Diogo Cabral
email: diogo.n.cabral@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Deborah Castro

Jacob M Rigby
email: j.rigby@bristol.ac.uk

Harry Vasanth
email: harry.vasanth@arditi.pt

Mónica S Cameirão
email: monica.cameirao@m-iti.org

Sergi Bermúdez I Badia

Valentina Nisi
email: valentina.nisi@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

To Binge or not To Binge: viewers' moods and behaviors during the consumption of subscribed video streaming

Keywords: Binge watching, Television viewing behavior, Online TV, Videoon-demand, Video streaming

The popularity of internet-distributed TV entertainment services, such as Netflix, has transformed TV consumption behavior. Currently, the level of control viewers have over their TV experiences, along with the release of complete seasons at once, are some of the factors that stimulate the so-called bingewatching phenomenon (the consumption of several episodes of a program in a single sitting). Most of binge-watching studies have focused on viewers' habits and health effects. This paper presents a study that relates to viewers' behaviors and moods. It was carried out with 13 young participants at their home, watching online content, collecting physiological, inertial, and self-reported data. We identify and compare binge-watching with non-binge-watching behaviors. Our results suggest that while viewers recur to online serial entertainment in pursuit of leisure related needs, such as relaxation, relief from boredom and escapism, the act of binge-watching tends to make them feel rather unsatisfied with no change in Arousal. Nevertheless, in binge-watching the Positive Affect increases while the Negative decreases. Moreover, watching a single episode only, tends to result in increased arousal and but not necessarily in increased satisfaction. This preliminary finding can be the starting point of fruitful future investigations on unpacking further motives and nuances from this outcome.

Introduction

Popular press and media organizations have recently popularized the practice of "Binge-watching" referring to a viewing behavior enabled by the raise of entertainment in the form of internet TV as well as TV on Demand. Binge-watching viewing modalities are not new and can be traced back to 80s and 90s, when the video recording and storing capabilities of VCR and DVD made possible for the viewers to engage with hours of sequential episodes consumption. Later on, Internet-distributed TV services have facilitated this specific mode of viewing. Despite the different studies on the topic [START_REF] Conlin | Time-shifting vs. appointment viewing: The role of fear of missing out within TV consumption behaviors[END_REF][START_REF] Feijter | Confessions of A 'Guilty' Couch Pota-to Understanding and Using Context to Optimize Binge-watching Behavior[END_REF][START_REF] Merikivi | Binge-watching serialized video content: A transdisciplinary review[END_REF], today binge-watching still lacks a standardized definition. In the last years, both Industry and Academia have explored the phenomena of binge-watching, but from different angles. While Industry looks at the number of spectators binging, the frequency of this practice, and the device chosen [START_REF]TV & Media 2015. The empowered TV & media consumer's influence[END_REF], the academics look at its motivations and effects on health [START_REF] Perks | Media marathoning: Immersions in morality[END_REF][START_REF] Sung | Bad Habit for Your Health? An Exploration of Psychological Factors for Binge-watching Behavior[END_REF].

In this work, we performed 13 participants in the wild study, where recruited users where binge-watching content on Netflix. We collected data on users' interface actions, self-reported data as well as physiological and inertial data, in a non-intrusive manner.

Despite the lack of consensus in the definition and connotation of the term, for the purpose of this research we decided to use the term binge-watching and defined it as watching two or more complete episodes of the same program immediately after each other, or with a maximum pause of 15 minutes, to ensure that the flow was not disrupted.

This work builds upon previous research [START_REF] Castro | The binge-watcher's journey: Investigating motivations, contexts, and affective states surrounding Netflix viewing[END_REF], by analyzing and comparing the data of binge-watching behaviors with non-binge-watching behaviors. Thus, we have identified three types of online TV entertainment watching behavior: Binge-watching (as defined by the authors earlier in the text), watching just a single episode, and watching multiple episodes but not pertaining to the same series. Results from the analysis indicate that while binge watchers mainly look for leisure through relaxation, relief from boredom and escapism, binge watchers reported feeling rather unsatisfied after viewing several episodes, with no change in their excitement levels. At the same time, participants who manifested a Binge-watching behavior reported an increase in positive emotions and decrease in negative emotions after the sessions, being Sci-Fi the genre that present the highest positive impact and Comedy the one that reduces the most anxiety. Single Episode viewers end up their experience as happier and slightly more excited than before they started. While results already invite nuanced discussions on the binge phenomenon, further data is needed to clarify the complex reality of the entertainment experience. Our preliminary results point out to several avenues for further studies and unpacking of the experience.

Related work

Scholars have used traditional psychological assessment scales to quantify audience emotions while watching TV or Film content. Some have used PANAS [START_REF] Watson | Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales[END_REF], a scale for measuring the positive and negative dimensions of affective states, to study whether watching emotionally arousing films increases pain thresholds and group bonding [START_REF] Dunbar | Emotional arousal when watching drama increases painthreshold and social bonding[END_REF], the release of hormones by TV soccer spectators [START_REF] Van Der Meij | Testosterone and cortisol release among Spanish soccerfans watching the 2010 World Cup final[END_REF], and to analyze therelationship between serialized TV fiction watching and binge-watching [START_REF] Flayelle | Assessing bingewatching behaviors: Development and validation of the "Watching TV Series Motives" and "Binge-Watching Engagement and Symptoms" questionnaires[END_REF]. Other studies have used SAM [START_REF] Bradley | Measuring emotion: the self-assessment manikin and the semantic differential[END_REF], a pictorial scale that assesses arousal, valence, and dominance, applied to advertising studies [START_REF] Morris | Observations: SAM: The self-assessment manikin: An efficient cross-cultural measurementof emotional response[END_REF] and to analyzing affective reactions to movies [START_REF] Codispoti | Watching emotional movies: Affective reactions and gender differences[END_REF].

Regarding in the wild studies targeting TV or streaming consumption, the methodologies adopted vary, ranging from online questionnaires after viewing sessions [START_REF] Feijter | Confessions of A 'Guilty' Couch Pota-to Understanding and Using Context to Optimize Binge-watching Behavior[END_REF], to gathering data in the wild, from hacking TV boxes [START_REF] Kim | A Data-driven Approach to Explore Television Viewing in the Household Environment[END_REF] or placing cameras in households [START_REF] Rigby | Media Multitasking at Home: A Video Observation Study of Concurrent TV and Mobile Device Usage[END_REF]. However, these approaches face technology and privacy limitations, which are even more challenging when employed to collect audiences' emotional data [START_REF] Wang | Sensing a live audience[END_REF][START_REF] Vermeulen | Heartefacts: Augmenting Mobile Video Sharing Using Wrist-Worn Heart Rate Sensors[END_REF]. Moreover, audiences' emotional changes can be related to physiological reactions [START_REF] Heiselberg | How to evaluate emotional experiences in television drama series: Improving viewer evaluations by psychophysiological measurements and self-reports[END_REF][START_REF] Kreibig | Autonomic nervous system activity in emotion: a review[END_REF][START_REF] Wang | Sensing a live audience[END_REF]. Therefore, self-reported data combined with physiological data can shed new light on moods, hence motivations of binge watchers, innovating in the data collection methods. While enriching existing binge-watching data collection methods, we performed an in the wild study focused on Netflix content consumption, collecting data on users' interface actions, self-reported mood data as well as physiological and inertial data, in a non-intrusive manner.

In the wild study

In this paper, the authors describe a multifaceted exploratory study and analysis of a Netflix's based entertainment experience. Data were collected from 13 users before, during and after online TV exposure. We collected physiological (heart rate) and inertial (wrist movement) data, through a smartwatch; online actions, logged from the Netflix interface, into a custom-made browser extension. Finally, users filled in pre and post viewing questionnaires self-reporting on arousal, valence and positive negative effects.

A browser extension (specific to Chrome) was developed to register participants' interactions on the Netflix interface (e.g. pauses, skip content), and to synchronize these actions with the smartwatch data. The extension was installed on each participant's laptop, which was synchronized with the same clock server as the smartwatch (time.google.com). In addition, the browser extension automatically presented the pre and post viewing online questionnaires to participants. All the data collected (action logs and questionnaires' answers) were automatically stored in a Google Sheet. The questionnaires include questions before and after a watching session regarding participants' motivations and mood. Two scales were used: 1) the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) [START_REF] Bradley | Measuring emotion: the self-assessment manikin and the semantic differential[END_REF], a pictorial scale which assesses participants' arousal and valence (Figure 1), and 2) the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) [START_REF] Watson | Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales[END_REF], a scale that consists of a number of words that describe different feelings and emotions (affects). A custom-made app (Figure 2) was developed for the Android smartwatch (Moto 360) that participants wore during the study. The app allowed the logging of the required data, otherwise limited by commercial devices that use their proprietary software. The app acquires readings from smartwatch sensors, such as heart rate (HR) and inertial data (accelerometer and gyroscope), once per second (1Hz). Initial validation tests showed that at 1Hz the heart rate readings collected through the smartwatch were accurate enough and followed ECG standards. The smartwatch connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone (Moto G4), storing all data in a Dropbox account.

The questionnaires, collecting the user's data, included the classification of content with participants' self-reported values of arousal and valence to understand their physiological variations while watching. Participants were asked to rate the clips after the end of the viewing session. To rate the short clip, participants were asked to recall how they felt when they were watching the content of that short clip. Participants were asked rate the fragments according to the SAM scale (Figure 1). Asking this classification recurrently (e.g., every minute) would be quite demanding for the participants and break participants' watching flow. Thus, we decided to sample eight short (6-seconds) video clips, within equal time intervals, from each episode of a pre-select content. Due to the large number of shows available in Netflix, it was not realistic to perform such sampling for all available content in the streaming platform. Therefore, we decided to sample four of the most popular titles from a preliminary survey on online consumption, covering the TV genres of Comedy, Science Fiction (Sci-Fi), and Drama. The chosen TV series were: Master of None, seasons 1 and 2; Sense8, seasons 1 and 2; 13 Reasons Why, season 1; and Stranger Things, season 1.

