Exploring the Potential of Disengagement-Friendly Game Design to Support Children's Exit from Play Sessions

Paper Title

Exploring the Potential of Disengagement-Friendly Game Design to Support Children's Exit from Play Sessions

Publication Info

• Topic area: Game design for children's disengagement from play sessions
• Keywords: disengagement-friendly design, children's games, parental involvement, game progress, closure cues, player experience, self-regulation, qualitative study, Snarky’s Adventure, family dynamics

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Children often struggle to disengage from games, leading to family conflicts. Existing solutions like parental controls or time-based restrictions lack integration with in-game progress and closure, making disengagement abrupt and emotionally challenging.
• Significance: Addressing this issue can reduce family tension, support children's emotional regulation, and improve their overall gaming experience.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has focused on parental mediation and adult disengagement experiences, but little is known about how game design can support children's disengagement. Existing features in games like My Friend Peppa Pig and Roblox provide limited support for meaningful closure, leaving a gap for more effective design solutions.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Development and evaluation of disengagement-friendly game mechanics integrated into a prototype game, Snarky’s Adventure, to support children's understanding of progress and provide a sense of closure.
• Novelty:
  1. Empirical exploration of disengagement-friendly game mechanics for children.
  2. Insights into parental perspectives on game-based disengagement features.
  3. Design implications for fostering positive disengagement experiences while balancing parental involvement.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  1. Designed Snarky’s Adventure with features like a progress bar, a closure sequence (e.g., bedtime routine), and a fish tank summary to support disengagement.
  2. Conducted a qualitative study with 39 participants (22 children aged 4–11 and 17 parents) using semi-structured interviews and gameplay sessions.
  3. Analyzed data using Qualitative Content Analysis to evaluate the impact of features on children's and parents' experiences.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Children enjoyed the game and found features like the bedtime routine intuitive and effective for signaling the end of play.
  • The progress bar was useful for experienced players but less understood by younger or less experienced children.
  • The fish tank summary sometimes sparked curiosity, leading to re-engagement rather than closure.
  • Parents valued features that provided clarity on game progress but often preferred automated solutions to reduce their involvement in ending play sessions.
• Advantage over baselines: The study demonstrated that integrating disengagement-friendly mechanics into gameplay can enhance children's understanding of progress and closure without compromising enjoyment or engagement.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Gameplay sessions with Snarky’s Adventure were conducted in controlled settings.
  • Data were collected through interviews with children and parents, focusing on player experience, disengagement, and progress understanding.
  • Findings were categorized into themes like player satisfaction, sense of closure, and progress understanding.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited ecological validity due to the controlled study setting and short gameplay sessions.
  • Lack of exploration of multiplayer games and other genres.
  • Small sample size may obscure age-related differences.
  • Future work should focus on longitudinal studies, diverse game genres, and tools for re-engaging parents in the disengagement process.

Summary

This study explored how disengagement-friendly game mechanics can support children in transitioning out of play sessions. Using the prototype Snarky’s Adventure, features like a bedtime routine and progress bar were evaluated for their impact on children's understanding of progress and sense of closure. While children generally enjoyed the game and found narrative-based cues intuitive, abstract indicators like the progress bar were less effective for younger players. Parents appreciated features that reduced their involvement but risked missing opportunities to support their child's self-regulation. The findings highlight the potential of game design to foster healthy engagement and transitions, with opportunities for future work to refine closure cues and balance automation with parental guidance.