Towards a concept for a hidden object game with dynamic difficulty adjustment

This short paper elaborates on a work in progress concept for a hidden object game in the knowledge domain of remote sensing. Previous evaluations of the serious game Lost Earth 2307 revealed the need for shorter gameplay variants while still supporting the main learning objectives. It also affirmed the need to individually improve player immersion. To address this need, the short paper briefly depicts the method of the adaptivity cycle by Shute and Zapata and dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA). The DDA is a popular method to adapt games and requires the finding of relevant difficulty levels and applying it in the game. The process of mapping and applying the difficulty in the game is called parametrization. This short paper shows a first concept of how to parameterize an adaptive game by a prototype implementation of an adaptive hidden object game. The short paper concludes with the results of a first informal test of the implementation and further steps.