Research Papers

2025

Play, watch, analyze, repeat: How do players develop competitive gaming skills?
Günter Wallner, Aakash Johry, Marnix van Wijland, Regina Bernhaupt, Simone Kriglstein
Entertainment Computing, 2025 [DOI] [PDF]

2024

An Investigation of the Test-Retest Reliability of the miniPXI
Aqeel Haider, Günter Wallner, Kathrin Gerling, and Vero Vanden Abeele
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 8, CHI PLAY (2024) [DOI] [PDF]
Do You Dare to Ask? Influence of Question Recipient and Information Medium on Prompting Preparatory Questions for MR Imaging
Jonas Carl Christian Kamps, Max V. Birk, Chantal Vriens, Günter Wallner, Regina Bernhaupt
Proceedings of Mensch und Computer 2024 [DOI] [PDF]
Ethics and Transparency in Game Data
Erica Kleinman, Magy Seif El-Nasr, Johannes Pfau, Simone Kriglstein, Günter Wallner, David Melhart, Georgios N. Yannakakis, Jichen Zhu, Benjamin Watson, Casper Harteveld
Companion Proceedings of the 2024 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play [DOI] [PDF]
Visualization of Player Movement Patterns with Line Integral Convolution and Alpha Shapes
Günter Wallner, Anders Drachen
Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games [DOI] [PDF]
A Feature Comparison Study of Live Companion Tools for Esports Games
Letian Wang, Claire Dormann, Günter Wallner
Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games [DOI] [PDF]
HKViz: Map-Based Analytics for Hollow Knight
Oliver Gstöttenbauer, Claire Dormann, Günter Wallner
Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games [DOI] [PDF]
Endpoint Conditioned Multimodality Trajectory Prediction Using Voronoi Tessellation
Jonas Peché, Aliaksei Tsishurou, Günter Wallner
Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games [DOI] [PDF]

2023

Visualizing the Spatio-Temporal Evolution of Gameplay using Storyline Visualization: A Study with League of Legends
Günter Wallner, Letian Wang, Claire Dormann
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 7 (CHI PLAY 2023) [DOI] [PDF]
Preliminary Study of the Performance of the miniPXI when Measuring Player Experience throughout Game Development
Aqeel Haider, Günter Wallner, Kathrin Gerling, Vero Vanden Abeele
Companion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play 2023 [DOI] [PDF]
The Ludic Potentials of Player Data
Günter Wallner, Michael Lankes
Companion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play 2023 [DOI] [PDF]
A Classification of Video Game Cartographic Maps
Claire Dormann, Corina Pötscher, Günter Wallner
Proceedings of the 2023 DiGRA International Conference [PDF]
Through Space and Time: Spatio-Temporal Visualization of MOBA Matches
Adam Sufliarsky, Günter Walllner, Simone Kriglstein
IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 2023 [DOI] [PDF]
Beyond the Game: Charting the Future of Game Data Science
Günter Wallner, Anders Drachen
ACM Games: Research and Practice 1(1) [DOI] [PDF]
Introducing QRogue: Teaching Quantum Computing Using a Rogue-like Game Concept
Michael Artner, Guenter Wallner, Robert Wille
Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games [DOI] [PDF]
Lessons Learned from Designing and Implementing Interaction Mechanics for Viewer Participation in Game Streaming
Pavel Mrázek, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Günter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 2023 [DOI] [PDF]
Towards Ludic Truths and Affective Interaction: The Rhetoric of Social Change Games
Claire Dormann, Günter Wallner
Proceedings of the 54th Conference of the International Simulation and Gaming Association [DOI] [PDF]

