The Ludum Platform: Exploring the Impact of Game Design on Prosocial Behavior in Children's Digital Play

This study examines how perceived personal risk shapes resource sharing among children in a custom-built digital game, The Ludum Detector, which is part of the broader Ludum Platform project. Forty-six 8-year-olds, evenly split between boys and girls, played through five levels in which a fictitious Player 2 consistently trailed behind. At three points, participants received donation prompts framed as high, medium, or low risk depending on how close their own score was to the 100-coin goal. The methodology involved a controlled gameplay loop built in the Unity Engine, with research protocols approved by a local ethics committee in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

The central finding is that children share fewer resources when their own outcomes are at stake. A one-way ANOVA showed significant differences between high-risk and low-risk conditions (p = .015) and between medium-risk and low-risk conditions (p = .002), indicating that sharing declines as perceived personal risk increases. No significant differences emerged between boys and girls, suggesting similar responses to risk across sexes. The authors interpret these results as evidence that children prioritize personal security, and that contextual factors such as resource sufficiency strongly shape prosocial decisions in digital settings.

Beyond the empirical results, the paper argues that custom-designed games can serve both as measurement instruments and as tools for encouraging prosocial development. It proposes design guidance in four areas: reducing perceived risk through safety nets, using implicit feedback that signals other players' needs, balancing competition with cooperation, and applying these principles in social-emotional learning contexts. The paper also offers a practical account of playtesting with young children, illustrating how seemingly simple mechanics required multiple iterations to become legible to 8-year-old players.