Participants and Procedure

We recruited 13 (five female and eight male) participants, all from the Millennial Generation (1981-1997) as natural consumers of online media content, with the average ages M = 26.85 (SD = 4.41). Out of 13 participants, six were students, five workers, and two were both workers and students. Based on online pre-study that allowed us to understand their viewing habits, we characterized all of them as potential binge-watchers. Previous to the beginning of the study, participants were informed and instructed about the study, how to use the different devices and technologies we would be providing them with (i.e., smartwatch and browser extension). After agreeing to participate they signed a consent form and installed the browser extension on their laptops. The participants were informed that during the study, they could watch any content they wish and how they wanted but we invited them to watch the four pre-selected series.

Participants signed up for a free month trial with Netflix. The study took place at participants' homes for ten days (six workdays and two weekends). At the end of the field study, the participants received a 20 euros gift card reward.

Study Results

We collected a total of 97 watching sessions, where for "session" we consider any moment when participants have watched some Netflix content for more than 2 minutes and without a break longer than 15 minutes. Of these 97 sessions, we discarded: 24 sessions because missing part of the questionnaires' answers; 4 sessions with no single episode watched until the end and 3 sessions were participants were not watching a tv series. We defined that an episode was "watched until the end" when a participant watched its content 10 seconds before the beginning of the final credits of that particular episode. The tolerance of 10 seconds before the start of the credits aimed to mitigate different reaction times (stop or move to the next episode) without losing the episode narrative. The remaining 66 session were considered valid and were analyzed, categorizing them into three main

Motivations

Before starting any online entertainment sessions on Netflix, participants were asked about their watching motivations; the question allowed multiple answers. "Relaxation"

and "Boredom relief" emerged as the main motivations, followed by "Escapism" (Table 1).

Mood assessment

Because of the ordinal nature of the data (SAM and PANAS), the Wilcoxon Signed Rank (WSR) was used to test for differences. Regarding SAM (Valence and Arousal), the WSR tests showed significant differences for Valence Before (Mdn = 3) and After (Mdn = 1) Binge-watching; and for Arousal, Before (Mdn = 2) and After (Mdn = 3) watching a single episode (Table 2). Analyzing the SAM data by TV genre (Comedy , Sci-Fi, Drama and Action) WSR tests showed significant Valence decrease for Comedy Binge-watching (N = 10; Mdn Before = 3; Mdn After = 1; Z = -2.877; p < 0.005); Drama (N = 13; Mdn Before = 3; Mdn After = 1; Z = -2.994; p < 0.005); and Sci-Fi (N = 10; Mdn Before = 3.5; Mdn After = 2; Z = -2.539; p < 0.05). For Single Episode sessions, WSR test showed significant increase for Arousal when watching Drama (N = 5; Mdn Before = 2; Mdn After = 4; Z = -2.060; p < 0.05), compared to Comedy and Sci-fi, which did not show any significant differences. No significant differences in Valence or Arousal were observed for Multiple Episode sessions by genre (Comedy, Sci-fi, and Action). Regarding the analysis of the PANAS data (Table 3), WSR tests showed significant differences for Positive (PA) and Negative Affects (NA) for the Binge-watching behavior sessions. The PA increases, while the NA decreases. No significant differences were observed for Single Episode and Multiple Episodes sessions. Analyzing PANAS by genre for Binge-watching sessions, WSR testing showed significant increase for PA in Sci-Fi (N = 10; Mdn Before = 18; Mdn After = 24; Z = -2.807; p = 0.005); and a significant decrease for NA in Comedy (N = 10; Mdn Before = 13; Mdn After = 11; Z = -2.506; p < 0.05). Moreover, within the PANAS scale, the variable "guilty" is particularly relevant in the context of Binge-watching, due its relevance in addiction and addictive behaviors [START_REF] Perks | Media marathoning: Immersions in morality[END_REF]. The level of guiltiness, presented on PANAS, did not change Before (Mdn = 1) and After (Mdn = 1) Binge-watching.

Interface Actions

We also compared the different interface actions such as the number of pauses per hour, setting a new position in the timeline (skipping content or getting back to re watch it) per hour, pressing the full-screen button per item watched and skipping the intro per item watched (Table 4). Because data were not normality distributed, as assessed by the Shapiro-Wilk test, we used the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test to compare the different actions. The only significant difference found was skyping the intro per item, where Binge-watching shows a higher tendency regarding this action, as shown in Table 4.

Physiological data

From the 40 Binge-watching sessions, 12 were valid for physiological and inertial data analysis, i.e., no gaps in the smartwatch data and with all episodes watched until the end. Following the same validation, 8 Single Episode sessions were considered for physiological and inertial data analysis. Multiple Episodes sessions were excluded from this analysis due to the lack of usable data. Figure 3 shows an example of a chart displaying synchronized data for a Single Episode session (Fig. 3 a)) and a Binge Watch session (Fig. 3 b)):

-Diff hr avg: the difference between the raw value and the average of heart rate beats for that particular session, i.e., heart rate values BMP but close to vertical axis = 0.

-The light blue line is the linear trend line for heart rate variations.

-Gyro_movement: Binary value (0 or 1) for wrist rotations.

-Acc_movement: the sum of the absolute differences between the current accelerometer values and previous values (1 sec of difference) of the 3 axes. Show arm movement: low values correspond to small variations, high values (higher than 5) correspond to big variations.

-Valence and Arousal (SAM) values associated with video clips. We did not find any clear pattern for physiological and inertial data comparing Bingewatching with Single Episode sessions through time, comparing the same episodes watched in both types of sessions (5 comparisons), and comparing the same episode watched at the beginning and the end of Binge-watching sessions (4 comparisons).

Discussion

From the analysis of the data we can infer that while majority of the participants (60,6%) adopted a Binge-watching behavior, many (43,3%) did not, consuming single and multiple series' episodes during their online entertainment sessions. Nevertheless, the motivations for the three different types of behaviors appear to be underlined by the same quest for leisure: "Relaxation"; "Boredom Relief" and "Escapism". However, "Relaxation" closely followed by "Boredom relief", emerge as the main motivation for the Binge-watching behavior and watching Multiple Episodes behaviors (i.e., longer sessions). For the Single Episode behavior the three leisure seeking related motives are quite balanced as top choices. Therefore, this would suggest that participants who look for "Relaxation" tend to spend more time watching online content. "Learning" as a motivation scores low across three types of behaviors, reinforcing the leisure seeking attitude of all viewing behaviors. When looking at moods of the viewers across the SAM results, we can observe a striking decrease in Valence after the end of the Bingewatching sessions, suggesting that participants ended the experience in an unpleasant mood, less satisfied or unhappier than when they started it (Fig. 4). This decrease in Valence, before and after the viewing session, is less striking in the Single Episode watching behavior, and is not noticeable in the Multiple Episodes behavior. Interesting to note is that all participants reported quite low Arousal values before even starting to watch any online TV entertainment. Participants that engaged in Single Episode watching behavior got more excited after a single episode session, while no change for arousal was observed after Binge-watching or watching Multiple Episodes. These results further support the idea that Binge-watching participants' mood worsened after the session, while their arousal levels remained the same. On the other hand, the Single Episode watchers' mood also deteriorated slightly during the session, but their arousal increased. Multiple Episode watchers did not report any changes in mood or excitement. The fact that Arousal has only increased in Single Episode sessions and not in Binge-watching and Multiple Episodes might be explained by the circumstance that "Relaxation" was the top motivation for these long watching sessions behaviors, as previously mentioned. The curiosity induced by serial entrainment watching, to know how the story will develop in next episodes as well as the short time seated in front of a screen, might be considered as a reason for the increase in Arousal in Single Episode watchers. The analysis of the results by TV genres highlighted that Drama is the only genre that presented significant increase in Arousal.

Analyzing the PANAS data, Binge-watching, Single Episode and Multiple Episode sessions show similar values. In the case of the Binge-watching behavior, there was significant increase of PA and a significant decrease of NA after the session. Nonetheless, these values are still overall quite low, not enough to denote a change in participants' mood (PA is far from normal values, which is rated at 25 or higher, and close the threshold of 18, which is an abnormally low value and might be associated with depression [START_REF] Crawford | The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): Construct validity, measurement properties and normative data in a large non-clinical sample[END_REF]). Such results are in line with the decrease in Valence after Binge-watching, as previously discussed. Looking at the data through the TV genre lens, the increase in PA values is mainly related with Sci-Fi content, while the NA decrease is related to the Comedy genres. Interesting also to note the Sci-Fi content almost set PA values near to normal (25 or higher [START_REF] Crawford | The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): Construct validity, measurement properties and normative data in a large non-clinical sample[END_REF]), and since PA might reflect better participants' mood [START_REF] Crawford | The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): Construct validity, measurement properties and normative data in a large non-clinical sample[END_REF], such results indicate that Binge-watching Sci-Fi content have a higher positive impact on participants' mood than Comedy.

The NA values are also low across the three types of behavior (far from the anxiety threshold of 29 [START_REF] Crawford | The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): Construct validity, measurement properties and normative data in a large non-clinical sample[END_REF]), which might be related with the second main motivation for watching online content, "Boredom relief". The significant decrease of NA in Binge-watching is related to watching Comedy genre, and it might indicates reducing participants' anxiety.

Regarding the levels of guilt reported through the PANAS, it is constant before and after Binge-watching. These results confirm Percks studies which associate Bingewatching with addiction and addictive behaviors [START_REF] Perks | Media marathoning: Immersions in morality[END_REF]. Regarding data emerging from the users' interface actions, we observe a tendency to skip intros more often while Binge-watching, when compare with the watching of single or multiple episodes. This can be an expected in order not to repeat the same titles or introductory content several times during a Binge-watching session.

