Dionísio, Mara Sofia GomesBala, Paulo Alexandre CâmaraFaria, Bárbara Paulista de2026-02-262026-02-262025-12-11http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/7606The last decade has seen a rise of discussions over the curation of more genuine relationship intimacy between player and non-playable characters in gameplay, whether through the reimagining of traditional game mechanics or the intro ductions of new technologies. In parallel, methods to best integrate matters of consent in narratives, in order to awake reflections of the virtual other’s non conformity to certain player actions, have been, in addition, debated. This dissertation presents the design, development and evaluation of Desiree: Eyes On You, a dating simulator game integrating eye-tracking technology with the objective to dynamize the relationship forged between player and virtual love interest. A mixed-methods approach was employed in the study. Quantitatively, it used the Networked Minds Social Presence Inventory to measure participants’ perceived social presence when interacting with a gaze-aware character in a vir tual world, as well as how their behaviours influenced responses, emotions, and direction of the narrative. Qualitatively, it examined how the love interest char acter prompted participants to reflect on issues of consent in relation to their gaze behaviours, taking into account the romantic narrative context. Study findings have shown that high measures of social presence were ob tained amongst participants who interacted with the design, which held key interactions and influenced the game’s outcome behind gaze behaviour triggers. Positive reports on reflections over the love interest’s consent were observed, character comments, animated reactions and early date terminations given an emphasis as the primary factors which derived these reports. The research conducted has shown the power eye-tracking technology holds at successfully augmenting player social immersion with non-playable characters, lowering the constrictions with which digital relationships can be explored and introducing a new metaphor, “looks of desire” to gaze-research design.Na ´ultima d´ecada tem-se verificado um aumento significativo das discuss˜oes acerca de como melhor construir rela¸c˜oes de intimidade entre jogadores e non-playable charac ters em jogos, de forma a torn´a-las mais genu´ınas, quer atrav´es do reimaginar das mecˆanicas tradicionais, quer pela introdu¸c˜ao de novas tecnologias. Ao mesmo tempo, a procura de m´etodos inovadores para integra¸c˜ao de temas de consentimento em nar rativas, para despertar reflex˜oes acerca da n˜ao-conformidade do “outro” virtual face a determinadas a¸c˜oes de jogo, tˆem sido debatidas. Esta disserta¸c˜ao apresenta o design, desenvolvimento e avalia¸c˜ao de “Desiree: Eyes On You”, um dating simulador que integra eye-tracking no seu gameplay com objetivo de dinamizar a rela¸c˜ao estabelecida pelo jogador num romance virtual. Quantitativamente, foi utilizado o Networked Minds Social Presence Inventory para avaliar os n´ıveis de presen¸ca social reportados pelos participantes ao interagirem com uma personagem consciente do seu olhar no espa¸co virtual, bem como a forma como os seus comportamentos influenciavam as respostas, emo¸c˜oes e dire¸c˜ao da narrativa. Qualitativamente, examinou-se a efetividade da personagem em levar os participantes a refletir sobre temas de consentimento, tendo em conta os comportamentos oculares registados no contexto romˆantico da narrativa. Resultados do estudo revelaram elevadas perce¸c˜oes de presen¸ca social por parte dos participantes que interagiram com o design, que mantinha intera¸c˜oes chave, capazes de influenciar o decorrer do jogo, atrav´es das intera¸c˜oes oculares. Relatos acerca das reflex˜oes sobre o consentimento da personagem foram positivos, tendo os coment´arios realizados pela mesma, as anima¸c˜oes e a possibilidade de se terminar a experiˆencia por iniciativa pr´opria sido os principais fatores de sucesso apontados. A investiga¸c˜ao realizada demonstra a capacidade da integra¸c˜ao de eye-tracking na amplifica¸c˜ao da imers˜ao social de jogadores no contacto com non-playable characters, reduzindo constrangimentos pr´evios de explora¸c˜ao de rela¸c˜oes digitais e sugerindo uma nova met´afora, “olhares de desejo”, `a comunidade de pesquisa.engRastreamento ocularSimulador de namoroConsentimentoPresença socialOlhar DiegéticoJogosEye trackingDating simulatoConsentSocial presenceDiegetic gazeGamesInteractive Media Design.Faculdade de Ciências Exatas e da Engenhariamaster thesis204180392