Publications

Books and Book Chapters

2023

• In Press: Melcer, E. F., Liebert, C. A., Shields, S., Keehl, O. G., Tsai, J.,Camacho, F., Eddington, H., Trickey, A., Lee, M., Bereknyei Merrell, S., Korndorffer Jr.,J.R., & Lin, D. T. (2023). “ENTRUST: Co-Design and Validation of a Serious Game for Assessing Clinical Decision-Making and Readiness for Entrustment”. In Software Engineering for Games in Serious Contexts – Theories, Methods, Tools, and Experiences. Springer.
• In Press: Shields, S., & Melcer, E. (2023). “Papers, Please”. In Learning, Education & Games, Volume 4: 50 Games for Inclusion, Equity, and Justice. ETC Press.

2022

• Grasse, K. M., Melcer, E. F., Kremenski, M., Junius, N., Ryan, J., & Wardrip-Fruin, N. (2022). “Academical: A Choice-Based Interactive Storytelling Game for Enhancing Moral Reasoning, Knowledge, and Attitudes in Responsible Conduct of Research”. In Games and Narrative: Theory and Practice. Springer. In Collaboration with the Expressive Intelligence Studio.

2021

• Melcer, E. F. (2021). “Foundations of Alternative Controller Games (GAME 202)“. In Teaching the Game: A collection of syllabi for game design, development, and implementation, Vol. 2. Carnegie Mellon University.
• Melcer, E. F., & Isbister, K. (2021). “Learning with the Body: A Design Framework for Embodied Learning Games and Simulations“. In Software Engineering Perspectives in Computer Game Development. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.

2020

• Melcer, E. F., & Cuerdo, M. A. M. (2020). “Death & Rebirth in Platformer Games”. In Game User Experience and Player-Centered Design. Springer.

Peer Reviewed Conference  and Journal Publications

2023

• In Press: Cuerdo, M. A. M., Mahajan, A., Mao, J., & Melcer, E. F. (2023). “Try Again?: A Macro-Level Taxonomy of the Challenge and Failure Process in Games”. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Games. COG ’23, Boston, USA.
• Liebert, C. A., Melcer, E. F., Eddington, H., Trickey, A., Shields, S., Lee, M., Korndorffer Jr, J. R., Bekele, A., Wren, S. M., & Lin, D. T. (2023). “Correlation of Performance on ENTRUST and Traditional Oral Objective Structured Clinical Examination for High-Stakes Assessment in the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa“. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 10-1097.
• Lin, D. T., Melcer, E. F., Keehl, O., Eddington, H., Trickey, A. W., Tsai, J., Camacho, F., Merrell, S.B., Korndorffer Jr, J., & Liebert, C. A. (2023). “ENTRUST: A Serious Game-Based Virtual Patient Platform to Assess Entrustable Professional Activities in Graduate Medical Education“. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 15(2), 228-236.
• Bucchiarone, A., Cooper, K. M., Lin, D., Melcer, E. F., & Sung, K. (2023). “Games and Software Engineering: Engineering fun, inspiration, and motivation“. ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, 48(1), 85-89.

2022

• *Best Artifact Nomination* Shields, S., Mawhorter, R., Melcer, E., & Mateas, M. (2022). “Searching for Balanced 2D Brawler Games: Successes and Failures of Automated Evaluation”. In Proceedings of the Eighteenth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE-22). AAAI. In Collaboration with the Expressive Intelligence Studio.
• *Best Paper Honorable Mention Award* Dominic Kao, Rabindra Ratan, Christos Mousas, Amogh Joshi, and Edward F. Melcer. (2022). “Audio Matters Too: How Audial Avatar Customization Enhances Visual Avatar Customization in Educational Games”. In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI ’22, New Orleans, LA, USA. ACM.
• Grasse, K. M., Kreminski, M., Wardrip-Fruin, N., Mateas, M., & Melcer, E. F. (2022). “Using Self-Determination Theory to Explore Enjoyment of Educational Interactive Narrative Games: A Case Study of Academical“. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 74.
• Keehl, O., Kao, D., & Melcer, E. F. (2022). “Zen Hanzi: A Game for Raising Hanzi Component Awareness“. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games.
• Picho, K., Osborne, E., Camacho, F., Ouellette, A., Woodford, M., & Melcer, E. (2022). “Resilient IN: Design of an Interactive Narrative HRV-Biofeedback Game to Develop Stereotype and Social Identity Threat Resilience“. In Serious Games: Joint International Conference, JCSG 2022, Weimar, Germany, September 22–23, 2022, Proceedings (pp. 84-101). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
• Rhea Sharma, Dominic Kao, and Edward F. Melcer. (2022). “Exploring Relevance and Meaningfulness from Unexpected Learning Experiences in Commercial Video Games”. In DiGRA ’22 – Proceedings of the 2022 DiGRA International Conference: Bringing Worlds Together.
• Liebert, C. A., Melcer, E. F., Keehl, O., Eddington, H., Trickey, A. W., Lee, M., Tsai, J., Camacho, F., Bereknyei Merrell, S., Korndorffer, J. R., Lin, D. T. (2022). “Validity Evidence for ENTRUST as an Assessment of Surgical Decision-Making for the Inguinal Hernia Entrustable Professional Activity (EPA)”. In Journal of Surgical Education.

