1. [Publications](/publications) 2. Impact of Frametime Spikes on Performance and Quality of Experience in Platformer Games # Impact of Frametime Spikes on Performance and Quality of Experience in Platformer Games ![](/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/publications/tokey26_fdg_platformer.png?itok=_8cmsX2m) Frametime spikes can disrupt gameplay in games, affecting both player performance and experience, but the effects of these spikes on navigation based tasks is not well-studied. This work investigates how frametime spikes impact players performing navigation-focused tasks in a platformer game. An open-source platformer game, SuperTux Classic, was modified to deliberately create spikes in frametimes when players performed certain actions, while recording performance and assessing quality of experience (QoE). Thirty-one participants completed eight distinct navigation-based tasks, each with predetermined spike durations. Analysis of the data shows that the effects of frametime spikes on player performance depends on the task, but the effects on QoE are largely independent of task. ## Authors Samin Shahriar Tokey (Worcester Polytechnic University) [Ben Boudaoud](/person/ben-boudaoud) [Josef Spjut](/person/josef-spjut) Mark Claypool (Worcester Polytechnic University) ## Publication Date Monday, August 10, 2026 ## Published in [Foundations of Digital Games](https://fdg2026.org/) ## Research Area [Applied Perception](/research-area/applied-perception) [Esports](/research-area/esports) [Human Computer Interaction](/research-area/human-computer-interaction) ## External Links [Project Page](https://web.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/spikes-fdg-26/) ## Uploaded Files [Author Version](https://d1qx31qr3h6wln.cloudfront.net/publications/tokey26_fdg_platformer.pdf?VersionId=1GifhWD5r5YJL9vhG3J06R3YZytyFKV7 "Open file in new window")3.8 MB ## Copyright Copyright by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from Publications Dept, ACM Inc., fax +1 (212) 869-0481, or . The definitive version of this paper can be found at ACM's Digital Library .