No clear pattern was found for physiological and inertial data. Such a lack could derive from the challenges emerging from collecting physiological data in in the wild, with no or little control of the experiment. Also, the choice of using minimally intrusive sensors (smart watch) also substantially limited the amount and quality of the physiological data that could be gathered since these devices do not provide access to raw ECG data.

To conclude we would like to acknowledge several limitations of our study. A higher sample of sessions and more constrains on the physiological data collection are needed to be able to extract patterns from the data. Therefore, part of the experiment needs some controlled environment to achieve comparable data, e.g., all participants must watch the same series. It may reduce the poll of possible participants but will provide more meaningful data.

Conclusions

In summary, in this paper the authors present an exploratory field study, collecting physiological, inertial, and self-reported data from 13 young participants while watching online entertainment content. The authors developed a smartwatch app, collecting physiological and inertial data, and a chrome extension, logging participants' interface actions and opening questionnaires automatically. The study highlighted and compared three kinds of distinct behaviors on our participants: 1) Binge-watching (according to our definition reported in the first section of this article), 2) Single Episode watching and 3) Multiple Episode (from different series) watching. Results from the analysis of the data suggest that while most viewers engage in online TV entertainment mainly looking for leisure, the Binge-watching behavior affect viewers mood, resulting in lower levels of Valence and no change in Arousal at the end of the session. Nevertheless, Binge-watchers report an average increase in Positive Affect and decrease in Negative Affect at the end of the sessions, being Sci-Fi the genre with the highest positive impact and Comedy the one that reduces anxiety. On the other hand, Single Episode consumption can make viewers feel more excited after the session. More studies would be needed to deepen the reasoning behind these intriguing initial findings.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Self-Assessment Manakin (SAM): Top -Valence; and Bottom -Arousal.

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. Smartwatch App (left) and Phone App (right)

  clusters: A) Binge-watching sessions (60.61%); B) Single Episode sessions (19.70%); and C) Multiple Episodes sessions (19.70%). These categories identify three different types of viewers' behavior, defined as: • A) Binge-watching Behavior: watching at least 2 episodes of the same TV series watched until the end (40 Sessions; M = 02:10:40; SD = 01:09:33; Average of episodes M = 3.43; SD = 1.69) • B) Single Episode Behavior: watching just 1 episode of any TV series, watched until the end and any other episodes watched for less than 2 minutes (13 Sessions; M = 00:54:59; SD = 00:25:23) • C) Multiple Episodes Behavior: watching multiple episodes, but from different TV series. This mode entailed that 1 episode at least was watched until the end and other episodes (not of the same series) watched for more than 2 minutes or until the end (13 Sessions; M = 01:28:10; SD = 00:44:34; Average of episodes M = 3.00; SD = 1.29)

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Example of data synchronization through a watching session (time): a) Single Episode Session; and b) Binge-watching Session. Blue -Heart Rate Beats; Dark Red -Gyroscope; Yellow -Accelerometer; Red -Valence; Green -Arousal;

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. Circumplex Model: Arousal vs Valence [17]: a) Before Watching Single Episode and Binge-watching; b) After Watching Single Episode; and c) After Binge-watching

Table 1 .

 1 Online Entertainment Watching Motivation

	Motivation	Binge-watching Behavior (N=40)	Single Episode Behavior (N=13)	Multiple Episode Behavior (N=13)
	Relaxation	23	7	10
	Boredom relief	18	7	6
	Escape	15	6	3
	Learning	3	2	-
	Hedonism	1	-	-
	Companionship	1	-	-
	Social Interaction -	1	-
	None of These	-	1	-

Table 2 .

 2 SAM: Median Values Before and After, for all three categories of behaviors.

	SAM	Binge-watching	Single Episode	Multiple Episodes
		Behavior	Behavior	Behavior
		(N=40)	(N=13)	(N=13)
	Valence Before	3**	3	3
	Valence After	1**	2	3
	Arousal Before	2	2*	3
	Arousal After	2	3*	3
	*p < .05 (Z = -2.232); **p <.0000001 (Z = -5.387)

Table 3 .

 3 PANAS: Median Values for Positive and Negative Affects

	PANAS (10-50) Binge-watching	Single Episode	Multiple Episodes
		Behavior (N=40)	Behavior (N=13)	Behavior (N=13)
	Positive Before 18*	22	18
	Positive After	20.5*	20	16
	Negative Before 12*	13	12
	Negative After	11.5*	12	14
	*p < 0.05 (PA Z = -2.028; NA Z = -2.573)

Table 4 .

 4 Interface Actions

			Binge-watching	Single Episode	Multiple Episodes
			(N = 40)		(N = 13)		(N = 13)
	Action		M (SD)	Mdn	M (SD)	Mdn	M (SD)	Mdn
	Pause /hour	0.65	0.10	1.48	1.51	0.69	0.00
			(0.97)		(1.30)		(1.08)
	New position	1.74	0.00	0.08	0.00	1.00	0.00
	in the timeline	(6.66)		(0.30)		(3.14)
	/hour
	Full	screen	0.82	0.50	1.85	1.00	1.31	1.00
	/item		(0.90)		(2.12)		(1.84)
	Skip	intro	0.16	0.00	0.08	0.00	0.54	0.00
	/item		(0.30)*		(0.28)*		(0.88)

* p < .05 (Z=-2.132)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was funded by FCT/MCTES LARSyS (UID/EEA/50009/2013 (2015-2017)); by LARSyS (UIDB/50009/2020) and by CEECINST/00122/2018 (IST-ID/300/2019).


Kayo C Santana
email: kayosantana94@gmail.com

] 796x

Abel R Galvão

Gabriel S Azevedo
email: gabrielsilvadeazevedo@gmail.com

Victor T Sarinho

Claudia P Pereira
email: claudiap@uefs.br

Braillestick: A Game Control Proposal for Blind Users Based on the Braille Typewriter

Keywords: Game Joystick, Braille Device, Assistive Technology

Nowadays, modern technology is increasingly present in society. However, for the visually impaired people, this technological advance is not so inclusive, especially in the learning processes. This article discusses the development of Braillestick, a joystick similar to the braille machine but with a low cost and greater portability for different platforms. This joystick aims to be a pathway for the development and use of serious games for audiences with visual problems.

Introduction

By the growth of technology in the 21st century, the use of the internet in routine activities has become practically indispensable [START_REF] Hoffman | Has the internet become indispensable?[END_REF]. As a result, common activities like scheduling an event on the smartphone, until something more complex like developing natural language bots, has become simpler and possible for people in general. However, when considering people with visual impairments, although some research has focused on the development of learning environments for them [START_REF] Bhowmick | An insight into assistive technology for the visually impaired and blind people: state-of-the-art and future trends[END_REF][START_REF] Ferreira | Mathematics for all: A game-based learning environment for visually impaired students[END_REF][START_REF] Jaramillo-Alcázar | Mobile serious games: An accessibility assessment for people with visual impairments[END_REF], they do not have in most cases a viable access to current Information Technology (IT) solutions.

Regarding the development of learning environments for visually impaired, the use of digital games can help in amused ways, with different applications in education, culture, training and practicing [START_REF] Jaramillo-Alcázar | Mobile serious games: An accessibility assessment for people with visual impairments[END_REF][START_REF] Leporini | Games for the rehabilitation of disabled people[END_REF][START_REF] Santana | Blinds, basic education: jogo digital inclusivo para auxiliar o processo de ensino-aprendizagem das pessoas com deficiência visual[END_REF]. However, due to the constant IT evolution, the teaching and learning process through games needs to be constantly updated to find accessible ways for all audiences. As a result, it is necessary to develop alternative and inclusive technologies for people with visual impairments that do not deprive the game experience of the final user.

Supported by organization CAPES.

Looking for an accessible and portable alternative for people with visual impairments to play serious games related to the Braille writing system, this paper presents the Braillestick proposal. It is an adapted game joystick that works like a Braille Typewriter (BT) and allows people to learn and practice the Braille writing while playing.

Related Work

The Braille System is a valuable tool for people with congenital or acquired blindness, as long as it allows them to read and write. Braille was created by Loius Braille, in 1825, and today is still the most precious instrument of writing and reading for visually impaired people, allowing direct contact with words [START_REF] Machado | A importância do (re) conhecimento do sistema braille para a humanização das políticas públicas de inclusão[END_REF][START_REF] Roth | The invention of braille[END_REF].

Over the years, some researches have been responsible for spreading the Braille writing process across different devices, such as smartphones, computers and tablets. As an example, Hamzah and Fadzil [START_REF] Hamzah | Voice4blind: The talking braille keyboard to assist the visual impaired users in text messaging[END_REF] proposed the Voice4Blind application, which allows users to type using a keyboard adapted for Braille when connected to mobile devices. Per Lee and others [START_REF] Lee | Designing a universal keyboard using chording gloves[END_REF] and Yang and others [START_REF] Yang | Tactile braille learning system to assist visual impaired users to learn taiwanese braille[END_REF] proposals, devices that work like a glove were developed, allowing the writing of characters by the movement of the hands, where position and movement of the fingers are similar to the form used on the BT. Similarly, Chakraborty and others [START_REF] Chakraborty | Flight: A low-cost reading and writing system for economically less-privileged visually-impaired people exploiting ink-based braille system[END_REF] proposed the FLight, a system of reading and writing that uses a low-cost wearable glove device that reads Braille printed texts and a special ruler containing blocks for easy writing.

