The Effects of Visual Style on Perceived Challenge

Sammanfattning: With a recent rise in popularity (and controversy) of challenging games, many have attempted to emulate their success. These games are commonly styled with dark, gritty and often surreal settings and characters. Beyond setting the tone, is there a measurable effect from these visual styles on the perception of challenge, and if so, what are those effects? This study looks at similar research and/or the fields visual style, and/or challenge in games to create a game with two distinct styles, from which as a result, a set of categories to better describe a visual style is proposed. The game is then used as an investigation into what to look for when testing for the impact of visual style on perceived challenge.