Intrinsic motivation is an underappreciated aspect when discussing the design and creation of videogames. In today’s landscape, it is much more common to use extrinsic motivators when designing video games as they rely less on player behaviour and can be easier to predict. However, as some of the most popular and influential games make heavy use of intrinsic motivators by giving a high degree of player freedom, an argument can be made that more research and discussion should be made for game designers to consider using intrinsic motivators when designing video games.

This thesis’s aim is to gather data from participants engaging in a Creative Video Game study in an attempt to answer whether player behaviour can be traced from demographic data. The game is a 3D first person perspective building game which lets player place and destroy objects on a grid-based map. The study uses behavioural themes to categorize the different demographics for analysis and comparisons; this allowed for an easy-to-understand evaluation of whether player behaviour was different between demographics. Furthermore, the study also takes the opportunity to analyse how different point of interest structures affect a player’s decision-making and behaviour in a creative game.The results show that behavioural differences appeared between the different demographic groups through the analysis of 3D plotted graphs and raw data bar graphs as well as through the assignment of the different behavioural themes.

The results indicate that demographic patterns could exists but that further research using a larger and more detailed study would be needed. The results in regard to the structures and their effect on player decision led to interesting results. The structures affected the way players moved around the game environment, yet they were not interesting enough to fully capture a player’s attention. Even though the structures failed to fully draw player attention in regard to placing and destroying objects, a clear favourite structure did emerge with its properties being ease of access, incompleteness, and familiarity.