2022

Live Feedback for Training Through Real-Time Data Visualizations: A Study with League of Legends
Frans Rijnders, Günter Wallner, Regina Bernhaupt
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 6 (CHI PLAY)
[DOI] [PDF]
The Importance of Dashboard Elements During Esports Matches to Players, Passive-Viewers and Spectator-Players
Stan van Kempen, Erik van der Spek, Günter Wallner
International Conference on Entertainment Computing 2022
[DOI] [PDF]
Towards a Community-Based Ranking System of Overwatch Players
David Staat, Günter Wallner, Regina Bernhaupt
International Conference on Entertainment Computing 2022
[DOI] [PDF]
Live Feedback for Training Through Real-Time Data Visualizations: A Study with League of Legends
Frans Rijnders, Günter Wallner, Regina Bernhaupt
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 6(CHI PLAY)
[DOI] [PDF]
Ethermal – Lightweight Thermal Feedback for VR Games
Bas A. Plijnaer, Günter Wallner, Regina Bernhaupt
2022 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG) [DOI] [PDF]
Spatio-temporal Analysis of Multi-agent Scheduling Behaviors on Fixed-track Networks
Shivam Agarwal, Günter Wallner, Jeremy Watson, Fabian Beck
2022 IEEE 15th Pacific Visualization Symposium (PacificVis)
[DOI] [PDF]
Watch Less and Uncover More: Could Navigation Tools Help Users Search and Explore Videos?
Maria Perez-Ortiz, Sahan Bulathwela, Claire Dormann, Meghana Verma, Stefan Kreitmayer, Richard Noss, John Shawe-Taylor, Yvonne Rogers, Emine Yilmaz
Accepted to ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval

2021

What Players Want: Information Needs of Players on Post-Game Visualizations
Günter Wallner, Marnix van Wijland, Regina Bernhaupt, Simone Kriglstein
Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems [DOI] [PDF]
Social Gaming Patterns During a Pandemic Crisis: A Cross-cultural Survey
Günter Wallner, Aakash Johry, Regina Bernhaupt
ICEC 2021: International Conference on Entertainment Computing [DOI] [DOI]

2020

Code +: cyber archiving, interactive documentary, and immersive experience for the digital heritage narratives of Asia
Wu-Wei Chen, Yunke Sun, Letian Wang, Yanru Zhu, Haochen Xiong
SIGGRAPH ASIA 2020 [DOI] [PDF]
Serious Games for Learning: A Quantitative Review of Literature
Manuel J Ibarra, Vladimiro Ibañez, Ismar Frango Silveira, Cesar A Collazos, Günter Wallner, Matthias Rauterberg
Joint International Conference on Serious Games [DOI] [PDF]
Evaluation of a game-based training course to build capacity for insecticide resistance management in vector control programmes
Claire Dormann, Kirsten Duda, Busiku Hamainza, Delenesaw Yewhalaw, Charlotte Hemingway, Marlize Coleman, Michael Coleman, Edward Thomsen
PloS ONE 15(10): e0240514 [DOI]
Multivariate Visualization of Game Metrics: An Evaluation of Hexbin Maps
Günter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
CHI PLAY ’20: Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play [DOI] [PDF]
Truesight Battle Grid – Enhancing the Game Experience of Tabletop Role-Playing through Tangible Data Visualization
Bas A. Plijnaer, Daisy O’Neill, Eloisa Kompier, Günter Wallner, Regina Bernhaupt
CHI PLAY ’20: Extended Abstracts of the 2020 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play [DOI] [PDF]
Have a Break: Raising the Self-Awareness of Gamers About Long Gaming Sessions Using an Ambient Tangible Device
Rosanne Bloemraad, Noortje Boekenoogen, Joost van den Broek, Maxine Palmen, Günter Wallner, Regina Bernhaupt
CHI PLAY ’20: Extended Abstracts of the 2020 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play [DOI] [PDF]
Exploring Severity of Gameplay Issues from Players’ Perspective
Nour Halabi, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Lena Uszkoreit, Günter Wallner
CHI PLAY ’20: Extended Abstracts of the 2020 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play [DOI] [PDF]
Masterclass on Information Visualization for Games Research
Günter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
CHI PLAY ’20: Extended Abstracts of the 2020 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play [DOI] [PDF]
Be a Buddy not a Bully-Two Educational Games to Help Prevent Bullying in Schools
Simone Kriglstein, Fabian Hengstberger, Florian Fribert, Katharina Stiehl, Beate Schrank, Alexander Pfeiffer, Thomas Wernbacher, Günter Wallner
CHI PLAY ’20: Extended Abstracts of the 2020 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play [DOI] [PDF]
Motiis: Fostering Parents’ Awareness of their Adolescents Emotional Experiences during Gaming
Jesse Pepping, Sarah Scholte, Marnix van Wijland, Milan de Meij, Günter Wallner, Regina Bernhaupt
NordiCHI ’20: Proceedings of the 11th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction [DOI] [PDF]
Motivational Profiling of League of Legends Players
Florian Brühlmann, Philipp Baumgartner, Günter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein, Elisa D Mekler
Frontiers in Psychology [DOI] [PDF]
Visualizing AI Playtesting Data of 2D Side-scrolling Games
Shivam Agarwal, Christian Herrmann, Günter Wallner, Fabian Beck
2020 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG) [DOI] [PDF]
Visual Analysis of FIFA World Cup Data
Michael Burch, Günter Wallner, Sergiu Lazar Angelescu, Peter Lakatos
Conference on Information Visualisation 2020 [PDF]
Serious Games for Learning: A Quantitative Review of Literature
Manuel J Ibarra, Vladimiro Ibañez, Ismar Frango Silveira, Cesar A Collazos, Günter Wallner, Matthias Rauterberg
Joint International Conference on Serious Games 2020 [DOI]
See, Feel, Move: Player Behaviour Analysis through Combined Visualization of Gaze, Emotions, and Movement
Daniel Kepplinger, Günter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein, Michael Lankes
Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020), Honorable Mention Award [DOI] [PDF]
Bombalytics: Visualization of Competition and Collaboration Strategies of Players in a Bomb Laying Game
Shivam Agarwal, Günter Wallner, Fabian Beck
Computer Graphics Forum 39(3), EurVis 2020 [PDF]
A Postmortem on Playtesting: Exploring the Impact of Playtesting on the Critical Reception of Video Games
Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Samantha Stahlke, Günter Wallner, Atiya Nova
Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020) [DOI] [PDF]
Be Part Of It: Spectator Experience in Gaming and Esports
Simone Kriglstein, Günter Wallner, Sven Charleer, Kathrin Gerling, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Steven Schirra, Manfred Tscheligi
Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020) [DOI] [PDF]
1st Eye Tracking in Games and Play Workshop (PLEY 2020)
Günter Wallner, Michael Burch, ,Bastian Pfleging, Regina Bernhaupt
Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020) [DOI] [PDF]

