Game Development student to present research at conference

BA(Hons) Game Development: Design student Michael De Val is tackling a big question through games. His research explores how people find meaning in their lives and what happens when personal values meet external systems. The work has already been recognised at a national level, with Michael selected to present at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR).

We caught up with Michael to talk about his research and where it could lead next.

Congratulations on your success at the BCUR. Can you tell us a bit about the process of applying and when you found out you'd been accepted?

I was in the process of writing an essay for one of my modules when my lecturer suggested I apply to BCUR. The assignment had a modest word count, and the conference provided an opportunity to expand on some of the ideas I was exploring in that work. The application involved submitting a research abstract outlining the core idea of the project and how I planned to investigate it. That meant distilling a much larger body of thought into around 250 words that explained the research question, the approach I was taking and why it was worth exploring. Once the abstract was submitted, it went through a review process, and I later found out that it had been accepted for presentation. It was a really encouraging moment because it meant the idea resonated enough with reviewers to be shared with a wider undergraduate research audience.

Your research looks at how people make meaning and experience conflict. What does that mean in simple terms?

In simple terms, the research asks whether the way people construct meaning in their lives follows recognisable patterns rather than being completely random or purely subjective. When people make decisions, they are constantly balancing internal values, external expectations, constraints and responsibility for outcomes. When those elements align, people tend to feel a sense of coherence or purpose. When they clash, people experience dissonance, the feeling that something isn't quite right.

The focus is particularly on what happens when an individual's internal framework, their principles, beliefs and sense of responsibility, encounters external systems such as rules, incentives or constraints. For example, someone might personally value honesty but find themselves working in an environment that rewards cutting corners. When their internal beliefs conflict with the external system they are operating in, that tension can create dissonance. The research explores whether situations like this follow recognisable patterns for both sides, with the current scope focusing on how these dynamics appear within game systems.

Where did the idea come from?

The idea grew out of a combination of introspection and abstraction. I've spent a lot of time reflecting on how people respond to difficult decisions and responsibilities, often by repeatedly asking "why" and examining how different factors influence behaviour.

Part of that mindset also comes from my background working in professional catering, where attention to small details matters but experimentation is encouraged. You might be asked to take a simple ingredient and explore many different ways of working with it, which naturally leads to asking questions and testing ideas. Later on, my business analysis training helped formalise that way of thinking by introducing structured methods for examining systems, identifying patterns and understanding how different components interact. Together, those influences shaped the way I began approaching questions about meaning, responsibility and constraint. There are a lot of components that make up the foundation of this idea.

Why did you choose games as the domain to test this theory?

Games are a particularly useful environment for studying these ideas because they make systems visible. Players constantly make decisions and immediately experience the consequences of those decisions. The rules, incentives and constraints are usually clearly defined, which makes it easier to observe how people interpret choice, responsibility and outcomes.

Studying game design at Falmouth has also given me the tools to explore these ideas in a practical way. Games allow you to build or analyse systems in controlled environments, whether that means analysing or reverse-engineering an existing game, or designing your own. In many ways, games bring together elements from different disciplines. Animation draws on performance, cutscenes borrow from cinematography, and shaders involve mathematics and material simulation. Because of that, games can act as small, contained reflections of real-world systems, which makes them a useful place to start exploring these questions.

Games are also interesting from a design perspective because one of the core challenges in game development is understanding why a player would engage with a system in the first place. Designers often talk about finding the "fun" in a mechanic or experience, which in many ways acts as a proxy for meaning within the context of the game. Players engage with systems that feel purposeful, coherent and rewarding. That overlap between design thinking and psychological experience makes games a useful domain for exploring how meaning can emerge within structured systems.

Where do you see this research going?

At the moment, the research is still exploratory, but the long-term goal is to develop a clearer framework for understanding how internal belief systems interact with external structures and constraints. I'm particularly interested in mapping what happens when an individual's internal framework meets external systems, and whether consistent patterns emerge across different environments. While games provide a useful starting point, the ideas could potentially apply to other fields such as psychology, leadership, education and organisational behaviour. In the longer term, I'd be interested in continuing to develop the research through postgraduate study and exploring how the framework could be tested more rigorously.

What has surprised you most about studying at Falmouth?

One of the most surprising things has been how interdisciplinary the environment is. Game development brings together design, art, programming, psychology and storytelling, and that encourages you to think across and interact with different fields rather than staying within a single discipline. Cornwall itself also creates a very focused environment for studying and creating work. Being slightly removed from larger cities gives you space to concentrate on projects and develop ideas more deeply.