The project aims to explore the game mechanics to design a competitive AR board game that enables interaction between players. We explore existing best practices of AR design, and apply them in the development of Themojelly, a local multiplayer board game in AR for smartphones that integrates virtual elements with tangible interfaces. In Thermojelly, each player controls with a joystick shown on his/her smartphone a virtual avatar, with the shape of a jelly, and can play with two different party mini-games, both with the play goal to run and jump across the path designed using the physical board. The board is composed of 8 squared tiles and the players will personalize the map by placing the tiles on a desk, each tile represents an obstacle or an help for the avatar to race to the goal. The players can place the tiles both horizontally or at different heights (for example putting a tile on a pile of books), exploring different physical interaction modalities. The coordinates of all the virtual objects are computed with respect to a shared physical space: for a fluid AR multiplayer each player with the smartphone will have a different point of view of the same real and virtual worlds. Through this approach different players share the same play space, and visualize in contemporary all the events happening in the game from different points of view. To assess usability and players’ AR experience we performed a study with 22 participants. Each participant installed in his/her smartphone the Thermojelly and played at the boardgame at home involving parents and friends (we required each participant to play with at least 1 other player), after the play they filled out a questionnaire on the AR experience. Results showed that the play with the AR board was perceived as fluid and fun, and players appreciated in particular the possibility to personalize and build the play map, however the joystick control of the virtual avatar during the race was perceived as unnecessary complex to use, indicating that is required a easier interaction modality that should not require to touch the screen while the user is framing the board.
Exploring AR Experience with Thermojelly: a Competitive AR Board-game with Tangible Interfaces / E. Chitti, R. Iervolino, N.A. Borghese - In: CHI PLAY Companion '24 / [a cura di] O. ‘Oz’ Buruk, G. Freeman, J. Hamari. - [s.l] : ACM, 2024 Oct 14. - ISBN 979-8-4007-0692-9. - pp. 37-42 (( convegno Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play tenutosi a Tampere nel 2024 [10.1145/3665463.3678809].
Exploring AR Experience with Thermojelly: a Competitive AR Board-game with Tangible Interfaces
E. Chitti
;N.A. Borghese
2024
Abstract
The project aims to explore the game mechanics to design a competitive AR board game that enables interaction between players. We explore existing best practices of AR design, and apply them in the development of Themojelly, a local multiplayer board game in AR for smartphones that integrates virtual elements with tangible interfaces. In Thermojelly, each player controls with a joystick shown on his/her smartphone a virtual avatar, with the shape of a jelly, and can play with two different party mini-games, both with the play goal to run and jump across the path designed using the physical board. The board is composed of 8 squared tiles and the players will personalize the map by placing the tiles on a desk, each tile represents an obstacle or an help for the avatar to race to the goal. The players can place the tiles both horizontally or at different heights (for example putting a tile on a pile of books), exploring different physical interaction modalities. The coordinates of all the virtual objects are computed with respect to a shared physical space: for a fluid AR multiplayer each player with the smartphone will have a different point of view of the same real and virtual worlds. Through this approach different players share the same play space, and visualize in contemporary all the events happening in the game from different points of view. To assess usability and players’ AR experience we performed a study with 22 participants. Each participant installed in his/her smartphone the Thermojelly and played at the boardgame at home involving parents and friends (we required each participant to play with at least 1 other player), after the play they filled out a questionnaire on the AR experience. Results showed that the play with the AR board was perceived as fluid and fun, and players appreciated in particular the possibility to personalize and build the play map, however the joystick control of the virtual avatar during the race was perceived as unnecessary complex to use, indicating that is required a easier interaction modality that should not require to touch the screen while the user is framing the board.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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