JDW Games

Cubes Vs Spheres 2

Summary

Over the past 10 years or so there has been an ongoing debate about whether or not loot boxes are forms of gambling, but very few researchers have investigated the individual elements of these loot boxes, such as audiovisual effects and how they motivate players to keep opening loot boxes. As a result, this research aims to give an understanding about what type of audio is effective at supporting a high player experience, within a loot box environment. To do this, a game was created for my project module at the University of Lincoln, using Unity with the intention of gathering data about players’ experience of the game as a whole, and the loot boxes used. As well as a game, this research used a demographics questionnaire to find out more about participants. In total this research sampled twenty participants, and as a result, this research found that audio has a significant effect on player experience. However, this research found no difference between using music and using sound effects in the loot boxes.

Research Questions

These are the questions that this game was created to research:

RQ1: Does audio influence the number of loot boxes opened in a video game environment?

RQ2: Do sound and music effects influence differently the number of loot boxes opened in a video game environment?

Audio

All audio used within the game were royalty free and have been obtained from Fesliyan Studios(Fesliyan, 2014)[1]. This website had a range of music and sound effects ranging from epic music to doorbell sound effects. All audio used was royalty free for copyright reasons (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988)[2].

Main Menu

After completing the demographics questionnaire, participants played the game. This was because the loot box needed to be put into a gaming context (Kao, 2019)[3]. When the game was first opened, the order that the three conditions appeared in (within the loot box) was entered without participants being aware. This was done at the start, because it did not make sense to put the selection screen anywhere else as it would have disrupted the participants’ flow of the game. This selection screen is shown in (Figure 1).

Figure 1: An image showing the selection screen where the condition ordering was chosen.

Once the submit button had been pressed and all the conditions had been entered correctly (with no overlapping conditions and only using numbers one, two and three), the main menu was shown. This is shown in (Figure 2).

Figure 2: An image showing the main menu.

The main menu was needed to test if the sound was working and to allow for a smooth transition between entering the conditions and the participants playing the game. From the main menu, they could either have played the game or quit if they did not want to take part. Equally, the quit button could have been used if a mistake was made when setting up the conditions. The music used here is called ‘Western Adventures (without orchestra)’ (Fesliyan, undated)[4]. This was chosen for the main menu because it was a western song, which was an appropriate choice, given the theme for the game. There was also a sound effect for every button present in the game, called ‘Menu Button Press D Sound Effect’(Fesliyan, undated)[5].Without this sound effect, players could have been unsure as to whether an action had been registered by the game or not.

There were no sound effects for the next and are you sure buttons after opening the music loot box and the no audio loot box. This was because players could have gotten confused by which audial effect was being talked about in the questionnaire.

The Scene

Once the play button had been pressed, the player was taken to a room with a bar, as the original theme for this game is a western game. Here the player controlled a cube and fought spheres, hence the name ‘Cubes Vs Spheres’. In the scene, there were plans to add more rooms, such as a kitchen and toilets, as well as tables and chairs, but there was insufficient time. These extra rooms would have encouraged players to explore and potentially could have led to interesting encounters with enemies.

Player

Movement

Within the game, the participants used the W key to move forward, the A key to move left, the D key to move right and the S key to move backwards in order to allow them to move around the scene and run away from enemies. These keys were quite common in video games, which was why they were used in this research. Here are some of the many video games that used WASD to move include: Minecraft(Mojang, 2009)[6], Fortnite(Epic Games, 2017)[7], and Call of Duty Black Ops 6 (Activision, 2024)[8]. These games also tend to use the space bar to jump, and the mouse to look around, and as a result of this, these mechanics have been implemented in this research.

Firing

Because it was a first-person shooter game, the player had a gun. Participants used this to fire bullets at enemies by using the right mouse button. The reason the right mouse button was used specifically was because the left mouse button conflicted with the user interface when the game is paused.

All the guns used within the game played the same sound effects (including enemies), called ‘12 Gauge Pump Action Shotgun Close Gunshot A’ (Fesliyan, undated)[9]. This sound effect sounded like a gun shooting, meaning this was an appropriate choice for the shooting sound effect for the weapons. This sound effect was needed to make the game seem more responsive to the participants.

Also, the player could have switched weapons by using the middle mouse button. This allowed players to play with their preferred weapon, while being able to use the weapons obtained from the loot box. The scroll wheel on the mouse was used in games like Minecraft (Mojang Studios, 2009)[6] to scroll through an inventory. However, this was quite tricky to implement in Unity, so the middle mouse button was used instead, as it was in the same position as the scroll wheel.

There was a sound effect for changing between weapons (using the middle mouse button) called ‘Drawing A Sword Sound Effect’ (Fesliyan, undated)[10]. This sound effect was needed to make the game seem more responsive to the participants. However, this was unintentionally not implemented.

