Trends in Pervasive Gaming

1
Trends in Pervasive Gaming

• A challenging Research area and
• An Exploding Market

Annika Waern Swedish Institute of Computer
Science Project Coordinator, IPerG Former CTO of
Gamefederation AB
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Pervasive Gaming

• What is pervasive gaming?
• Games where game play is embedded in the real
  world
• mobile location-based games
• online games that reach out
• mixed reality games that blend online and on-
  the-streets
• augmented board games
• etc

3
Pervasive Games - a Growing Market

• A new market for European mobile technology
• Europe leads the world in mobile technologies but
  not in games technologies
• Europe has already a front position in Pervasive
  Games both research and commercially
• Pervasive gaming is a market where Europe can
  take lead
• This market will grow to billions of euros -
  exploding

4
Game Design

• Pervasive games are good for you!
• They involve the world outside your bedroom
• They make you move some require physical
  exertion
• They are highly social
• They enrich cultural life
• They are not male-dominated

5

A New, Large Research Project in Europe
SICS, Its Alive, Interactive Institute, Gotland
University
exploring pervasive gaming

• Creates opportunities for new business
• Makes computer games more social and physical
• Contains the world leading researchers and
  companies
• Is timely

University of Nottingham
BlastTheory
University of Tampere
Nokia
Fraunhofer
Sony
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IPerG in Sweden

• Four Swedish Partners
• And half of the money...
• Close cooperation between research and industry
• Gotlands Spelforsknings- och Utvecklingscentrum
• SICS Gametheme
• Spelplan.se a contact network for Swedish
  game industry
• Masters level game education at Gotland
• Maybe coming A Ph.D. Level national research
  school

SICS
Play
Its Alive
Zero Game
HGO
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IPerG Goals

• The research objective of IPerG is to develop
  infrastructure, tools and methods for pervasive
  games
• Enable rapid and cost-effective creation and
  staging of pervasive games
• Create good designs
• Understand the intended audience
• Understand the societal impact of games
• IPerG explores both technology and game design

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IPerG Technology Issues

• Devices
• Mobile
• Consoles
• Ambient
• Infrastructure
• Sensors
• Networking
• Tools
• Development
• Staging
• Post-Production

Server mode (3G, GPRS, GSM, WiFi)
Peer-to-peer connection (WiFi, Bluetooth)
No connection (standalone mode
resynchronisation)
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Game Genres

• Pervasive Games can be very different from each
  other
• Short-term or persistent
• General public or dedicated gamers
• Mobile, position-based, sesor-based
• Overlay of virtual and physical reality
• Playable in fixed area or anywhere
• Specialised or generic technology
• NOW FOR SOME EXAMPLES....

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BotFighters

• Position-based games
• BotFighters was the worlds first commercial
  position-based game.
• Players build their bots online, and battle each
  other on the streets by sending SMS.
• Social Adaptability ?

11
Backseat Gaming
Travelling Games Travelling along a road is a
sequential experience similar to
storytelling. Backseat gaming builds on this,
and creates a game that is linked to a particular
route. Timing?
12
SpyGame

• Online-Onstreet Games
• In SpyGame, the players are divided into agent
  teams fighting over a suitcase
• Online gamers see the position of the suitcase
  and provide directions
• Onstreet gamers take the suitcase to their home
  base
• SMS-based communication
• Other teams spy on the messages
• Communication between real and virtual players ??

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MyTheme
Physical games with virtual components myTheme is
a computer-augmented card game that allows
players to create narrative structures to be
filled in by a computer. Stories emerge from the
combination of players' actions, the rules of the
game, and a computer database of story
elements. Ambient Storytelling?
Pirates
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Visby Under

• Trans-Reality games - Overlay between Physical
  and Virtual Space
• Visby Under is a tourist-oriented game
  encapsulating historic information about Visby,
  presented in the framework of ancient Gotland
  legends.
• The information is available by walking to the
  right position in Visby.
• Learning and Cross-Cultural Communication?

Ouroborous
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Enhanced Reality Live Action Role Playing

• Technology enhances the experience in live role
  playing.
• The LARP community in the Nordic countries is
  experimental and very advanced.
• The Role of Technology?
• Itself (e.g. Majestic)
• Magic
• Future or past technology
• Body extensions
• Invisible (to provide overview and documentation
  facilities)

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ITPSU Role Play for Business Training

• Role Playing has long been used in therapy and in
  business training (Jacob Levy Moreno, 1930s)
• ITPSU was based on a classic business management
  training scenario, made more realistic through
  the use of distributed technology
• Participants got more involved
• Trainers got a better overview

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In Reality, Who is Playing?