2019

Assessing the Impact of Visual Design on the Interpretation of Aggregated Playtesting Data Visualization
Nour Halabi, Günter Wallner, Pejman Mirza-Babaei
Proceedings of the 2019 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY 2019) [DOI] [PDF]
User Guided Movement Analysis in Games using Semantic Trajectories
Ruben Schertler, Simone Kriglstein, Günter Wallner
Proceedings of the 2019 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY 2019), Honorable Mention Award [DOI] [PDF]
Modata – Improving Dota 2 Experience and Spectatorship through Tangible Gameplay Visualization
Wesley van den Broek, Günter Wallner, Regina Bernhaupt
Extended Abstracts of the 2019 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts (CHI PLAY 2019) [DOI] [PDF]
Diagram Safari: A Visualization Literacy Game for Young Children
Johannes Gäbler, Christoph Winkler, Nóra Lengyel, Wolfgang Aigner, Christina Stoiber, Günter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
Extended Abstracts of the 2019 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts (CHI PLAY 2019) [DOI] [PDF]
A Brief Overview of Data Mining and Analytics in Games
Günter Wallner
Data Analytics Applications in Gaming and Entertainment, 2019
Enhancing Battle Maps through Flow Graphs
Günter Wallner
Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Games, 2019 [DOI] [PDF]
Tweeting your Destiny: Profiling Users in the Twitter Landscape around an Online Game
Günter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein, Anders Drachen
Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Games, 2019 [DOI] [PDF]
Aggregated Visualization of Playtesting Data
Günter Wallner, Nour Halabi, Pejman Mirza-Babaei
Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2019 [DOI] [PDF]
Development of a Mobile Game to Influence Behaviour Determinants of HIV Service Uptake Among Key Populations in the Philippines: User-centred Design Process
Charlotte D. Hemingway, Emmanuel S. Baja, Godafreda V. Dalmacion, Paul Mark B. Medina, Ernest Genesis, Tyrone Reden Sy, Russell Dacombe, Claire Dorman, John Blakey, Miriam Taegtmeyer
JMIR Serious Games [PDF]
Beyond the Individual: Understanding Social Structures of an Online Player Matchmaking Website
Guenter Wallner, Christopher Schinnerl, Michael Helfried Schiller, Alexander Monte Calvo, Johanna Pirker, Rafet Sifa, Anders Drachen
Entertainment Computing, 2019 [DOI] [PDF]

