Open world video games face the challenge of striking the balance between guidance and player freedom, as to provide enough guidance for the player towards objectives while keeping the game non-linear to preserve player autonomy. In order to achieve this, subtle guidance through level design choices such as environmental shape or topology can be utilized for that purpose. However, current development lacks tools and guidelines to assess whether an open world game is suitable to achieve the balance between player guidance and autonomy to deliver the intended game experience. This paper examines Nintendo’s \textit{The Legend of
Zelda: Breath of the Wild} design philosophies as a case study in order to infer tools and guidelines for general open world level design. It's design philosophies and level design strategies prove to be useful to purposefully lead the player's attention through the game world by subtle means without actively disrupting player freedom. Finally, this paper proposes a tool developed for Unity that assists level design decision-making by indicating visibility information of objects in the game scene during the design process incorporating a key aspect of Nintendo's design strategy into the general level design workflow for open world games.

This thesis explores the potential integration of a cubiform tangible display into a serious
game and augmented virtuality (AV) concept. Serious games, which combine entertainment
with educational and practical goals, are an increasingly prominent field for both academia
and industry. Similarly, the field of virtual environments has been in rapid development. This
work examines how tangible user interfaces (TUIs) can
enhance user engagement, learning
outcomes, and interaction by leveraging physical interaction with digital content.
This paper uses the WOWCube, a novel cube-shaped gaming device with 24 interconnected
screens, enabling a unique multi-dimensional interactive experience, as its tangible cubiform
display. The main contributions of this thesis include the development of a game for the
WOWCube, highlighting the distinct challenges and opportunities presented by this tangible
display. Furthermore, the thesis addresses the integration of augmented virtuality environ-
ments, in which the WOWCube serves as an interactive tangible controller. The environments
implemented contain various scenarios that each enhance different technological features of
the cube. The implementations went through a study containing of 21 participants. Both the
game and the scenarios in the AV environment were questioned in a short questionnaire.
Through the game, the study revealed the application of tangible devices in serious games,
fostering its possibilities with good replies from the participants. Results also showed an
above average usability for the cube in an AV environment in which users felt an average
sense of presence.

Approaching music education through attentive listening has been proven to be very effective. To help people without musical experience take a first step towards a better understanding of music, we developed the serious game "MusicalMurderMystery", in which the player solves murder cases in virtual reality by listening to musical cues. The player receives guidance to employ attentive and spatial listening to recognize and locate previously introduced instruments among a playing ensemble, which helps them reconstruct the case and solve it. MusicalMurderMystery was tested in two stages: one stage to test the entertaining and engaging aspects of the game and one to test its educational value. While its educational value could not yet be conclusively proven, the game was overwhelmingly rated as very engaging and fun, and showed thematic relevance.

Maps are used in game development in several areas during the planning/pre-production stage. Yet, it remains rather undocumented how maps can be used as tools within a game engine for the production stage of development. Therefore, I planned to develop a tool for the Unity game engine that allows users to import their drawings directly into the engine. Before I started to plan my tool, I examined the modern development process and how game developers, especially level designers, communicate. Further, I discovered that section and plan drawings are the most important types of architectural drawings in game development. Those lessons are then applied within a "light version" of the user-centered design process. Although initially, the tool focused on orthographic projections, a use case scenario in the end details why I opted for support of perspective drawings and how they can be useful to recreate existing locations.