To help visually impaired children, Gadiraju [START_REF] Gadiraju | Brailleblocks: Braille toys for cross-ability collaboration[END_REF] proposed the BrailleBlocks learning system. It consists of a set of wooden blocks and pins representing a Braille cell that can be used by children, together with an interface computer with games for their parents. Google also launched a Braille keyboard for Talk-Back [START_REF] Silva | Google lança teclado braile gratuito integrado ao android[END_REF], a screen reader application for blind Android users. This proposal seeks to work similarly to the standard systems of this format, with 6 buttons distributed on the sides of the Android device [START_REF] Silva | Google lança teclado braile gratuito integrado ao android[END_REF].

Similar to those proposals, Braillestick offers an input mechanism that can be used in different applications, and also as a game control for serious games related to the Braille writing system. Unlike such proposals, Braillestick is a hardware solution that works like the BT, using its written mode to convert the Braille writing system to an equivalent in the latin alphabet.

Methodology

The Design Thinking methodology was applied in the development of the game device. It was chosen because of its potential to not only look into the product's development, in this case the Braillestick, but also in the target public needs and feedback.

The Design Thinking can be carried out according to 5 main steps [START_REF]An introduction to design thinking: Process guide[END_REF]: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. In Empathize, the team needs to recognize the target audience of the product in order to create a meaningful innovation for them. After that, in the Define step, users' problems must be thoroughly reviewed to be overcome, leading to different ideas that will be explored in the Ideate step. Finally, the Prototype step is reserved to the design of artifacts that will help to get closer to the final solution, being redesigned according users experiences and opinions observed in the Test. Fig. 1 illustrates the Design Thinking steps applied in the Braillestick's development process. As a result, it is possible to visualize at the Ideate step two modeling proposals for the Braillestick prototype (Fig. 2). The suggested fingering position can also be seen in Fig. 2 These two proposals offer two main differences for users. While the prototype idea on the left side is a proposal to use holding with the hands (similar to a smartphone-joystick), which allows its use in different places, the second one on the right side is a proposal that needs to be over a surface, being more similar to the BT.

Obtained Results

For the development of an initial prototype, the Arduino UNO R3 was chosen, which is an open source hardware platform that is ideal for the creation of devices that allow interaction with the environment using buttons and sensors as input [START_REF] Souza | A placa arduino: uma opção de baixo custo para experiências de física assistidas pelo pc[END_REF]. Arduino has a bootloader implemented on the board and an interface with the computer that uses the Processing language, based on the C/C++ language [START_REF]Arduino reference[END_REF]. Among the attributes of the platform, it is possible to highlight the ease of use and the cost-benefit, since it is affordable.

For the input of Braillestick, the BT was initially observed. It has 6 buttons responsible for writing the characters in Braille. Each pressed button creates a relief in a different place in the Braille cell, representing different characters according to the pressed buttons simultaneously. Fig. 3 shows how the Braillestick works. At 1 st moment, the user presses simultaneously buttons from 1 to 6, according to the Braille character he wants to write. After that, at the 2 nd moment, the Arduino checks the states of the buttons and sends to a device (e.g. computer), through serial port (USB), a code to identify which buttons were pressed. Finally, at the 3 rd moment, the device receives that code and processes it through a driver, developed in Python programming language, for reading the Arduino output and to match the received code with the corresponding letter of the Latin alphabet. For each obtained letter, the Braillearning [START_REF] Santana | Braillearning: Software para simular a máquina de escrever em braille[END_REF] software illustrates the displayed text and the respective braille representation. Moreover, in an entertainment perspective, the The Braille Typist game shows the obtained braille training and learning by matching letters according the game logic.

At this point, Braillestick's prototype (Fig. 3) is already working, according tests performed with the development team in the Braillearning software, that investigates not only the process of writing but also the shape and dimensions of the case, providing an ideal finger position.

Until now, the tests were developed by using Braillestick as a input device in Braillearning Software, this way, we were able to test if all possible combination was working fine, according the Braille Alphabet. Besides that, it was also tested Graphic accentuation and other symbols used to perform numbers and capital letters.

Conclusions and Future Work

Braillestick's development and research refers not only to the production of a game joystick but also to the development of a low-cost assistive technology to help the social and digital inclusion of visually impaired people.

While a Braille Typewriter machine costs around $800.00, Braillestick's production costs were around $60.00 (arduino, 3d print, and other components), representing a price reduction of 75%. Besides that, Braillestick is also lightweight and easy to transport, attending 3 of the main problems related by users about the Braille Typewriter.

Until then Braillestick's case and its logical part are already developed and working fine. The next steps of the research target the test by visually impaired people, with its use on the Braillearning learning object that is already developed and is working, and with the blind game The Braille Typist, that is currently under development.

As future works, we will also explore the input and precision rates of visually impaired users in typing games using Braillestick and other devices (regular joystick and keyboard, both mapped to work similar as a braille typewriter) to see the benefits of the proposed console when compared with other devices. Furthermore, the development of new games is also expected to disseminate the joystick use and even the Braille learning and application.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Braillestick design process methodology. Adapted from [15].

  Fig.1illustrates the Design Thinking steps applied in the Braillestick's development process. As a result, it is possible to visualize at the Ideate step two modeling proposals for the Braillestick prototype (Fig.2). The suggested fingering position can also be seen in Fig.2by the codes (LT, LI, LM, LR, RT, RI, RM, RR, and RP), where the first letter represents the Left or Right hand, and the second the finger name (Thumb, Index, Middle, Ring, and Pinky).

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. Braillestick modeling proposals.

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Braillestick's use scheme.


Nikola Stankic

Bernhard Potuzak

Helmut Hlavacs
email: helmut.hlavacs@univie.ac.at

A Procedurally Generated World for a Zombie Survival Game

Keywords: Procedural level generation, Zombie, Shooter

We present a method for procedurally creating game worlds, in our case levels for playing zombie survival games. The aim is to randomly create new levels that present new challenges to players, are fun, and "work" as game levels, i.e. look like levels that have been hand crafted. We create the topology, paths to follow, random houeses, and hordes of zombies to fight against. Players have to reach an end of the level, fight against zombies, and reach the final objective. The paper describes our approach, and presents an overall evaluation of players of the game.

Introduction

Procedural Content Generation (PCG) in video games has been around for a long time, dating back to the 1980s [START_REF] Barreto | Computational Creativity in Procedural Content Generation: A State of the Art Survey[END_REF]. A partial reason behind this were hardware restrictions, e.g. limited disc space, so some games turned to PCG in order to overcome these restrictions. A good example for this was a game called .kkrieger, which is only 96 KB in size [START_REF] Freiknecht | A Survey on the Procedural Generation of Virtual Worlds[END_REF]. Among the first games to have used procedural content generation are (i) Rogue (1980) [START_REF] Tanner | Rogue -Video Game[END_REF], which is said to have started the trend of using PCG in video games also for the purpose of replayability [START_REF] Khaled | Design Metaphors for Procedural Content Generation in Games[END_REF], and (ii) Elite (1984) which was able to generate hundreds of unique star systems without having to explicitly store the data [START_REF] Togelius | Procedural Content Generation: Goals, Challenges and Actionable Steps[END_REF][START_REF] Barreto | Computational Creativity in Procedural Content Generation: A State of the Art Survey[END_REF]. Nowadays disc space and game size are not a problem anymore, but ther resources like budget, time and team size are. For example, the popular video game World of Warcraft was made over the course of five years, with an estimated budget between 20.000.000$ and 150.000.000$ [START_REF] Hendrikx | Procedural Content Generation for Games: A Survey[END_REF]. All of this could be greatly reduced by generating at least some of the content, if not all, procedurally. But even when the aforementioned resources are not a problem, a lot of games today use procedural content generation, or at least some elements of it, in order to achieve a certain level of replayability [START_REF] Smith | PCG-based Game Design: Enabling New Play Experiences Through Procedural Content Generation[END_REF].

Exactly that was the goal of this research: to produce a playable first-person shooter game utilizing procedural content generation, based on pseudo-random number generators, in order to create a small survival world from scratch and achieve at least some level of replayability. Pseudo-random Number Generators (PRNG) are one of the simplest and most common techniques used in procedural content generation [START_REF] Hendrikx | Procedural Content Generation for Games: A Survey[END_REF], with other common techniques being grammars, L-Systems, Fractals and Graphs [START_REF] Barreto | Computational Creativity in Procedural Content Generation: A State of the Art Survey[END_REF][START_REF] Carli | A Survey of Procedural Content Generation Techniques Suitable to Game Development[END_REF]. The game was made in Unity 3D, using assets from the Unity Asset Store. This paper describes our approach, as well as an evaluation of the result with several experimental participants.

Related Work

Almost all types of content for a video game can be procedurally generated. Starting with terrains and continents, rivers and roads [START_REF] Carli | A Survey of Procedural Content Generation Techniques Suitable to Game Development[END_REF], from buildings, characters and vegetation to whole virtual cities [START_REF] Gaisbauer | Procedural Attack! Procedural Generation for Populated Virtual Cities: A Survey[END_REF][START_REF] Hendrikx | Procedural Content Generation for Games: A Survey[END_REF][START_REF] Carli | A Survey of Procedural Content Generation Techniques Suitable to Game Development[END_REF], worlds and even universes. Endless variety of non-playable characters and planets could be created, like in the game Spore [START_REF][END_REF], or billions of unique weapons like in Borderlands [9].

Nowadays, of course, there is a large amount of games that use procedural content generation in one way or another, but in this section, some of the more popular survival-based game titles will be mentioned. Popular choices for this are Minecraft [START_REF] Mojang | Minecraft[END_REF] and No Man's Sky [START_REF]No Man's Sky[END_REF]. Minecraft uses procedural content generation to create an endless survival world with different thematic areas called biomes, and No Man's Sky procedurally generates a large amount of planets, and populates them with also procedurally created creatures and vegetation. Both of these games, however, have endless worlds and also a huge focus on exploration, where we wanted our game to have a smaller map instead, where the player can complete the objectives in short time.