2018

ResistanceSim: development and acceptability study of a serious game to improve understanding of insecticide resistance management in vector control programmes
E. Thomsen, C. Hemingway, A. South, K. Duda, Claire Dormann, R. Farmer, M. Coleman and M. Coleman
Malaria Journal,17(22), 2018 [DOI]
Introducing PlaNet: A tool for Visualizing Player Communities
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
Proceedings of the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, 2018 [DOI] [PDF]
Lost My Way: An Educational Geometry Game for Young Children
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein, Sonja Gabriel, Christian S. Loh, Yanyan Sheng, I-Hung Li
Proceedings of the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, 2018 [DOI] [PDF]
Inside the Group: Investigating Social Structures in Player Groups and Their Influence on Activity
Michael H. Schiller, Guenter Wallner, Christopher Schinnerl, Alexander Monte Calvo, Johanna Pirker, Rafet Sifa, Anders Drachen
IEEE Transactions on Games, 2018 [DOI] [PDF]
What Moves Players?: Visual Data Exploration of Twitter and Gameplay Data
Christian Drescher, Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein, Rafet Sifa, Anders Drachen, Margit Pohl
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2018, ACM Press [DOI] [PDF]

2017

Automatic Generation of Battle Maps from Replay Data
Guenter Wallner
Information Visualization, July, 17, 2017 [DOI] [PDF]
Curiously Motivated: Profiling Curiosity with Self-Reports and Behaviour Metrics in the Game ‘Destiny’
Mike Schaekermann, Giovanni Ribeiro, Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein, Daniel Johnson, Anders Drachen, Rafet Sifa, Lennart E. Nacke
Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, ACM Press, 2017 [DOI] [PDF]
Online-only friends, real-life friends or strangers? Differential associations with passion and social capital in video game play
Ryan Perry, Anders Drachen, Allison Kearney, Simone Kriglstein, Lennart E. Nacke, Rafet Sifa, Guenter Wallner, Daniel Johnson
Computers in Human Behavior, Elsevier, 2017 [DOI]
Exploiting Players?: Critical Reflections on Participation in Game Development
Kathrin Gerling, Guenter Wallner, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, John Shearer, Conor Linehan, Kieran Hicks
Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, ACM Press, 2017 [DOI] [PDF]

2016

A battle of wit: Applying Computational Humour to Game Design
Claire Dormann
Entertainment Computing, pp. 72-85 [PDF]
Toward ludic gerontechnology, a review of games for dementia care
Claire Dormann
First Joint International Conference of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) and the Foundations of Digital Games conferences (FDG) [PDF]
Visualizations for Retrospective Analysis of Battles in Team-based Combat Games: A User Study
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, ACM Press, 2017 [DOI] [PDF]
Integrating and Inspecting Combined Behavioral Profiling and Social Network Models in Destiny
Andre Rattinger, Guenter Wallner, Anders Drachen, Johanna Pirker, Rafet Sifa
Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2016, pp.77-89, Springer, 2016 [DOI] [PDF]
Metry Mouse Missions: An Interactive, Geometric Obstacle Course of Daredevil Proportions
Guenter Wallner, Lauri Galbreath, Simone Kriglstein
Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2016, pp.201-204, Springer, 2016 [DOI] [PDF]

2015

Laughter is the best medicine: Humor for smart health applications, invited session on Humor
Claire Dormann
Distributed, Ambient, and Pervasive Interactions, pp. 639- 650 [PDF]
Sequential Analysis of Player Behavior
Guenter Wallner
Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play [DOI] [PDF]
Tool Design Jam: Designing tools for Games User Research
Chek Tien Tan, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Veronica Zammitto, Alessandro Canossa, Genevieve Conley, Guenter Wallner
Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play [DOI] [PDF]
Comparative Visualization of Player Behavior for Serious Game Analytics
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
In Christian Sebastian Loh, Yanyan Sheng, Dirk Ifenthaler (Eds.) Serious Games Analytics, pp.159-179, Springer International Publishing, ISBN: 978-3-319-05833-7 [DOI] [PDF]
An Introduction to Gameplay Data Visualization
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
In Petri Lankoski, Staffan Bjoerk (Eds.) Game Research Methods: An Overview, pp.231-250, ETC Press, ISBN: 9781312884731 [DOI] [PDF]

