@inproceedings{7d4b089c37d645ca964175dafae1ac8b,
title = "Identifying Onboarding Heuristics for Free-to-Play Mobile Games: A Mixed Methods Approach",
abstract = "The onboarding phase of Free-to-Play mobile games, covering the first few minutes of play, typically sees a substantial retention rate amongst players. It is therefore crucial to the success of these games that the onboarding phase promotes engagement to the widest degree possible. In this paper a set of heuristics for the design of onboarding phases in mobile games is presented. The heuristics are identified by a lab-based mixed-methods experiment, utilizing lightweight psycho-physiological measures together with self-reported player responses, across three titles that cross the genres of puzzle games, base builders and arcade games, and utilize different onboarding phase design approaches. Results showcase how heuristics can be used to design engaging onboarding phases in mobile games.",
keywords = "Game user research, Free to play, Mobile games, Flow, Psycho-physiological measures, Onboarding phase, Heuristics, User experience",
author = "Thomsen, {Line Ebdrup} and {Weigert Petersen}, Falko and Anders Drachen and Pejman Mirza-Babaei",
year = "2016",
month = dec,
day = "9",
language = "English",
isbn = "978-3-319-46099-4",
series = "Lecture Notes in Computer Science",
publisher = "Springer",
pages = "241--246",
booktitle = "International Conference on Entertainment Computing",
address = "Germany",
note = "15th IFIP TC 14 International Conference on Entertainment Computing, ICEC 2016 ; Conference date: 28-09-2016 Through 30-09-2016",
}