Another conceptually similar game to ours is Left 4 Dead, which is a zombie survival first-person shooter game. The game uses something called the AI Director, which utilizes procedural content generation to place zombies and consumable objects and weapons around the map based on player performance [START_REF] Fort | Controlling Randomness: Using Procedural Generation to Influence Player Uncertainty in Video Games[END_REF]. It is also able to procedurally change the layout of the level by blocking paths, forcing the players to take a different routes in order to increase replayability [START_REF] Champandard | Procedural Level Geometry from Left 4 Dead 2: Spying on the AI Director 2[END_REF][START_REF] Fort | Controlling Randomness: Using Procedural Generation to Influence Player Uncertainty in Video Games[END_REF]. This approach offers great elements of surprise, however, it still requires a hand-made, predefined map, where our project is supposed to generate the whole level randomly.

The most conceptually similar tool is an engine called British Countryside Generator, used by a survival game called "Sir, you are being hunted" [START_REF] Manaugh | British Countryside Generator[END_REF]. The engine uses the Voronoi diagram space partitioning method to create villages, then places buildings next to a previously generated road [START_REF] Betts | Procedurally generated content in Sir, You Are Being Hunted[END_REF]. The goal of the engine is to create an open world level which resembles the British countryside. We wanted to implement a more random approach in our project, with more randomly-placed buildings and paths.

In our case, the goal was to make a first-person shooter survival game in Unity 3D. The game was supposed to have a completely procedurally created map from scratch, using pseudo-random number generators (PRNG).

The player controls and moves a first-person character. They have two weapons to choose from: a faster-shooting, but weaker pistol, and a stronger, but slower shotgun, which has a smaller magazine and takes longer to reload. By going into buildings, the player is able to find consumables, like med-kits to heal if they have been hurt, or ammo boxes to reload their weapons. The objectives of the game would be the following: the players have to find the book necronomicon and pick it up; then they have to destroy four pillars which are scattered around the map; and finally, after completing the previous objectives, a portal opens, with which the player has to react in order to destroy the necronomicon. The player wins and the game is over after completing this final step.

Implementation

The first steps are creating a new Terrain Game Object, adding it to the game scene, and attaching a new script to it, which was named "World Generator". The default Terrain Game Object was used for this. All the other Terrain settings were left to default, as anything that had to be changed would be done on runtime with the script. Initially, a hexagonal grid to the terrain object was also included, in order to use the grid's cells as points for path and area generation, but it was later decided against it in order to include more placement options.

Path Generation

The algorithm for generating the path is fairly simple. All it needs are two points, a start point and an end point, with the start point being randomly chosen on one side of the map using a PRNG, and the end point then being calculated from the start point, so that it is on the opposite side of the map. The algorithm then starts from the start point, calculates the normalized direction towards the end point, and generates a new path point a fixed distance in this direction, with a possible offset of 60 degrees, 30 degrees in both positive and negative directions, which is also chosen by a PRNG. This is an iterative process, and ends when the algorithm reaches a very close proximity to the end point. All these path points are represented as spheres and are saved in a global container.

Figure 1 shows one of the possible outcomes of the path generation algorithm. As said before, at first, a hexagonal grid was used for this, with each grid cell representing one path point, but the algorithm was changed later in order to achieve a more "random" path pattern. Now that a path is ready, the algorithm can move on to other steps, starting with generating different areas around the path.

Area Generation

This part of the algorithm places different areas around the path built in the previous step. Each area is indicated by a sphere, and is defined by a type, like "Abandoned village" or "Trees" for example, which tells the algorithm what kind of objects are supposed to be found in that certain area, and a size, which indicates the radius of the area. An adaptation of a similar existing space filling algorithm [START_REF] Bourke | A Space Filling Algorithm for Generating Procedural Geometry and Texture[END_REF] was used. Said algorithm is used to procedurally create twodimensional geometry and textures by randomly placing shapes of decreasing size onto a two-dimensional plane. Our algorithm iteratively tries to place areas of decreasing radius onto random points, once again chosen by a PRNG. The key constraint here is that the areas are not overlapping with each other, as well as with any of the path points. The areas are placed in a decreasing size order, in order to make sure that smaller areas do not use up all the space and make it impossible for larger areas to be placed. The iterative process for placing areas is repeated until either a maximum number of iterations, or a maximum number of placed areas of current size, has been reached, both of which parameters are predefined, with the former being a fail-safe against an endless loop. After each area has been placed, its center is connected to a nearest existing path point, using the same algorithm previously described. After all areas have been placed, the remaining space, not already occupied by an area, is filled with trees. Two possible outcomes of area generation can be seen in Figure 3, with the areas and path points denoted as spheres. Just like with path generation, a hexagonal grid was used here as well, but was replaced later for the same reasons. Now that the areas are ready, the algorithm can start populating them with buildings and objects.

Object Generation

Object generation is done in a very similar fashion to area generation. For each area generated in the previous step, objects are generated within it using the same random space filling algorithm. Objects, just like areas, are defined by a type, like "building", "tree" or a "prop", and a size. The type of the object generated depends on the type of the area which the object is associated with. Buildings are placed first, and "trees" and "props" can fill the remaining space. There are currently three thematically different building types that can be generated. The maximum number of objects generated in each area depends on the size of that area. If the type of the area is a "village", and the area is large enough to have two or more buildings in it, then each of the buildings generated is also connected to the nearest path point. In this step, however, only the information, about what kind of an object is to be spawned and where, is saved. The actual objects are not yet instantiated because there is no information about terrain heights yet.

Terrain Alphamaps and Heightmaps

After all the path points have been generated, the algorithm is now ready to generate alphamaps for the terrain. The terrain uses two textures -a "dirt" texture for the path and a "grass" texture for -well, everything else. Alphamaps in Unity are a three-dimensional float array, with the first two dimensions representing the x and y positions on the terrain, and the third dimension being splatmap texture to be applied (which, in our case, are the two "dirt" and "grass" textures).

Here, the alphamaps are generated by going through all the terrain points, and, if a certain terrain point intersects with a path point-sphere, the texture for that terrain point is set to "dirt", otherwise it is set to "grass". A randomly generated offset is used here as well, when calculating the intersection, in order to achieve a more realistic dirt-grass pattern (Figure 2).

After that, the heights for each terrain point are set using perlin noise, which is one of the common pseudo-random number generator techniques. Heightmaps in Unity are a two-dimensional float array, each dimension representing the x and y positions on the terrain respectively, and having a float value between 0 and 1, which denotes the terrain height at that point.

Object Instantiation

Now that the information about the height of each terrain point is available, objects are ready to be instantiated. As mentioned before, there are currently three different types of objects: building, tree and prop. Trees and props are placed in a same way: a random game object of that type is selected and instantiated at a position defined in step three, its height (the y-position) is set to the corresponding terrain height, and it is also rotated by a random amount around the y-axis. The same goes for buildings, they are, however, not rotated by a random amount, but are rather rotated so that they are facing the area center.

As mentioned before, we were limited by the building assets we could find in the Unity Asset Store, so at first we only had two different types of buildings. We realized that it would be too monotonous seeing the same buildings over and over again, so we decided to use some modular assets and combine them with our own script in order to procedurally generate different buildings as well. For this, a similar approach to something described as 'Building Blocks framework' in [START_REF] Smith | Understanding Procedural Content Generation: A Designcentric Analysis of the Role of PCG in Games[END_REF] was used. The script would use a previously man-made layouts (a template) for the floor, walls, ceiling and roof, and instantiate random corresponding components at the appropriate positions. The inside walls can be instantiated as well, which are chosen at random, with the number of placed walls also being random, up to a predefined maximum, potentially separating the inside of the building in two different rooms in the process. There are two versions of this script, one generating a warehouse-like buildings from six different layouts, and is also able to change the textures of inside walls, floors and the ceiling. The other version is not as advanced, as it generates a "ruined house" with only one layout and texture. and5 show some of the possible outcomes of the building generator both for warehouse buildings and ruins. Each building is also able to contain other objects inside of it, like med-kits, zombies, or ammo boxes, and those things are randomly instantiated in this step as well. The positions of potential items in buildings are also predefined with the same template-like system. After placing each building, the algorithm uses a Random Number Generator to determine ifand which object it is going to place at each position.

Finalization

At this point, the map can look like something in Figures 6 and7. Now that the terrain is done and all the objects are finally placed, it is time to finalize the map and make the game playable. First, some grass details are added to the terrain. The engine uses a details map for grass, which is a similar mechanism to the alpha map. The algorithm basically ignores the path on the terrain, and paints the grass and potentially also flowers details everywhere else. It does this by going through all the terrain points and checking if the terrain texture there is set to "dirt" or "grass", which is how it distinguishes if it is a path or not. The final step includes placing the player at the beginning of the main path, placing the zombies around random path points, and placing the objectives. The pillars are placed along the path in order to be more visible and easier to find.

The necronomicon is placed in one of the houses in order to encourage the player to explore the buildings. Since everything is in place, the game is then ready and playable, see Figures 8 to 9.

Evaluation and Discussion

A total of 14 users were asked to play our game a few (at least 3 to 4) times and then fill out a questionnaire. Before starting the game, it was briefly explained to them what the game was about, how it works, what they had to do, and finally what the controls for the character are. We did not need any additional information about the users, so the questionnaire was anonymous. The questionnaire is composed of a total of twelve questions, which are split into two categories: the 'Gameplay' and the 'World', with each having six questions. The questions were formed as declarative statements, like for example "I enjoyed the game", and the answers were in a form of a classical Likert rating scale, allowing the users to rate the statements from 1 to 5, with 1 being "strongly disagree" and 5 being "strongly agree". This also gave us an opportunity to calculate the average rating of all the answers for an overall average rating of the user experience.

