Adaptive Puzzle Generation Study

About the Project: This study is being conducted to investigate the relationship between player engagement and Adaptive Procedural Generation. Unlike traditional puzzle games where every player sees the same challenges, this prototype game utilises an experimental "Adaptive Director" system. The prototype attempts to analyse your playstyle in real-time to generate puzzles that are specifically tailored to your skill level and pacing.

What is Involved: If you agree to participate in this study, you will be asked to download and play an academic research prototype. Please note that you must be 18 years of age or older to participate.

During the study, you will:

• Be presented with the in-game consent screen upon launch.
• Provide basic, non-identifiable demographic information (e.g., age range, gaming frequency).
• Solve puzzles, collect in-game artefacts, and explore the digital environment.
• Complete brief, in-game survey questions at the end of each level regarding your experience.
• Play for as long or as short as you like – All and any data collected will be useful!

As you play, gameplay data will be automatically collected using a telemetry system and stored in a secure QUB OneDrive file.

Please be aware that this is a research prototype, not a commercial product; you may encounter placeholder assets or minor bugs.

Your participation in this research is entirely voluntary. You may refuse to participate or stop playing at any time without giving a reason by simply closing the game.

Withdrawal of Data: If you choose to participate, you may withdraw your data up to 30th April 2026. You can do this by using the "Withdraw" option in the game's pause menu, which will securely delete your session data. After 30th April 2026, data analysis will have commenced, and your anonymous data may be included in aggregated datasets that cannot be separated.

Confidentiality and Publication: Your participation in this research uses an "Anonymisation-at-Source" strategy. The game collects anonymous gameplay metrics (such as puzzle solve times and movement patterns). No personally identifiable information (names, emails, or IP addresses) is ever collected. Your session is tied only to a randomly generated alphanumeric ID (UUID) created locally on your device.

The aggregated findings of this study will be published in a Master's dissertation, which will be shared with examiners via QUB’s Online Learning Platform. As the data contains no personal identifiers, the anonymised, aggregated dataset may also be published in an open-access repository (such as QUB Pure) to allow other researchers to validate the study’s findings, in alignment with Open Research principles.

Data Collection and Storage: All gameplay telemetry and survey responses will be kept in password-protected files and folders on the researcher’s QUB MS OneDrive account. The data will be accessible only to the researcher and the research supervisor. The data will be retained for five years in a secure institutional archive following the completion of the project.

• Information on OneDrive’s security can be found here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-onedrive-safeguards-your-data-in-...
• This research will be conducted in compliance with data protection legislation. For more information about how we look after your information, how to access your rights, and who to contact if you have any queries or concerns about data protection, please visit the Queen’s University Belfast website: https://www.qub.ac.uk/privacynotice/Research/ListofResearchPrivacyNotices/Privac...

Thank You: Thank you for taking the time to read this information and for considering taking part in this research.

If you require any further information, you can contact me, Nick Townsend, at ntownsend02@qub.ac.uk or my supervisor, Jia-Rey Chang, at j.chang@qub.ac.uk

Queen’s University Belfast’s AEL Ethics committee has reviewed and approved this research project.

Play the game in the web browser, without downloading anything, here: Adaptive Puzzle Generation Study | GX Games