2021

• *Best Paper Honorable Mention Award* Camingue, J., Carstensdottir, E., & Melcer, E. F. (2021). “What is a Visual Novel?“. In Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. CHI-Play ’21. ACM.
• Keehl, O. G., & Melcer, E. F. (2021). “Music to My Ears: Developing Kanji Stroke Knowledge through an Educational Music Game“. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 5(12), 83.
• Cuerdo, M. A. M., Mahajan, A., & Melcer, E. F. (2021). “Die-r Consequences: Player Experience and the Design of Failure through Respawning Mechanics“. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Games. COG ’21, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Grasse, K. M., Cuerdo, M. A. M., & Melcer, E. F. (2021). “Mad Mixologist: Exploring How Object Placement in Tangible Play Spaces Affects Collaborative Interaction Strategies“. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Games. COG ’21, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Grasse, K. M., Melcer, E. F., Kremenski, M., Junius, N., & Wardrip-Fruin, N. (2021). “Improving Undergraduate Attitudes Towards Responsible Conduct of Research Through an Interactive Storytelling Game”. In Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI ’21, Yokohama, Japan. ACM. In Collaboration with the Expressive Intelligence Studio.

2020

• Grasse, K. M., & Melcer, E. F. (2020). “Generation: A Novel Fabrication Game for Simulating Evolution and Natural Selection”. In Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. CHI-Play ’20, Ottawa, Canada. ACM.
• Diez, J. & Melcer, E. F. (2020). “Cookie Mania: A Serious Game for Teaching Internet Cookies to High School and College Students”. In Proceedings of Joint International Conference on Entertainment Computing and Serious Games. Springer, Cham, 2020.
• Camingue, J., Melcer, E. F., & Carstensdottir, E. (2020). “A (Visual) Novel Route to Learning: A Taxonomy of Educational Visual Novels”. In Proceedings of the 15^th international conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. FDG ’20, Malta. ACM.
• *Exceptional Paper Award* Melcer, E. F., Grasse, K., Ryan, J., Junius, N., Kreminski, M., Squinkifer, D., Hill, B., & Wardrip-Fruin, N. (2020). “Getting Academical: A Choice-Based Interactive Storytelling Game for Teaching Responsible Conduct of Research”. In Proceedings of the 15^th international conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. FDG ’20, Malta. ACM. In Collaboration with the Expressive Intelligence Studio.
• Kao, D., Mousas, C., Magana, A. J., Harrell, D. F., Ratan, R., Melcer, E. F., Sherrick, B., Parsons, P., & Gusev, D. A. (2020). “Hack.VR: A Programming Game in Virtual Reality“. In Proceedings of the 15^th international conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. FDG ’20, Malta. ACM.
• Cuerdo, M. A. M., & Melcer, E. (2020). ““I’ll Be Back”: A Taxonomy of Death and Rebirth in Platformer Video Games“. In Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI ’20, Hawaii, USA. ACM.
• Melcer, E. F., Ryan, J., Junius, N., Kreminski, M., Squinkifer, D., Hill, B., & Wardrip-Fruin, N. (2020). “Teaching Responsible Conduct of Research Through an Interactive Storytelling Game”. In Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI ’20, Hawaii, USA. ACM. In Collaboration with the Expressive Intelligence Studio.

2019

• Keehl, O. & Melcer, E. (2019). “Radical Tunes: Exploring the Impact of Music on Memorization of Stroke Order in Logographic Writing Systems“. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games.
• Kreminski, M., Samuel, B., Melcer, E., & Wardrip-Fruin, N. (2019). “Evaluating AI-Based Games Through Retellings“. In Fifteenth Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference (AIIDE). In Collaboration with the Expressive Intelligence Studio.

2018

• Ottmar, E. R., Melcer, E., Abrahamson, D., Nathan, M. J., Fyfe, E., & Smith, C. (2018). “EMBODIED MATHEMATICAL IMAGINATION AND COGNITION (EMIC) WORKING GROUP”. In North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (2018).
• Melcer, E.F. (2018). “Toward Embodied Learning Mechanics: A Tool to Guide the Design of Physical Interactions in Educational Games”. In Proceedings of the 2018 International Academic Conference of Meaningful Play.
• *Best Paper Honorable Mention Award* Melcer, E.F., & Isbister, K. (2018). “Bots & (Main)Frames: Exploring the Impact of Tangible Blocks and Collaborative Play in an Educational Programming Game”. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI ’18, Montréal, Canada. ACM.
• Höök, K. et al. “Embracing first-person perspectives in soma-based design“. In Informatics (Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 8). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.

Festival and Event Presentations

2021

• Mad Mixologist. (March, 2021). Indie Maker Syndicate – Makers Play Showcase.

2019

• Mad Mixologist. (July, 2019). Come Out and Play NYC.
• Disaster Awareness Games. (March, 2019). US Census Bureau, Opportunity Project Demo Day.

Invited Presentations

2021

• Training the Next Generation of Researchers: Exploring the Potential of Interactive Narrative for Teaching Ethics and Moral Reasoning. (April, 2021). Center for Computational Experience: Serious Games Panel, UC Santa Cruz.
• Makers Arcade: Mad Mixologist. (March, 2021). Indie Maker Syndicate – Makers Play Showcase.

2020

• Building Better (Educational) Games: Exploring Embodied Design Decisions that Impact Learning Outcomes. (November, 2020). SESAME Colloquium, UC Berkley.
• Communication Gaps between Video Game Researchers. (July, 2020). International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Copenhagen, Denmark.

2019

• Alternative Controller Games and Wearables. (October, 2019). Playful Wearables Panel, IndieCade 2019, Santa Monica, CA.
• ALT-CTRL: Bringing the Body Back into Serious Games. (July, 2019). Serious Play Conference.
• DIY and Alternative Controller Games. (July, 2019). TechTALK: Gaming at the Hardware Boundaries, SEMICON West.
• Gaming for Learning – Fireside Chat with Ubisoft. (February, 2019). Innovative Technologies for Learning Meetup Group.

2018

• ALT-CTRL: Bringing Embodied Physical Interactions into the Design of Games and Learning. (July, 2018). Collaborative Learning of Usability Experiences (CLUE) Seminar Series.