The Gameplay category of the questionnaire focused on the player's ability to understand the game mechanics and the UI, as well as their overall enjoyment. This part included the following questions: "I clearly understood what the objectives were", "I had no trouble controlling my character", "The User Interface was easy to understand", "I used the following game features: both weapons, flashlight, map, med-kits, ammo boxes", "I had not trouble completing the game", and "I enjoyed playing the game".

The World category of the questionnaire focused on the procedurally generated world and buildings component of the game, player's ability to navigate through the level and overall replayability of the game. It included the following questions: "I found it easy to navigate through the level", "The level was different/refreshing each time I played", "The buildings I encountered were different/refreshing each time I played", "I tried to explore the map and go into buildings", "I did not have any trouble finding med-kits or ammo", "I would describe the game as 'replayable' ".

Players were also given an option to leave their own comment at the end of the questionnaire.

Results and Discussion

After all the player sessions were done, we summarized the results of our questionnaire. Figure 10 shows the pie charts of the results for the Gameplay category of the questionnaire, and Figure 11 shows the pie charts of the results for the World category of the questionnaire. An average rating for all the answers was 4.21 out of 5. The results of both parts of the questionnaire will be discussed separately, starting with gameplay. All of the users agreed with "I clearly understood what the objectives were", where 10 out of 14 users gave it a rating of 5, and the rest 4 gave it a rating of 4. These are very good results, as they tell us that the instructions of the objectives were clear and the users knew from the start what they were supposed to do. Also none of the users disagreed with having trouble controlling the character. This is probably because we used the standard input commands for most first-person games (move the character with W/A/S/D keys and use the mouse to turn around and shoot) and most of the users were familiar with that. It could also be because the users did not have to use a lot of additional keys, besides the ones for turning on the flashlight, switching the weapons, interacting with objects, toggling the map and sprinting. Most users, with the exception of one, also agreed that the User Interface was easy to understand. This was an expected result, as the UI was not too crowded and only displayed things like objectives, current/max ammo and health, and additionally the map when the player decides to toggle it on. We got some mixed results from users when asked if they used all of the listed features. This was the case because some users did not bother to explore the buildings that much, so they were unable to find any med-kits or ammo boxes. Some users even decided not to interact with the zombies at all, so they did not need any health or ammo pickups, nor did they use both weapons. Almost all users agreed on being able to complete the game, with the exception of one which gave this question a neutral rating. 11 out of 14 users also agreed when asked whether they enjoyed playing the game, where 2 users replied with "neutral" (rating of 3) and one person disagreed (rating of 2), giving this question an average rating of 4.07. Overall the gameplay part received good results, indicating that our goal for the game to be enjoyable was reached.

The questions from the world category of our questionnaire received some mixed results. When asked if they found it easy to navigate through the level, almost all users agreed that it was, while 2 answers were neutral. This indicates that the players were probably almost always aware of their position, and could tell at least which parts of the map they have already visited. The map feature also helped here. 9 out of 14 users agreed that they noticed the level to be different each time they played, with the remaining 3 feeling neutral about this statement, and only 2 disagreeing. This could be because the map was always thematically similar, so they confused that with not being different. The majority of the users, however, thought the buildings did look different each time they played, which probably also helped them navigate through the world by recognizing the places they have already visited. Only 57.1 % of the users agreed that they tried to explore the map and the buildings, and 9 out of 14 users did not agree that they had no trouble finding med-kits and ammo boxes. This could be because they did not explore the buildings, but it could also be an indicator that a purely PRNG technique for placing consumable objects is not ideal, or simply that our algorithm had a way too low chance of generating such objects in those places. When asked if they would describe the game as "replayable", 10 out of 14 users agreed, 3 were neutral and 1 disagreed, giving this question an average rating of 4.14, which at least suggests that our goal for the game to be replayable was met.

Conclusion and Future Work

In conclusion, we were able to create a whole survival world procedurally and randomly, and fit it within a playable game. The user tests proved the game to be enjoyable and replayable.

We believe that the game has a lot of potential, and could be expanded to achieve more even more replayability. Different world themes, like a desert, or mountain village, could be added, along with more potential objectives and game modes. Other gameplay elements could be added, like more weapons, grenades, and even different types of zombies. The script for procedural generation of buildings could also be extended. It could include even more layouts, or be expanded to create more complex buildings.

Procedural content generation is a powerful tool, and even with its simplest technique such as PRNGs, a lot can be achieved. This research has shown us that a whole world could be successfully procedurally created using this simple, yet effective technique. Unfortunately, PCG has a strong limitation when it comes to re-usability. Most algorithms for procedural content generation are made specifically for a certain application, unlike, for example, some AI algorithms which could be reused in different games. Nevertheless, PCG has a lot of potential which should be, without a question, further explored.

Fig. 1 :

 1 Fig. 1: Unity scene view of a random path possibility generated with the algorithm Fig. 2: A close-up look of a terrain alpha map offset between 'grass' and 'dirt'

Fig. 3 :

 3 Fig. 3: Unity scene view of two possible area placements

Fig. 4 :Fig. 5 :

 45 Fig.4: Some of the warehouse buildings generated with the building generator Fig.5: Some of the ruined buildings generated with the building generator

Figures 4

 4 Figures4 and 5show some of the possible outcomes of the building generator both for warehouse buildings and ruins. Each building is also able to contain other objects inside of it, like med-kits, zombies, or ammo boxes, and those things

Fig. 6 :Fig. 7 :Fig. 8 :Fig. 9 :

 6789 Fig. 6: Unity scene view of a possible world outcome Fig. 7: Unity scene view of another possible world outcome

Fig. 10 :

 10 Fig. 10: Questionnaire results for the Gameplay category

Fig. 11 :

 11 Fig. 11: Questionnaire results for the World category


Kayo C Santana
email: kayosantana94@gmail.com

Victor T Sarinho

Claudia P Pereira
email: claudiap@uefs.br

The Braille Typist: A Serious Game Proposal for Braille Typewriter Training

Keywords: Serious Game, Assistive Technology, Visual Impairments

People with disabilities are constantly denied from their rights and duties, emphasizing the accessibility importance as a path to social equality and independence for them. This paper presents the The Braille Typist proposal, a digital game that uses a Braille typewriter machine emulator to perform individual competitions for training visually impaired people with the Braille typewriter usage. As expected results, an approach to publicize the Braille usage will be provided, as well as promoting a social and digital initiative to include people with visual impairments.

Introduction

According to World Health Organization (WHO), more than one billion people in the world have some kind of disability, with an increasing prevalence over the years [START_REF]World Health Organization: World report on disability 2011[END_REF]. These people are constantly denied from their rights and duties, having the worst life perspective, lower education achievements, and a higher rate of poverty when compared with people without disabilities [START_REF]World Health Organization: World report on disability 2011[END_REF].

Due to the growing number of people with disabilities, it is important to emphasize that accessibility needs to be further studied, working on new urban, social and technology inclusion solutions. Accessibility is a path to social equality, giving all people with the means to carry out their activities in an independent way [START_REF] Almeida | Mobilidade e acessibilidade urbana[END_REF].

Regarding visual impairment, WHO affirms that around 314 million people in the world have some visual impairment, of which 45 million are blind. To help these people, some technologies can be used in the process of inclusion and development, such as: voice recognition, speech synthesizer, screen reader, Braille alphabet, and others.

The Braille typewriter is a faster and better way to write using the Braille system, but sometimes its use is private because of its high values that make it difficult to acquire. In this sense, this paper proposes The Braille Typist, a Supported by CAPES.

game that follows a Braille emulator pattern to play an individual competition to write correct words according to the Braille alphabet.

The Braille Emulator

Louis Braille created the Braille system in 1825, in France. It is recognized as a symbol language or communication method used by visually impaired people (write and read). The Braille alphabet is built under the concept of a 6 dots combination (Braille cell, Figure 1) that are able to represent letters, numbers, punctuation signals and other characters [START_REF] Sá | Atendimento Educacional Especializado. Deficiência Visual. SEESP / SEED / MEC[END_REF]. Each Braille cell is responsible to represent a character, and the combination of one or many of these is responsible to create words, sentences, numbers and others (Figure 2). If none of the dots are in relief, a blank space is represented. Otherwise, depending on which ones are in relief, it will represent a different symbol of the Latin alphabet. The "#" character (Figure 2) is responsible to indicate that the next word is actually a number, instead of letters with similar relief (from "a" to "j").

Regarding the Braille typewriter, it has 6 important buttons (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) that are used to generate a character in Braille (Figure 3, arrow 1).

According to what they are simultaneously pressed, the Braille cell is displayed, representing how the Braille dots are arranged (Figure 3, arrow 2).

For the Braille emulator, keyboard keys (F, D, S, J, K, L) are mapped for each Braille typewriter button (Figure 3, arrow 3), allowing a similar Braille typewriter usage in a personal computer keyboard. This key mapping among Latin letters, Braille dots and Emulator keyboard (Table 1) is interpreted by the Braille emulator, generating acceptable Braille characters as possible outputs. Table 1. Key mapping among Latin letters, Braille dots and emulator keyboard. Adapted from [START_REF] Santana | Braillearning: Software para simular a máquina de escrever em braille[END_REF].

