Enhancing challenge-based immersion in cultural game using appreciative fuzzy logic

Abstract

Many traditional games in Indonesia are considered cultural heritage and are in serious decline; young generations no longer know about them. Serious games have been considered a potential educational tool for cultural heritage preservation. Lack of immersive experience due to over-focus on the learning content is a common problem in those games. Very little research also discusses cultural heritage serious game design frameworks. This study uses the appreciative fuzzy logic system (AFLS) to enhance the challenge-based immersive experience (CBIE) in the Joglosemar cultural heritage game. The AFLS provides autonomous challenges, such as enemy numbers and aggressive behavior, and the frequency of item appearances in the games using fuzzy logic with respect to the appreciative serious games (ASG) concepts. The ASG is the design guide for serious games that divides the game activities into 4-D: discovery, dream, design, and destiny. We use three ASG-based serious games to evaluate the CBIE produced by AFLS. The game experience questionnaire (GEQ) is used to measure the player experience, while the cross-validation is used to measure the AFLS performance. Results show that the AFLS enhances the CBIE. The study contributes mainly to provide reliable intelligent system for automated serious game design.