Proceedings of the Workshop on Computation: Theory and Practice (WCTP 2025)

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Emotion-Driven Adaptive Game System: Design and Evaluation

Authors
Kyousuke Saga1, Kaoru Sumi1, *
1Future University Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
*Corresponding author. Email: kaoru.sumi@acm.org
Corresponding Author
Kaoru Sumi
Available Online 30 April 2026.
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6239-638-8_14How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Emotion-Adaptive Games; Game Design; Facial Expression; Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment; Player Experience
Abstract

This study designed and evaluated an emotion-driven adaptive game system that dynamically modified difficulty level and genre in real time. The system estimated players’ emotional states by combining facial expression recognition with in-game performance metrics such as stage completion time. Based on these estimates, the game automatically adjusted difficulty (easy, normal, hard) and switched among three genres (action, first-person shooter, and adventure). Physiological data such as heart rate were recorded to observe players’ responses to adaptive changes, but these data were not used for real-time system adaptation. A user study with 26 university students indicated that adaptive changes influenced physiological responses, though overall subjective satisfaction did not differ between groups. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of emotion-adaptive games while also pointing to the need for improvements, including multimodal signal integration and broader genre options.

Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the Workshop on Computation: Theory and Practice (WCTP 2025)
Series
Atlantis Highlights in Computer Sciences
Publication Date
30 April 2026
ISBN
978-94-6239-638-8
ISSN
2589-4900
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6239-638-8_14How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Kyousuke Saga
AU  - Kaoru Sumi
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/30
TI  - Emotion-Driven Adaptive Game System: Design and Evaluation
BT  - Proceedings of the  Workshop on Computation: Theory and Practice (WCTP 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 272
EP  - 286
SN  - 2589-4900
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-638-8_14
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-638-8_14
ID  - Saga2026
ER  -