Gaming on the Edge: Using Seams in Pervasive Games (original) (raw)

Gaming on the edge: using seams in ubicomp games

2005

Abstract Outdoor multi-player games are an increasingly popular application area for ubiquitous computing, supporting experimentation both with new technologies and new user experiences. This paper presents an outdoor ubicomp game that exploits the gaps or seams that exist in complex computer systems. Treasure is designed so that players move in and out of areas of wireless network coverage, taking advantage not only of the connectivity within a wireless' hotspot'but of the lack of connectivity outside it.

Experiences from the Development of the Pervasive Game

2015

Pervasive games employ pervasive technology like location-based techniques, utilize player context in real world, and thus produce high immersion. In this article we will introduce a pervasive game prototype CityZombie, which is a multiplayer strategic game we developed and tested in Trondheim, Norway. The experience from developing and evaluating CityZombie is presented in this article, which covers both technical and gameplay aspects. CellID as a simple and popular technique shows high feasibility and appropriateness to the game, and social interaction plays a dominate role in attractiveness and enjoyment brought by CityZombie. Our research also reveals that strategic game could be a promising genre of pervasive game, due to its relatively low requirement to platform capabilities.

Pervasive Gaming: Testing Future Context Aware Applications

2009

More and more technical research projects take place that weave together elements of real and virtual life to provide a new experience defined as pervasive. They bank on the development of mobile services to drive the expansion of pervasive applications and in particular pervasive games. Using geolocalisation, local networks and short range radio frequencies technologies like RFID or other tagging technologies, pervasive games rely on a close relationship to the environment and thus explore the space between fiction and reality. This is their main quality but possibly their main weakness as the development relies on the production of specific contents in relation to the context of use. In this article, we propose to explore what this entirely new paradigm for game design implies in terms of production and how to overcome the limitations due to this dependency of contents and context. Based on our experience of three pervasive games developed within research projects on adhoc wifi (ANR-Safari and ANR-Transhumance) and RFID networks (ANR-PLUG), this paper presents different options to reducing the cost of content production relying on either traditional editors or grass root contributions.

Interweaving mobile games with everyday life

2006

Abstract We introduce a location--based game called Feeding Yoshi that provides an example of seamful design, in which key characteristics of its underlying technologies-the coverage and security characteristics of WiFi-are exposed as a core element of gameplay. Feeding Yoshi is also a long--term, wide--area game, being played over a week between three different cities during an initial user study.

Pervasive Gaming in the Everyday World

IEEE Pervasive Computing, 2006

In this paper, we've made an initial attempt to explore the three dimensions of pervasive game play in the context of people's everyday life. Using an advanced prototype of SupaFly, a pervasive game developed by the former company It's Alive (now part of Daydream), we've evaluated how people perceive and play the game in normal, everyday settings. Our evaluation focused on how the players judged the designers' attempts to incorporate the three dimensions in the game.

Exploiting Seams in Mobile Phone Games

2006

Abstract. Seamful design is a novel approach to Ubiquitous and Mobile Computing systems that reveals and exploits inevitable technical limitations and boundaries as well as their effects on seamless interaction rather than hiding them. In this paper we want to introduce its general ideas, point out common seams on the mobile phone platform and show how people might accommodate to seams and use them for their own advantage as useful features of an application.

Seamful Design for location-based mobile games

Entertainment Computing-ICEC 2005, 2005

Seamful design is a new approach to reveal and exploit inevitable technical limitations in Ubiquitous Computing technology rather than hiding them. In this paper we want to introduce its general ideas and apply them to the design of location-aware games for mobile phones. We introduce our own seamful trading-game called "Tycoon" to explore seams on this platform and show how to incorporate them into the design of mobile games. We want to evaluate how applications for the mobile phone platform which use cellpositioning can exploit seams for better interaction, gameplay and usability. troduce our own design for a seamful location-based game for mobile phones called "Tycoon" and want to explore how to exploit the seams on this platform -especially in cell-based positioning, network coverage and data inconsistencies -as resources for better usability, interaction and gameplay.

Blowtooth: pervasive gaming in unique and challenging environments

2010

Abstract This paper describes Blowtooth, a Bluetooth-implemented pervasive game where players smuggle virtual drugs through real airport security with the help of unknowing bystanders. The game explores the nature of pervasive game playing in environments that are not generally regarded as playful or" fun," and where people are subject to particularly high levels of intrusive surveillance and monitoring. Six participants who were travelling internationally within a two-week period were recruited to evaluate the game.