These other weapons were displayed in an inventory system and could have been earnt through opening loot boxes. All the guns received were purely cosmetic because if they impacted gameplay significantly, it could have skewed the results of the questionnaire. All weapons that the player could have earnt were obtained by opening loot boxes. This was done in order to mimic how these loot boxes were used in other video games, such as in Rocket League (Psyonix Studios, 2015)[11].

There was also a score which increased every time the participant killed an enemy. This was implemented in order to make the players feel like they were constantly achieving. The firing system is shown in (Figure 3).

Figure 3: An image showing the players’ firing system.

This took place on the last stage of the tutorial where the player had just taken out both Chompers and was left with two Ranged enemies.

Health

Above the inventory the player had a health bar to encourage them not to take damage from the enemies. The players should have wanted to kill as many enemies as possible (as a result of the score being shown). If they respawned (as a result of their health reaching zero), the number of enemies that are available to kill decreased. The idea for the health bar being located about the inventory came from an exceedingly popular video game called Minecraft (Mojang Studios, 2009)[6].

Once the player had lost their health they respawned behind the bar to keep them safe from the enemies. The reason they were respawned was to give them another attempt at taking out enemies, and make sure that all participants were playing for the same amount of time, otherwise this could have affected the immersion of participants.

Also, there was a sound effect for when anything was hit by a bullet or by a mallee attack (including enemies) called ‘Hit Grunting From Being Hit A5 Sound Effect’ (Fesliyan, undated)[12]. This sound effect sounded like someone is being hurt, meaning it could have been used for players and enemies taking damage. The reason there was only one sound effect is that there was little time to add an extra sound effect.

Enemies

The game needed enemies, because without them, there would have been no way to entertain participants and keep them engrossed in the game. These enemies all had one hundred health and the bullets that players shot did ten damage, in order to maintain the balance of the game. If the enemies were too easy to kill, the players would have become bored, or disinterested. Also, if the game was too difficult, it could have caused the participants to feel useless, or helpless. This means that the values of health and damage (inflicted upon enemies) needed to allow the player to feel challenged whilst playing the game, without the game being too difficult or too easy. Enemies also used health bars to show the player how many more times they had to be hit before dying.

There were multiple types of enemies in this game in order to add more variation to the enemies that the players are fighting. This was needed in order to help keep players interested in the game and create interesting decisions for the players. These enemy types include Chomper, Ranged, and Double Ranged enemies.

Chomper

This mallee enemy moves towards the player and deals damage to them. The reason this is mallee is to add more variety to the ways that enemies attack, because if they were all ranged, the players could get more accustomed to dealing with ranged enemies and develop dominant strategies, which may not necessarily work for a mallee enemy.

The reason this mallee enemy was called a Chomper is because it had a mouth that moved in a chewing motion. This made it look like it wanted to eat players, hence enemies of this type were called Chompers. This enemy type is shown in (Figure 4).

Figure 4: An image showing a Chomper trying to eat the player.

Ranged

This ranged enemy had one gun that shot little Chompers (bullets) at the player, hence the name Ranged enemy. The reason this is a ranged enemy is to add more variety to the ways that enemies attack, because if they were all mallee, the players could get more accustomed to dealing with mallee enemies and develop dominant strategies, which may not necessarily work for a ranged enemy. Also, this enemy provides an easier alternative to the Double Ranged. This is needed because in the tutorial, the player needs to learn how to shoot, and the Double Ranged enemies may be too difficult to defeat whilst the players are still getting used to the controls. This enemy type is shown in (Figure 3).

Double Ranged

This was the same as the ranged enemy (hence the name Double Ranged), but instead of firing bullets out of just one gun, there were two guns that shot at the same time. This was needed in order to add more difficulty and variety into the game. This enemy type is shown in (Figure 5).

Figure 5: An image showing a Double Ranged enemy shooting at the player.

Tutorial

This occurred at the start of the game for each participant to allow them to get used to the game. First the participants were shown how to look around (by using the mouse). This was done first to encourage the players to look around and get used to their surroundings. Next they were shown how to move (using WASD key) in the order of forwards, backwards, right, left. This was done in this way to allow participants to get used to their environment. After that they were shown how to jump (by pressing the spacebar). This was done (in this order) to teach the player everything to do with the movement together.

Next, the players were taught how to shoot (using the right mouse button). This was done by displaying a message on the screen and giving them an enemy that cannot move to shoot at. This was done in this order to teach the participants the controls together, rather than teaching them how to move forward, then how to shoot, then where their health bar is. The players needed to be taught how to shoot at enemies because if they did not know, the game would have been too difficult. 

