Disengagement from games is challenging for children, and can lead to family conflict. While parental mediation is well-understood, the role of game design in supporting children’s disengagement remains underexplored. Our work addresses this gap through a qualitative study with 39 participants (22 children aged 4-11 and 17 parents), in which children played "Snarky’s Adventure", a prototype featuring disengagement-friendly mechanics supporting player understanding of progress, and the experience of satisfaction and closure at the end of play. Through Qualitative Content Analysis, we show that the features help children anticipate the end of play, but in some cases spark curiosity and the desire to re-engage. Additionally, while parents valued the mechanics to understand game progress, future work should explore how to actively engage them in children’s disengagement. Our work provides the first empirical exploration of disengagement-friendly game mechanics, and outlines challenges and opportunities for their future integration in children’s games.

Disengagement from games can be challenging for players, and various attempts have been made to provide parents with the tools to limit children’s playing time. However, little is known about how children experience disengagement, and how children and parents jointly navigate the process of exiting a play session. To address this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 participants, including 13 children (ages 4–9) and 12 parents. Through Thematic Analysis, we show that children – like adults – struggle to exit play if they have not yet reached a point of closure and are unsatisfied with their experience. At the same time, parents experience frustration when establishing limits, and many found it difficult to account for the state of a play session. On this basis, we highlight the relevance of disengagement-friendly game design and mediation strategies, and provide recommendations for children’s disengagement from play sessions while protecting their player experience.

Ending a gaming session can be challenging for children and parents/guardians. Although many tools exist to monitor and restrict playtime, many do not adequately communicate session progress to children, and do not effectively involve guardians in the process. This is a missed opportunity for families to develop media literacy, and can also lead to conflicts and fights about playtime. To open up conversation about playtime management as a shared responsibility between children and guardians, we present "Schlusslicht"’ – an ambient display that seeks to facilitate a shared awareness of progression of a gaming session and remaining time between guardians and children, and can be leveraged to further explore how we can best support children when disengaging from play sessions. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khEdN9C9Sgw

The games research community has developed substantial knowledge on designing engaging experiences that draw players in. Surprisingly, less is known about player disengagement, with existing work predominantly addressing disengagement from the perspective of problematic play, and research exploring player disengagement from a constructive designer perspective is lacking. In this paper, we address this gap and argue that disengagement from games should be constructively designed, allowing players to exit play sessions in a self-determined way. Following a two-phase research approach that combines an interview study ( n =16) with a follow-up online survey ( n =111), we systematically analyze player perspectives on exiting play sessions. Our work expands the existing notion of disengagement through a characterization of exit experiences, a lens on disengagement as a process, and points for reflection for the design of games that seek to address player disengagement in a constructive way.