Browsing by Author "Watts, Cody"
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- ItemOpen AccessExploring interpersonal touch as a human-computer interface for video games(2010) Watts, Cody; Sharlin, Ehud
- ItemOpen AccessFrom the Desktop to the Tabletop: Bringing Virtual Games into the Physical World(2006-10-31) Watts, Cody; Sharlin, EhudRealism has become the watchword for modern games games now boast realistic lighting effects, realistic physics, realistic animation systems and realistic AI. Realism is highly sought, simply because a realistic game is a compelling one; as games become more and more indistinguishable from reality, gamers are more willing to suspend disbelief, and to lose themselves in the game world. When the idea of realistic gaming is taken to the logical extreme, one tends to imagine something akin to holodeck from Star Trek a perfect immersive experience which could reproduce the sight, sound, and touch of any scenario. Why is it that modern games fall short of the perfect immersion provided by the holodeck? Graphics are the most obvious discrepancy. Admittedly, the imagery produced by the holodeck is much better than anything we can reasonably create today. But if modern games were to attain perfect graphical photorealism, would this alone create a holodeck-like experience for the player? Obviously not; a key component of the experience is still missing namely, a sense of physical immersion. Although modern games are more realistic than ever before there exist two constraints which have served to limit the player s sense of immersion since the advent of videogaming itself. First, in conventional gaming action is constrained to a flat display space, usually a video monitor. The game experience is confined to a screen, seldom going beyond and engaging the player in the external, physical world. Second, the player s ability to interact with the game is usually tied to an arbitrary input device such as a mouse, keyboard or game pad. The player is never free to act on the game world directly. Instead, he or she must issue all commands through this intermediary device. It is our belief that mixed reality a field of research which attempts to integrate virtual entities into a user s physical environment can address both of these problems simultaneously. Due largely to advances in hardware and software, implementing mixed reality is now more accessible and affordable than ever before. In this paper we attempt to illustrate the potential that mixed reality has for gaming and through a simple videogame implementation, Save Em, demonstrate how easily this technique can be applied.
- ItemOpen AccessLet's Get Physical: How Physical Control Methods Make Games Fun(2007-01-19) Xin, Min; Watts, Cody; Sharlin, EhudDespite their widespread acceptance, traditional computer gaming interfaces such as the monitor and keyboard fundamentally serve to separate players from their games. In this paper, we examine how physically-based control methods which leverage the physical movement of their players as a method for playing games can be used to foster player immersion, creating games which are intuitive, accessible and fun. An examination of how a mixed reality interfaces support (and even encourage) physical controls follows, where we discuss two of our mixed reality game implementations Save Em and Napkin Chess.
- ItemOpen AccessMatchmaker: Interpersonal Touch in Gaming(2008-06-16T16:43:44Z) Watts, Cody; Sharlin, Ehud; Woytiuk, PeterInterpersonal touch – a shared touch between two people – is both significant and common in human social interac-tion. In this paper we argue that interpersonal touch should play a role in interaction between people in computer-mediated social activities, such as video games. To support this notion, we have designed Matchmaker; a two-player cooperative tabletop video game themed on the concepts of love and romance. Matchmaker’s gameplay is directly controlled by a set of collaborative tabletop inter-action techniques, as well as by interpersonal touch be-tween its players. In this paper we present the philosophy behind Match-maker’s design and describe in details the game implemen-tation. We also include the results of an exploratory user study designed to gauge players’ responses to Matchmaker and to its unique interpersonal interaction technique. Our results suggest that not only is Matchmaker a highly enjoy-able game, but that its integration of interpersonal touch is a strong contributor to players’ enjoyment.
- ItemOpen AccessPhotogeist Snapping Ghosts' Pictures in an Augmented Reality Game(2008-07-16T15:15:26Z) Watts, Cody; Sharlin, EhudWe discuss the design of Photogeist: an augmented reality game which is based on a physical metaphor of a handheld camera as its main game interface. The gameplay requires the player to physically move around the game scene, sneak up on ghosts, and snap effective pictures documenting them using her paranormal phenomena-sensitive camera. The paper presents the motivation for Photogeist, its game design, implementation and resulting gameplay, as well as brief discussion of related games.
- ItemOpen AccessSave 'Em: Hands-On Gameplay(2007-03-01) Watts, Cody; Sharlin, EhudWe present Save Em, an augmented reality-based computer game designed to explore the universal challenge of making computer games more immersive, entertaining and fun. As in the classic computer game Lemmings, Save Em is based on maneuvering a group of slow-witted characters called Dudes through a treacherous maze. Using augmented reality techniques, Save Em places virtual game entities directly within the player s physical environment; gameplay takes place on a real game board rather than on a computer screen, and Dudes are being led to their destiny directly through the physical actions of the player in the real world. We use Save Em to explore how moving game interaction from the virtual domain into the physical world using augmented reality can affect gameplay and players overall game experience. Preliminary findings based on a number of informal Save Em sessions demonstrate the potential of this approach.