After that, they were taught how to change weapons in the inventory (using the middle mouse button), in order to show the players how to switch to weapons they got out of the loot boxes. This was done (in this order) to teach the player everything to do with the weapons together.

Next, they were shown where the health was (above the inventory). Participants needed to be shown this in order to prevent confusion, which could have made it more difficult for players to get immersed in the game.

After that, they were shown where the score was (in the top left corner of the screen) and how it increased with each kill. Participants needed to be shown this in order to prevent confusion, which could have made it more difficult for players to get immersed in the game.

Next, they had to fight two mallee enemies, and two ranged enemies, before completing the tutorial. This was in order to allow the players to get used to the controls before the game begins.

During the fight, if the player died, and respawned, the enemies were not removed from the scene, because there were only ever going to be a maximum of four enemies in the scene, whereas in the game, there was a maximum of seventeen enemies, all trying to attack the player at once. Therefore, if the player dies, the enemies remained (in the tutorial, but not in the actual game).

Gameplay

After the players had completed the tutorial, they played a two-minute game. This was in order to put the loot boxes into a gaming context (Kao, 2019)[5]. The two-minute was to allow participants the time to play the game, without getting bored. The enemies in the game spawned every seven minutes. This was in order to make the game not too difficult nor too easy for the players. Also, the enemy type was randomised in order to keep the players entertained. After the two minutes were up, the participants were granted a loot box as a reward for defeating enemies. Ideally this would have been done by saying the participants must kill a certain number of enemies to progress, but in order to keep the research within a time frame, this had to be done by a timer instead. This timer was not visible to the participants because this could have affected the player experience due to the players being stressed whilst playing the game.

Loot Box

Start

Once the player had completed the game, they were given a loot box. An image of the loot box is shown in (Figure 6).

Figure 6: An image showing a loot box.

The music (for the music condition) that was played here is called ‘Airlock’(Robson, 2023)[13]. This music could have been regarded as sounding like the item was mysterious and potentially could have been perceived as being enticing, from the point of view of the player.

The sound effect used here (during the sound effects condition) was called ‘Video Game Unlock Sound A1 8bit Sound Effect’ (Fesliyan, undated)[14]. This sound effect was used because it could have been perceived as sounding like the player had unlocked something exciting by obtaining the loot box.

To open this loot box, the players needed to press the enter key. Once the key had been pressed, the top of the loot box came off. This happened to make it look like the players were opening a present, and seeing what was inside, thus building excitement for the result of the loot box.

The sound effect used here (during the sound effects condition) was called ‘Video Game Secret Sound A2 Sound Effect’ (Fesliyan, undated)[15]. This sound effect was used because it could have been perceived as sounding like the player had obtained something magical, or mysterious, and they did not know what it is.

Opening

Then, the screen went black. This happened to build suspense and anticipation as the players were waiting for their reward from the loot box. The condition that was present determined the colour that the light changed to and in what order. For the no audio condition, the light turned red, then green, and then blue. For sound effects the light turned green, then blue, and then red. For music, the light turned blue, then red, and then green. This was done like this to create a thrilling experience for the participants as they watched the opening of the loot boxes. The idea for this was inspired by Rocket League (Psyonix Studios, 2015)[11] where a similar procedure happens when a loot box was opened. Also, there were five seconds in between each lighting change, in order to build suspense and excitement. Once the first colour change had happened (it changed from black to another colour), a little gun spawned, which got bigger with each colour change, until it ended up at the size that the participants used in the game in order to increase anticipation and excitement.

The sound effect used here (during the sound effects condition) was called ‘Small Grenade Explosion Sound Effect’(Fesliyan, undated)[16]. This sound effect was played every time the item got bigger. This sound effect was used in this way as it could have been perceived to sound like a firework, which was the intention behind using this sound effect.

The music (for the music condition) that was played here was called ‘Slow Laugh’(Renda, 2019)[17]. This music could have been perceived as sounding like comedic walking music which could have added humour to getting the items from the loot box.

Opened

Once all the colours had been displayed (after five seconds) the light went back to being white and shone on the latest item that the player had received in order to display it in an awe-inspiring manner. This item was rotating by ten degrees every second in order to show off the item to the player and make it seem like they had earned something valuable. This is shown in (Figure 7).

Figure 7: An image showing one of the three guns that the participants gained from the loot boxes.

All the guns received were purely cosmetic because if they impacted gameplay significantly, it could skew the results of the questionnaire. There were three gun designs used because if the participants got duplicates, it could have impacted the results of the questionnaire.

The sound effect used here (during the sound effects condition) was called ‘Video Game Power Level Up A1 Sound Effect’ (Fesliyan, undated)[18] . This sound effect could have been perceived as sounding like a level up sound, which could have made the player feel like they have just levelled up by receiving the item.

