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Thesis
To prevent players from missing notes most, if not all, important information should be placed in the middle of the screen due to change blindness and the way our brain processes visual input.
PSYCHOLOGY PRINCIPLE
Change Blindness is described as “a phenomenon of visual perception that occurs when a stimulus changes without this being noticed by its observer” (Simons et al,1997). Hodent (2017) uses Anstis’ (1974) research and this concept to conclude that players “might see something popping in their peripherical vision, but it will take them a visual saccade to fixate on the animating elements to precisely perceive what they are”.
The function of placing important information towards the center of the screen is to prevent the behavior of looking elsewhere on the screen to get information and to promote the behavior of focusing on the center of the screen where button inputs are placed, which leads to fewer missed notes due to trying to receive information while playing. The aesthetic of rhythm games is mainly challenge to finish the level by using phonological feedback in the forms of sounds and colors and lexical for short words. The feedback must be short and simple due to the mechanics pushing players to react on time and losing health if they do not.
This snack mainly targets feedback as things like health and score need to be communicated to the player fast but shouldn’t interrupt the gameplay of button presses. Assuming that the intent behind rhythm games is for players to react to quick rapid inputs, we would want our players to focus on the upcoming button cues so they can prepare for their inputs. This area in the middle is where I assume the designers want the players to concentrate due to the placement of the timing cues, which is arguably the most vital object the player interacts within the game. I firmly believe that this placement is -- 2 -- due to how our brains take in visual stimuli and how those stimuli travel towards the
Science Behind Eyes
When we take in any kind of visual information it is due to an image of the visual stimuli being projected into our retina. The retina contains a fovea that connects to our optic nerve sending signals to our brain. When we look at something directly its image usually falls on our fovea and the further away something lands on our fovea the longer it takes the brain to process that information. When the brains take more time, it delays the actions it can take by that time.
How Does That Relate?
This relates to Rhythm games especially due to the faster-paced nature of these games. Multiple button inputs need to happen within milliseconds relying mainly on visual stimuli. By keeping everything centered and towards the middle, we prevent players from looking all over the screen and still receiving important information. If we place important elements outside the focused zone, this forces players to either must look from their peripherical vision, which as we established before takes more time for their brain to compute, or to take a visual saccade away from the button cues and risk missing out on notes, ruining the main aesthetic of the game, and interfering with the goal of these games.
EXAMPLES
In my examples, I’ve taken Red as the area of most focus and green as to where vital information is on the screen. This is based on my experience combined with the experiences of 5 other people.
Bad Example
Muse Dash (PeroPeroGames, 2019) is a bad example of a game of keeping its UI elements towards the middle and therefore suffers from players missing out on cues due to paying attention to other elements on the screen or completely ignoring those elements. Area of Focus Health Score -- 3 -- Muse Dash keeps its button cues towards the middle; however, it also has a health system that can lead to failing the level. The placement of the health bar is towards the bottom of the screen means it’s in a player’s peripheral vision and the small size means more resources would have to give to the brain to decipher its information. This leads to the player ignoring their health, not knowing how good they are doing, but it seems like an important feature as the game presents characters with different health pools. The score suffers the same fate of being ignored by me in most cases due to its unfortunate placement and small size.
Good Example
A game that performs this well is Unbeatable [White Label] (D-Cell Games, 2021). This game showcases how efficient it can be to use the space in the middle of the screen especially markers for button input timings. The game tells players how accurate their timing was, how good their performance is by using a heart symbol, score and even accuracy percentage. It focuses these on the center of the screen for easy visual feedback and whatever can’t be towards the middle section of the screen is made large enough to always remain in a player’s peripheral vision. The large text also makes for players to easily see changes that might occur through the gameplay. The symbol of the heart and its various stages of cracking makes for an easier understanding of how well a player is doing
Conclusion
Therefore, in conclusion, rhythm games should make their UIs in such a way that important information is present towards the area of focus, and when it’s unable to be present there to be big enough to be seen from a player’s peripheral vision. This is to prevent change blindness and to ensure that players have enough time to react to button inputs while still knowing all relevant information that they need to play the game.
Biblography
Anstis, S. M. (1974). Letter: A chart demonstrating variations in acuity with retinal position. n Research, 14, 589–592. Score Area of Focus Health
D-Cell Games. Unbeatable (White Label) [PC]. D-Cell Games, 2021. Played January 2022.
Hodent,C. The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design. CRC Press, 2017.
PeroPeroGames. Muse Dash [PC]. PeroPeroGames, 2017. Played July 2019. Simons DJ, Chabris CF.
Gorillas in Our Midst: Sustained Inattentional Blindness for Dynamic Events. Perception. 1999;28(9):1059-1074. doi:10.1068/p28105
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