2014

Fools, Tricksters and Jokers: Categorization of Humor in Gameplay
Claire Dormann
Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment [DOI] [PDF]
Game User Telemetry in Practice: A Case Study
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein, Florian Gnadlinger, Michael Heiml, Jochen Kranzer
Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, 2014, ACM, New York, NY [DOI] [PDF]
Workflow Patterns as a Means to Model Task Succession in Games – A Preliminary Case Study
Simone Kriglstein, Ross Brown, Guenter Wallner
Proceedings of the International Conference on Entertainment Computing, 2014, pp. 36-41, Springer Berlin Heidelberg [DOI] [PDF]
Unified Visualization of Quantitative and Qualitative Playtesting Data
Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Guenter Wallner, Graham McAllister, Lennart E. Nacke
CHI ’14 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2014, ACM Press [DOI] [PDF]
A Case Study of a Learning Game about the Internet
Fares Kayali, Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein, Gerhild Bauer, Daniel Martinek, Helmut Hlavacs, Peter Purgathofer, Rebecca Woelfle
Games for Training, Education, Health and Sports , LNCS 8395, 2014, Springer [DOI] [PDF]
A User Study of Different Gameplay Visualizations
Simone Kriglstein, Guenter Wallner, Margit Pohl
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2014, ACM Press [DOI] [PDF]
PLATO: A Visual Analytics System for Gameplay Data
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
Computers and Graphics, 38, 2014, Elsevier [DOI] [PDF]

2013

Incongruous avatars and hilarious sidekicks: design patterns for comical game characters
Dormann Claire, Boutet Mish
Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association (DIGRA) [PDF]
Once More With Feeling Game Design Patterns for Learning in the Affective Domain
Claire Dormann, Jennifer WhitsonJennifer, WhitsonMax Neuvians
Context Matters! Exploring and Reframing Games and Play in Context, 2013, New Academic Press [PDF]
Digital Game-Based Learning with “Internet Hero”
Gerhild Bauer, Daniel Martinek, Simone Kriglstein, Guenter Wallner, Rebecca Woelfle
Context Matters! Exploring and Reframing Games and Play in Context, 2013, New Academic Press [PDF]
A Study on the Use of Adaptive Avatars for Player Lists in Games for Children
Simone Kriglstein, Guenter Wallner
Proceedings of the 17th Academic Mindtrek Conference, 2013, ACM Press [DOI] [PDF]
PLATO: Understanding Gameplay Data Through Visualization
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
CHI 2013 Games User Research Workshop, 2013 [PDF]
Play-Graph: A methodology and visualization approach for the analysis of gameplay data
Guenter Wallner
Proceedings Foundations of Digital Games, 2013, pp. 253-260, Society for the Advancement of the Science of Digital Games [PDF]
Visualization-based Analysis of Gameplay Data – A Review of Literature
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
Entertainment Computing, 4(3), pp. 143-155, 2013, Elsevier [DOI] [PDF]
Evaluating Games in Classrooms: A Case Study with DOGeometry
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein, Johannes Biba
Cases on Digital Game-Based Learning: Methods, Models, and Strategies, 2013, IGI Global [DOI] [PDF]

2012

DOGeometry: Teaching Geometry Through Play
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
Proceedings of Fun and Games, 2012, ACM Press [DOI] [PDF]
A Spatiotemporal Visualization Approach for the Analysis of Gameplay Data
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2012, ACM Press [DOI] [PDF]

2011

Social gaming for change: Facebook unleashed
Jennifer R. Whitson, Claire Dormann
First-Monday, Journal of internet studies, 16 (10), 2011 [PDF]
Design and Evaluation of the Educational Game DOGeometry – A Case Study
Guenter Wallner, Simone Kriglstein
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment, 2011, ACM Press [DOI] [PDF]