrition. The goal of the application was to engage users interested in learning about and improving their eating habits. To do so, a game was created around the core goal, so that learning would be captivating and subtle. To integrate different types of foods, as well as possibly local food culture, a story was created about a mouse visiting different kitchens (the levels of the game) in order to learn about the nutritional information of food. All of the foods found would be cataloged with their information. Eventually, more social aspects could be added to the game, such as profiles and adding foods of one's own, after the basic mechanics were proven to be significanty useful. After deciding the types of foods and food comparisons to be used to for each level, preliminary testing is to begin this semester.

Theory Construction of Game Design

Communication 6940/Student - Fall 2015

Originating from a special topics class taught by Professor Sahara Byrne for graduate students (mainly those pursuing their PhD), the core of the class was for said students to come up with unique situations of interest involving both communication and technology in the modern day. Coming from my pursuiits regarding users and video game design, I orginally wanted to investigate the communication between players of MMORPG's (Massive Multiplayer ONline Roleplaying Games). A major component within any of these games involves objectives shared by more than one character, and ones that must be completed in groups of two or more. Some groups are significantly more successful than others. Using existing theory and my experience with this genre, I created an initial model that might help explain why some groups are more successful than others.

The most essential part to completing such game objectives is successful communication and cooperation between players. Communication's effectiveness can be determined by the ratio of positive and negative sentiment, called Hedonic Balance. A myriad of factors involving the appearance and skill of a given character will predict the ratio of sentiment, thus allowing game designers to predict what features may or may not be necessary to add in order to promote group success. To read the paper and the theory in its entirely, you can click the button below.

The Effects of Video Games on Attention Division and Multitasking

Study Designer/Conductor/Analyst / Fall 2015

For one of my graduate level classes, groups of four needed to design a study, submit an IRB to the university for approval, and conduct the study so that enough data could be gathered in order to compose a comprehensive paper suitable for submission to a conference. As the leader of my group, we decided to determine whether an increase in video game play would increase an individual's capacity to divide their attention and multitask. In this instance, multitasking meant being able to play a simple video game while comprehending a college-level short story. To accomplish this, an application was created where users would have to press buttons spawning at the left side of the screen before they could reach the right side. At the same time, an audio recording of a short story would play. The applicaation recorded data on the user's accuracy at pressing the moving buttons, and whether they missed any. A questionnaire was conducted after the game was completed asking the participant questions about the plot as well as general demographic information. While analysis and comparison of all recorded data did not reveal any statistically significant findings, the study shows promise towards the fact that this was only due to the small sample size. Positive correlations between video gaming experience and the skills measured is still highly plausible, and it's exact nature should be retested in a similar manner to be sure.

Zombify

Game Designer/Arist/Analyst / Fall 2014

One of the advanced game design classes called for the creation of an original 2D video game with numerous levels. However, two versions of the game had to be created to compare live data of playthroughs, and all within one semester! The key mechanic of the resultant game was that the main player was a zombie, and needed to escape a hospital without getting caught by the staff. To do so, the zombie coould sneak up on staff to bite them. If the NPCs had any unique powers, the player would temporarily acquire them. Both versions of the game were uploaded here (click to visit), and each IP address was assigned either version a (unlimited intelligent zombies) or version b (2 intelligent zombies). After analyzing the data, levels were redesigned and the first version was deemed as slightly more optimal due to the increase in player game completions and lower number of deaths. Using this data, I helped to design levels, enemies, and all the of the sprites and assets used to create the visuals needed for the game. Though not completely polished, the purpose of this endeavor was to learn how to use big data as efficiently as possible, making several iterations of a game in just a few months with four coders and one designer.

Biology Educational Video Game

Game Designer/Arist / Spring 2013 - Fall 2013

As a sophomore transitioning from biology to the realm of information sciences, I was part of a research group for class credit who's end goal was to create a game focused on cell biology. The research question was to determine whether interactive and engaging games could help improve existing teaching methods and help students retain relevant information. I helped to create the UI, characters, backgrounds, and various other assets using my biological education and growing UI knowledge. The game's alpha was released at Cornell's annual game showcase in spring of 2013, and was then updated for testing the next semester.

Deception Detection Through the Use of Technology

Student Researcher / Spring 2015

After conducting preliminary research and pilot studies within a graduate level class under Professor Jeffrey Hancock, I spent the next semester in the Social Media Lab to gather more data for the project. The main research questions focused on what types of lies where most prominent in technology use, how often they were told, and how people discovered them. To gather data for such questions, a comprehensive survey was designed in which participants were asked what technology and social media was at play, what lie was told, and how they discovered they were being deceived. Other questions included demographic information, the timeframe between the telling of the lie and the discovery, and how severe the participant believed the deception to be. After coding all of the responses into categories of technology, lies, etc., the data was analyzed for significant patterns of deception correlated to any of the factors in question. The results of these initial steps were promising, as a majority of lies told today which are detected are indeed sent using recordable technology; however, realization that one has been deceived is often delayed, altering the course in which consequences are delivered. For more information on the specific findings, please fill out the contact page.