Echo: reconstructing gameplay sessions for analysis

Abstract

We created Echo, a tool designed to help bridge the gap between game analytics and video footage analysis. Echo reconstructs gameplay sessions from recorded data and presents them with their original graphics. A comparative evaluation to video footage analysis revealed that users preferred Echo overall and found it to be less frustrating. We later created Echo+, an expanded and improved version of the tool. A comparative evaluation of Echo+ across four popular genres - kart racing, first-person shooter (FPS), platformer, and tower defense – revealed that Echo+ was useful in them all to some degree, but there were no clear genres for which it was most or least useful. Echo+ was used differently across genres, with the camera features and visibility toggling being used most in the FPS game and tower defense game, respectively. User suggestions on how to improve Echo+ further included better representing player user interfaces within the visualization.