1. A multi-user augemented reality
board game
Bart Gerard
Mentor: Sten Govaerts
Promotor: Prof. Erik Duval

2. Overview
• Why board games?
• Goals
• Paper prototype 1
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Questions?

3. Why board games?
• Initial ideas:
A multi-user augmented reality…
– … reality game
– … guided tour (nature/city/museum)
– … board game

4. Why board games?
• Reason
– BoardGameGeek (http://boardgamegeek.com/user/bartg12345)
– Setup time
– Automatic rule checking
– Tutorial
– Player aid during game
– Total immersion
– Complexity

5. Mansions of Madness
• 2-5 players
• Semi-cooperative
– 1 keeper
– 1-4 investigators

6. Why Mansions of Madness?
• Story driven
– H.P. Lovecraft
• Long setup time
• Huge rulebook
• Complex
• Unknown

7. Goals
• Research
– Bring people together
– Immersive experience
– Expandable

8. Goals
• Practical
– Support for beginners, …
– Complete
– Limit setup time
– Limit learning curve
– Simultaneous play
– Secret information / actions

9. Examples
Smallworld

10. Examples
Smallworld (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/small-world-for-ipad/id364165557?mt=8)

11. Examples
Puerto Rico

12. Examples
Puerto Rico HD for iPad (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/puerto-rico-hd/id438437326?mt=8)

13. Examples
STARS - A Ubiquitous Computing Platform for Computer Augmented Tabletop Games
(http://www.ipsi.fraunhofer.de/ambiente/paper/2003/magerkurth_stars_ubicomp03_new.pdf)

14. Solution? AR!
• Every user 1 iPad
• Real board tiles
• Real pawns (?)
• No 3D -> 2D

15. Paper prototype 1
• Focus
– Gameplay / interaction
• Not yet
– Completeness
– Player aid

16. Paper prototype 1
• 4 parts
1. Setup
2. Investigator turn
3. Keeper turn
4. Bonus

17. Setup
• Objective
– Start the game on two iPads.
1 iPad has to run an investigator application
1 iPad has to run the keeper application

18. Setup

19. Setup

20. Setup

21. Setup
Back Lobby Back Lobby
Keeper Keeper
player 0 player 0
Investigators Investigators
player 1 player 1
player 2 player 2
player 3 Start player 3
player 4 player 4

22. Investigator turn
• Objective
– Find first clue card.

23. Investigator turn
Target
Info: Stats, skills, …
Explore
Cards

24. Keeper turn
• Objective
– Use mythos card to annoy investigator
– Use keeper action card to summon cultists

25. Keeper turn

26. Bonus
• Objective
– Find information of other investigators
– Find information about the keeper

27. Bonus
Bart Gerard Bart Gerard
Ashcan Pete The Evil Presence
12 12
8
3

28. Paper prototype 1
• Evaluation
– Record
– Think aloud
– Questionnaire

29. Paper prototype 1

30. Paper prototype 1

31. Paper prototype 1

32. Paper prototype 1
• Average SUS score: 75

33. Paper prototype 1

34. Paper prototype 1
• Problems
– Mix traditional UI en tangible UI
– No support yet
– Unclear transitions
– Information and action buttons all together

35. Solution?

36. Solution?

37. Solution?

38. Statistics
• Total: 290u30m
• Literature: 115u25m
• Implementation: 71u
• Design: 40u
• Evaluation: 18u30m
• Report: 15u
• Meetings: 5u
• Rest (blogging, tweeting, …): 25u25m

39. Se
pt Hours spent on thesis
e m
be
0:00
9:36
4:48
14:24
19:12
24:00
28:48
33:36
38:24
43:12
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Oc r 2 11
to 4
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No r 1
ve 31 1
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v e er 1
m 7, 1
N o b e 20
Week
ve r 1 11
m 4,
N o b e 20
Statistics
ve r 2 11
m 1,
b 20
De er 1
ce 28 1
,
De mb 20
c e er 1
m 5, 1
D e b e 20
c e r 1 11
m 2,
b e 20
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9,
20
11

40. Statistics
• # Blogposts: 18
• # Tweets: 23
• # Comments: 11

41. Schedule
• 2 jan - 6 feb: Implementation
• 10 feb - 20 feb: Finish literature study
• 21 feb - 26 feb: Scientific article
• 27 feb - 18 mar: Test and evaluation application v1.0
• 19 mar - 1 apr: Report and presentation
• 2 apr - 10 apr: Finish text about prototypes and
application v1.0
• 16 apr - 22 apr: Create poster
• 23 apr - 13 may: Adapt, test and evaluate application
v2.0
• 14 may - 8 jun: Write, write, ...

42. Questions?