Letter Dots Keys Letter Dots Keys A 1 F W 2 4 5 6 D J K L B 1 2 F D X 1 3 4 6 F S J L C 1 4 F J Y 1 3 4 5 6 F S J K L D 1 4 5 F J K Z 1 3 5 6 F S K L E 1 5 F K Á 1 2 3 5 6 F D S K L F 1 2 4 F D J É 1 2 3 4 5 6 F D S J K L G 1 2 4 5 F D J K Í 3 4 S J H 1 2 5 F D K Ó 3 4 6 S J L I 2 4 D J Ú 2 3 4 5 6 D S J K L J 2 4 5 D K L Â 1 6 F L K 1 3 F S Ê 1 2 6 F D L L 1 2 3 F D S Ô 1 4 5 6 F J K L M 1 3 4 F S J Ã 3 4 5 S J K N 1 3 4 5 F S J K Õ 2 4 6 D J L O 1 3 5 F S K ! 2 3 5 D S K P 1 2 3 4 F D S J ? 2 6 D L Q 1 2 3 4 5 F D S J K . 3 S R 1 2 3 5 F D S K , 2 D S 2 3 4 D S J ; 2 3 D S T 2 3 4 5 D S J K - 3 6 SL U 1 3 6 F S L Uppercase sign 4 6 DK V 1 2 3 6 F D S L Number sign 3 4 5 6 S J K L
A Javascript version of the Braille emulator was also validated by [START_REF] Santana | Braillearning: Software para simular a máquina de escrever em braille[END_REF], a Learning Object app that aims to help people in the learning process of writing on the Braille typewriter. As obtained results, according to 20 users with visual impairment, Braillearning works in a similar way to the typewriter, confirming the successful usage of the proposed mapping for the final user.

The Braille Typist Game Proposal

The Braille Typist was designed to be an educational game for visually impaired people. The main objective is to type a set of words using the Braille emulator before the time is over. According to the words pronunciation, players will have to correctly typing them if they want to accumulate points.

As a single player game, The Braille Typist starts with the stopwatch set in 1 minute. The player receives a set of words to be sequentially typed, and the challenge is to write the correct words before the time is over. To score high values, the player needs to be precise and fast as possible.

Player earn points when a word is typed correctly. When an incorrectly typed word is written, the player loses points and another word will be given. The player must decide whether he will try to answer the word based on its pronunciation or skip it to try another word (and quickly recover the lost points).

By correctly completing the given words, more difficult words will be drawn each round. In each new level, with 1 extra minute each one, new word difficulties will appear to be typed and heard (bigger words, accented words, heteronym). The hearing difficulty can also be performed by changes on the synthesizer configurations (speech speed and volume). The words will be randomly chosen in the system database, which explores the keyboard usage, hearing and spelling aspects, the Braille knowledge and the typewriter machine knowledge.

Regarding the aesthetic layout of the game, colors will be chosen based on better contrasts to users with low vision. A panel to see how the user is typing the word, a progress bar to show the available time, and the player points display will also be applied in the game scene (Figure 4). As a general view of the proposed game, a Unified Game Canvas was elaborated based on [START_REF] Sarinho | XVI Simpósio Brasileiro de Jogos e Entretenimento Digital[END_REF] model. It describes the Game Concept and Game Players (Who), Game Play (What), Game Flow (When), Game Core (How), Game Interaction (Where), Game Impact (Why) and Game Business (How Much) of the respective game (Figure 5).

Early Results of The Braille Typist

The game proposed is already under development. The first step was to adapt the braille emulator to work in this proposal. At this point the system main flow is already working, being able to output a random word that is stored in a data struture, to recognize the user input, and to check if the word is correctly typed. Figure 6 shows a student volunter testing the game in its actual stage to provide some feedback according software usability and if its developed functionalities are working fine. As next steps to the game development, it is expected to improve user interface elements, such as sound effects and a reward system, providing to the user a better gameplay experience. After that, the game will be released to their target public to collect feedbacks to evaluate its usability, accessibility and avaliable features.

Conclusions and Future Work

It is important to popularize the use of Braille and its typewriter, as a way of promoting accessibility, since Braille is a mean of communication mainly used by people with visually impaired.

The Braille Typist proposal presents a low cost gamified solution that will allow the player with Braille typewriting training. It provides alternative resources for the educational process of people with visual impairments, improving their accessibility aspects to build paths for social equality, as well as to carry out their activities in an independent way.

As future work, after finishing the game production, The Braille Typist validation will be performed not only by surveys to evaluate usability acceptance through user opinions, but also with data collected from the Braille typewriter emulator. Is expected to gather information about the time to type, time between letters, words completed in an minute, and so on, becoming possible to see how the performance is growing during the game usage. Furthermore, it is also expected the creation of a low cost Braille joystick, based on open hardware resources able to simulate the Braille typewriter user input that will be used to play embedded Braille games.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Braille cell. Adapted from [3].

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. Braille system characters. Adapted from [4].

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. From Braille typewriter to Braille emulator keyboard mapping. Adapted from [5, 1].

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. Interface prototype of The Braille Typist game.

Fig. 5 .

 5 Fig.5. The Braille Typist game canvas. Adapted from[START_REF] Sarinho | XVI Simpósio Brasileiro de Jogos e Entretenimento Digital[END_REF].

Fig. 6 .

 6 Fig. 6. Evaluating The Braille Typist prototype.


Washington P Batista

Kayo C Santana
email: kayosantana94@gmail.com

Lenington C Rios
email: lenitorios@gmail.com

Victor T Sarinho

Claudia P Pereira
email: claudiap@uefs.br

A Learning Object About the Dyslexia Disorder

Keywords: Learning Object, Serious Game, Dyslexia

This paper presents João em Foco, a Learning Object (LO) to help professionals and parents to understand about dyslexia, a specific learning disorder. The LO provides information about diagnosis, treatment and better practices to help the development of people in this condition, overcoming different barriers faced by them. The validation process was performed with Pedagogy students of the State University of Feira de Santana and by the feedback of specialized professionals that deal with dyslexic people from the ABCD Institute, a social organization that disseminates projects that have a positive impact on the lives of people with dyslexia.

Introduction

Considered as a specific learning disorder, dyslexia is characterized by the difficulty in the acquisition and development of reading and writing skills, essential abilities to people's daily activities [START_REF] Alves | Teste para identificação de sinais de dislexia: processo de construção[END_REF]. It affects 15% of the world population [START_REF] Pimenta | Dislexia: um estudo sobre a percepção de professores do ensino fundamental[END_REF], which presents some difficulties in the learning process, such as: disorder between letters, syllables or words with simple spelling distinctions (e.g. a-o, c-o, e-c); disorder between letters, syllables or words with similar spelling, but with different orientation in space (e.g. b-d, b-p, b-q, d-b, d-p); partial or total exchange of syllables or words (e.g. me-in, sol-los, som-mos); and replacing words with others with similar spelling or even creating words [START_REF] Lima | A dislexia e o contexto escolar[END_REF].

The early and accurate diagnosis of dyslexia is an important aspect to overcome some barriers imposed by this learning disorder. In this sense, it is known that initial evidences of dyslexia are more perceptible in the children's literacy, when they have great difficulty in learning to read [START_REF] Pimenta | Dislexia: um estudo sobre a percepção de professores do ensino fundamental[END_REF]. However, due to the lack of knowledge of parents and educators about dyslexic children [START_REF] Pimenta | Dislexia: um estudo sobre a percepção de professores do ensino fundamental[END_REF][START_REF] Gonçalves | A dislexia no ensino fundamental[END_REF], many children do not receive the necessary follow up to help them in their educational development process, by using different educational resources and methodological approaches.

Regarding the current demand of parents and teachers of dyslexic children to be informed about their difficulties and possible treatments, some works [START_REF] Cidrim | Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applied to dyslexia: literature review[END_REF][START_REF] Zikl | The possibilities of ict use for compensation of difficulties with reading in pupils with dyslexia[END_REF] show the importance of the technology in the development process of dyslexic people. As a result, the technology help them to overcome different challenges, creating a receptive and motivator environment to encourage them without disrespecting their abilities and limits, or even labeling them as disinterested, lazy or undisciplined [START_REF] Pimenta | Dislexia: um estudo sobre a percepção de professores do ensino fundamental[END_REF][START_REF] Shaywitz | Entendendo a dislexia: um novo e completo programa para todos os níveis de problemas de leitura[END_REF].

As an attempt to provide a receptive and motivator environment for dyslexic people, this paper presents João em Foco (in English, John in Focus). It is a Learning Object (LO) that provides games and scenarios able to disseminate information about the dyslexic disorder, helping different people (e.g. teachers, brothers and parents) to understand and to create a safe environment for a dyslexic person.

Several aspects related to dyslexia, presented by game scenarios, are also reported in this paper, such as: a) the needs of a specialized professional to deal with; b) their difficulties and ways to overcome them; and c) successful diagnosed people, providing information about representativeness. Finally, some considerations about the importance of this project for the social inclusion of dyslexic people are also presented, as well as the future work needed to improve this proposed tool.

Dyslexia: Concept, Diagnostics and Treatment

Dyslexia is considered as a specific learning disorder of neurobiological origin, characterized by the difficulty in recognizing words, both in terms of decoding and spelling [START_REF] Massi | A desconstrução do conceito de dislexia: conflito entre verdades[END_REF][START_REF] Snowling | Dyslexia, speech and language: practitioner's handbook[END_REF]. Children with dyslexia have flaws in the phonological module, which makes it difficult to divide words into underlying sounds, which means that there is difficulty in associating connection sounds present in whole words [START_REF] Caridá | A importância do estímulo precoce em casos com risco para dislexia: um enfoque psicopedagógico[END_REF][START_REF] Snowling | Dyslexia, speech and language: practitioner's handbook[END_REF]. This problem results in a poor school performance or in the accomplishment of activities imposed on their daily lives [START_REF] Psychiatric Association | Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5 R )[END_REF].

There are some symptoms that can characterize dyslexia, such as: delay in acquisition and in the tasks of reading and writing; difficulty with sounds of words; incorrect writing (exchanges, omissions, junctions and agglutination of phonemes); difficulty in associating sound to the symbol, rhymes and alliterations; difficulty in sequential organization (e.g. letters of the alphabet, months of the year, times tables); difficulties with organization of time, space and direction; difficulty with mental calculations, memorizing phone numbers, messages, taking notes, and similar; and the difficulty to organize your tasks [START_REF] Ianhez | Nem sempre é o que parece[END_REF].

