Requirements of ‘Mixed Reality’ with an unknown environment

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Lately, you see a lot of blog posts and news about mixed reality. This reminded me that I wrote a scientific paper about mixed reality in university (30.11.2017). It’s about the requirements of mixed reality games with an unknown environment for the game design. The German title is ‘Game Design: Anforderungen von Mixed Reality mit unbekannter Spielumgebung’. The goal of the paper was to compile a questionnaire that can help design mixed reality games.

If you are familiar with German, you can read the paper here. If you don’t speak german it’s no problem. I translated the final questionnaire to English below. I hope it will help you to design great mixed reality games. 🙂

 

Questionnaire

Spatial minimum requirements

General

  • Are free spaces, surfaces or a combination of both needed?
  • How much space do you need?
    • 30 cm or 3 meters make a big difference.
  • Is a walking area around your game space needed?
  • Is the effort to provide those spatial conditions reasonable?
    • You can clear a table in no time but would your player move the furniture?

Free space

  • Can this much space be found in the average apartment of your target group?
  • If not, can your game be played outside?
    • Garden
    • Parking ground
    • Public spaces
  • Do you need to account for the different physical properties of your players?
    • Eye-level
    • Arm reach
    • Physical disabilities

Surfaces

  • Does your game fit on an average dining table?
  • If not, can it be played on the floor?
    • Requirements for free space apply
    • Carpet floor
    • Wood or stone floor
  • Do your players have physical impairments that prevent them from playing on the floor?
    • Backache
    • Problems with the knees

 

 

Marker Tracking

General

  • Does marker cards give your game additional value that can’t be achieved without them?
  • Does the player need additional control over the placement of game content to get a better experience?

Dynamic Markers – Movement of the markers is part of the game

  • Do you really need the additional input of the card movement or is it just a gimmick?
  • Do you need an even surface to place and move the cards without difficulty?
    • Spatial minimum requirements for surfaces apply
  • If so, how much space do you need?

Static Markers – Are placed once and never moved

  • Are your markers placed once and not moved through the game?
  • Can you play on an uneven surface?

 

 

Location requirements

  • Does it improve the game if the player has to go to a special location to play your game?
    • Popular examples of location-based games are‘Pokémon Go’, ‘Ingress’ or ‘Zombies, Run!’
  • Does it improve the player experience to visit this location?
  • Is it reasonable for the player to go/travel to this location?
  • Is it possible for your target group to visit these locations?
    • Kids are maybe not allowed to go there alone
  • Do you need a lot of places so your game can be played around the globe or is it a local game for your city?
  • Is the GPS accuracy enough to support a flawless game experience?

 

 

Procedural environment generation

  • Does the procedural adaption of the environment improve the player experience?
  • Is this not achievable through physical adjustments of the environment?
  • Does the interaction of the player with the game world support a procedural generation of the levels?
  • Is it possible to generate a variety of interesting levels in different physical environments?
  • How do you deal with large open spaces and small furnished places?
  • Must the physical space satisfy any special requirements?
    • Must the player be able to walk around your level or can he walk right through it?
  • How likely is it that the apartment of your players satisfies these requirements?