The music (for the music condition) that was played here was called ‘Partying in Russia fifteen seconds version’(Oxen, 2021)[19].  This music could be regarded as sounding like partying which the player could have been doing, when they received the items from the loot box.

After that, there were instructions showing the players when to complete the questionnaire. The questionnaire was needed in order to collect data about how the participants felt the game and loot box went.

After the Questionnaire

After the participants had completed the questionnaire, they had a two-minute break in order to help prevent fatigue, which could have arisen from playing the game. There was also an ‘are you sure?’ message (after they pressed the ‘next’ button after the break) to prevent participants from skipping the questionnaire. The game, loot box, questionnaire, and breaks were repeated for the other two conditions, because in order to test the research questions in a within participants fashion, the other conditions needed to be tested on the participants as well. After the last questionnaire and break, the credits were shown.

Credits

This essentially was a scene that said thank you to the participants for their participation. This was needed in order to inform the players that the game had ended and thank them for their participation because if participants felt happy and appreciated, they could be more likely to participate in research in the future.

Also, the credits stored the participants’ game statistics in a comma separated values (csv) file which could have been obtained from the Unity executable files. This file stored their score, respawns, health, and participant ID. However, there were a few occasions when the data was not retrieved from the game’s files, when the computer was turned off, so data was lost. As a result of this, the collected data was never used in this research.

The music used for the credits was called ‘Rolling Hills’(Corradetti, undated)[20]. This music was used here because it was a happy western song which fit the overall theme for the game. The credits needed music in order for the game to feel more complete and potentially leave participants feeling fulfilled after completing the game.

References

  1. Fesliyan, D. (2014) Fesliyan Studios. North California: Fesliyan Studios. Available from https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/ [accessed 7 November 2024].
  2. Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c.48). London: TSO. Available from: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/contents [accessed 2 May 2025]. 
  3.  Kao, D. (2019). Infinite loot box: A platform for simulating video game loot boxes. IEEE Transactions on Games, 12(2), pp.219-224. Available from: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8698799 [accessed 7 November 2024].
  4. Fesliyan, D. (undated) Western Adventures (Without Orchestra). Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music/download/western-adventures-without-orchestra/564 [Accessed 12 January 2023].
  5. Fesliyan, D. (undated) Menu Button Press D Sound Effect [sound effect]. Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/play-mp3/2882 [accessed 12 January 2023].
  6. Mojang Studios, 2009. Minecraft [game]. Sweden: Mojang Studios. Available from: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/about-minecraft [accessed 22 January 2025].
  7. Epic Games (2017) Fortnite [game]. North Carolina: Cary. Available from https://www.fortnite.com/?lang=en-US [accessed 7 November 2024].
  8. Activision, 2024. Call Of Duty Black Ops 6 [game]. Available from: https://www.callofduty.com/uk/en/blackops6 [accessed 6 May 2025].
  9. Fesliyan, D.(undated) 12 Gauge Pump Action Shotgun Close Gunshot A [sound effect]. Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/play-mp3/7122 [accessed 12 January 2023].
  10. Fesliyan, D.(undated) Drawing A Sword Sound Effect [sound effect]. Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/play-mp3/2410 [accessed 12 January 2023].
  11. Psyonix Studios (2015) Rocket League [game]. California: San Diego. Available from https://www.rocketleague.com/en [accessed 7 November
    2024].
  12. Fesliyan, D.(undated) Hit Grunting From Being Hit A5 Sound Effect [sound effect]. Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/play-mp3/4037 [accessed 12 January 2023].
  13. Robson, D.(2023), Airlock [music]. Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music/download/airlock/2971 [accessed 30 January 2025].
  14. Fesliyan, D.(undated) Video Game Unlock Sound A1 8bit Sound Effect [sound effect]. Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/playmp3/5269 [accessed 30 January 2025].
  15. Fesliyan, D.(undated) Video Game Secret Sound A2 Sound Effect [sound effect]. Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/play-mp3/5260 [accessed 30 January 2025].
  16. Fesliyan, D.(undated) Small Grenade Explosion Sound Effect [sound effect]. Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/play-mp3/2459 [accessed 12 January 2023].
  17. Renda, D. (2019), Slow Laugh [music]. Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music/download/slowlaugh/308 [accessed 30 January 2025].
  18. Fesliyan, D.(undated) Video Game Power Level Up A1 Sound Effect [sound effect]. Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/play-mp3/5256 [accessed 30 January 2025].
  19. Oxen, S. (2021), Partying in Russia 15s [music]. Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music/download/partying-inrussia/2043 [accessed 12 January 2022].
  20. Corradetti, C. (undated), Rolling Hills [music]. Available from: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music/download/rollinghills/984 [accessed 12 January 2023].
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