According to Costa and others [START_REF] Costa | Nível de conhecimento dos professores de escolas públicas e particulares sobre dislexia[END_REF], the teacher's knowledge of what dyslexia is serves as a pre-diagnosis, subject to referral and intervention. However, even if the teacher is properly prepared, it is not his role to diagnose a specific learning disorder [START_REF] Cancela | As implicações da dislexia no processo de aprendizagem na perspectiva dos professores do 1 o ciclo do Ensino Básico[END_REF]. In this sense, it is necessary to work with a multi-professional approach (involving parents, teachers/school and child) to overcome the child's difficulties. Then, after recognizing the problem, the speech therapist's diagnosis must be made through the analysis of phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantics levels [START_REF] Capellini | Distúrbios de aprendizagem versus dislexia[END_REF][START_REF] Capellini | Avaliação e diagnóstico fonoaudiológico nos distúrbios de aprendizagem e dislexias[END_REF][START_REF] Schulte-Körne | The prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of dyslexia[END_REF].

With parents active in their children's educational process, the chances of success are greater. In addition, the involvement or participation of parents in school, especially in the monitoring of activities, meeting and notes, generates an important dialogue between these two pillars responsible for the formation of the individual, who are the parents and teachers [START_REF] Carvalho | Modos de educação, gênero e relações escola-família[END_REF][START_REF] Reid | Dyslexia: A practitioner's handbook[END_REF].

Due to the lack of dissemination of information about dyslexia, many family members don't know what this disorder is and end up feeling unable to help, or make an incorrect assessment based on their previous experiences [START_REF] Polonia | Em busca de uma compreensão das relações entre família escola[END_REF]. Therefore, it is necessary not only to disclose information about dyslexia, but also to help specialized professionals to guide parents on how to behave and deal with their children's specificities, such as, for example, in encouraging school activities, not leaving them to give up activities that they find difficult [START_REF] Reid | Dyslexia and inclusion: classroom approaches for assessment, teaching and learning[END_REF][START_REF] Alias | Enduring difficulties: the challenges of mothers in raising children with dyslexia[END_REF]. Attitudes like this can improve the subjects' skills, and, with that, make them safer in the execution of reading and writing activities.

Related Work

Some studies were developed to provide awareness/information games about dyslexia. One of them is the Dyslexia MT3 that was created by the Mato Grosso Dyslexia Association. It aims to promote inclusive actions on dyslexia, providing didactic material and support to the family and dyslexics themselves. As a civil organization, the Association relies on the collaboration of members, collaborators, partners and donations to develop its activities in the state of Mato Grosso (Brazil).

Dislexia MT also provides the news functionality regarding the dyslexia disorder across the country, being possible to contact the association for external assistance. As a result, despite the dyslexia information not be transmitted as a playful game, Dislexia MT addresses the proposal of this work, which is to clarify issues related to people with dyslexia.

Development

João em Foco was designed for teachers, parents and children older than 8 years. It provides a single player game mode that can be played with distinct profiles on the same device, such as parents and child, allowing them to learn together about dyslexia and the difficulties that the main character of the game goes through in his daily life.

The target public was selected thinking not only about helping dyslexic players to better know themselves, but also to help their close people in the process of knowing and helping them. In this sense, teachers are responsible for guiding and motivating them in the classroom and learning process, while their parents follow the growth and the challenges in educating and guiding them throughout their lives.

João em Foco Operation

After running the LO, a home screen is displayed (Fig. 1), which presents initial options for "Play", "About" and "Exit". As the main character of the LO is a child, the built scenarios have many childish elements. It is worth mentioning that the presentation screen is the player's first visual contact with João, and, with this, the children's elements bring important nuances, highlighting the beginning of their learning process in the early stages of school. Users are able to play by clicking on the "Jogar"(in English, Play) button (Fig. 1), after that they are able to select between three modules: teacher, children and parents. These modules will be better explained in the following sections.

Children Module

The Children module is inspired by a board game, through which the player must help João to reach the fourth step (the tile 4), which corresponds to the end of the board (Fig. 1). In each step, different contents related to dyslexia is worked on:

-1 st step: a school exercise is presented to João, in which the mirroring of letters occurs (Fig. 2). Mirroring can occur through the exchange of letters from d and b, q and p, or it can also happen in the rotation of the axis itself in letters like a and e [23]; -2 nd step: simulates how a dyslexic person reads a given text, showing that the acquisition of reading and writing is not something trivial for them.

-3 rd step: presents fonts that minimizes their difficult in reading presenting and exercise with the use o it (Fig. 2). -4 th step: a final feedback is given.

Teachers and Parents Modules

The Parents and Teachers modules aim to guide and raise awareness of dyslexia for important people in João's teaching and learning process. Therefore, in order to guide the parents and the teachers player profile, similar dynamics with different narratives were constructed for them, as shown below:

-Você Sabia?: (in English, "Did you know?"), the player will face situations, through characters of the LO, that will guide him to learn about dyslexia.

The LO brings the quiz style, and, to bring this information, the player will choose which answer best suits the described situation. Finally, after the quiz answers, a feedback will be shown in relation to the content, and the player will be congratulated for the achievement; -Biblioteca: (in English, "Library") this topic presents an environment in which it is possible to find content about dyslexia. The player will be able to click on books on the screen, which will be directed to websites, articles, booklets, with dyslexia contents. Its noteworthy that, for each module, the contents are specific to the respective audience; -Histórias: (in English, "Stories") in this module, a text is shown about who made history because of their notoriety and talent. Besides presenting the information on these people's contributions to the world, it is also pointed that all of them were dyslexic, creating a sense of representativeness. It is important to present this information to children or students with dyslexia, showing them that, like those people, they have potential and are also capable of carrying out their activities.

In order to help to broadcast dyslexic information, "João em Foco" has an achievement system in Teachers and Parents modules, which shares information on social media (Facebook and Instagram). Thus, when players finish a stage, they are able to share this information on their social media, reaching friends, family, among other people, being able to inform about dyslexia or encourage people to know more about the subject.

Validation Process

To validate this work, two versions of the LO were provided, one for PC-Desktop and other for Android. Both versions were tested by 15 users (Pedagogy students of the State University of Feira de Santana), with only 18.2% of them with a previously knowledge about dyslexia. The project was also submitted to the Ethics Committee (Presentation Certificate for Ethical Appreciation on Plataforma Brasil: 09091718.6.0000.0053), requiring the definition of a collection of data instruments to be used in the validation phase.

Participants were asked to rate the LO using six criterias about their experience that vary on a five-point scale: Boring vs Stimulant, Tiring vs Entertaining, Useless vs Useful, Difficult learning vs Easy learning, and Bad didactic vs Good didactic. The evaluation averages can be seen in Fig. 3. Overall, the LO was well evaluated. The participants considered it stimulating, light, with a good didactic, profitable, organized and conducive to learning dyslexia, all with an average higher than 4. It is noteworthy that the item with the lowest average was tedious x stimulating, obtaining an average of 4.36 Besides that, we also used a questionnaire designed with Likert scale to evaluate the LO and the information presented about dyslexia, game characters, interfaces, and feedback. According to the results, over 90% of the users agree with the developed approach to handle the dyslexia information and recommend the game for others. The results reflect that 'João em Foco' provides clear interfaces, dialogues and information that permit people to be informed about dyslexia content.

Users considered as a good reward to level accomplishment the share of information in social media, as well as an important approach to spread dyslexia information. Further, when they were asked if they recommend 'João em Foco' to other people, all of them agree with this statement, results that can be also related to the large number of users that already installed the app.

Final Considerations

Researches focused on better alternatives in the dissemination of information about people with a Specific Learning Disorder are extremely important to con-tribute not only to development of these people, but also to their social inclusion process. In this sense, this paper presented "João em Foco", a LO developed to help people to increase their knowledge about dyslexia, as well as raising awareness to educators about alternative methods to help their students to overcome different barriers. For parents, "João em Foco" talks about the need of understand their children and provide them a safe environment together with a specialized follow-up. Finally, in a society perspective, "João em Foco" raises empathy about the challenges faced by a dyslexic person, helping them in the process of social inclusion.

"João em Foco" provides through a game environment not only information about dyslexia but also experiences of the learning difficulties that come with it, to approximate not dyslexic people with this reality, and encouraging dyslexic ones to overcome the different barriers.

It is also important to emphasize that João em Foco at this point was used not only by the group of educators who helped in the validation process, but also by parents and specialized professionals of the ABCD Institute. In fact, as the ABCD Institute published the game app on its social media, encouraging users to download it, they helped to get an important feedback about it from parents and professionals who deal directly with dyslexic children. As a result, some of the suggested changes are already available, such as the font size, the use of audio in the game narrative, and some changes in the quiz contents. Nowadays, according to information from the Google Play Store, "Joao em Foco" has already been installed by more than 2700 people and its evaluation is 4.8/5.0 stars.

As future work, besides a validation of "João em Foco" with dyslexic children, new features are expected, such as: a) add soundtrack and sound effects; b) improve the textual presentation so that the reading content does not become so tiring; c) add voice feedback to present information; d) add a specific session for dyslexic children with suggestions and games to develop their skills; and e) develop an administrator module that allows professors and specialized professionals to easily create storytelling inside the LO.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Learning object presentation screen & Children module board screen.

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. João's school exercise & Activity screen with OpenDyslexic font.

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. João em Foco's user experience graphic.

Available at: https://apkpure.com/br/dislexia-mt/br.com.app.gpu1910220.gpu62d1 9f82a6fcbfb9fbf6c9f648121608 app. Last Checked: may 2020