Supplementary materials for the master's thesis "Hexagon Music: Exploring Rewards, Progression Design, and Intrinsic Motivation in Music-Making Games" by Shane Vincent, submitted in fulfilment of the MSc in Game Technology at Breda University of Applied Sciences (2026).
This thesis examines how different reward contingencies (performance-contingent vs. task-contingent) in a music-making game's progression system affect players' intrinsic motivation, specifically their sense of autonomy and competence. Three iterations of an original game prototype were developed using a Research through Design methodology. Four expert interviews and eleven player playtests with semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed through inductive and deductive thematic analysis grounded in Self-Determination Theory.
- Thesis Document
- Research Data
- Game Artefact (3 Windows builds of Hexagon Music)
- Interview Transcripts (Raw PDFs of interviews)
- Researcher Journal and Analysis (for 3 design cycles, markdown file format)
- Researcher journal notes
- Design summaries
- Interview scripts
- Coded quotes and thematic analysis outputs
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Unity project files | Hexagon Music Repository |
| Playable builds | itch.io |
| Video documentation | YouTube Playlist |
| Author website | shanevincentsound.com |
Shane Vincent — shanevincentsound.com
MSc Game Technology, Breda University of Applied Sciences, 2026