Augmenting traditional playground games to enhance game experience

Technology can provide engaging game experiences. However, it can also decrease the exhibition of essential play behavior such as social interaction and physical activity. In this paper, we discuss how the Interactive Tag Playground (ITP) can enhance the traditional tag game experience by making it more enjoyable and immersive without sacrificing social and physically active behavior. Additionally, we also show it can double as a research tool to analyze player behavior using data obtained in-game. These conclusions are derived from a user study and behavior analysis of participants playing traditional and interactive tag game sessions. The findings lead us to believe that the ITP can provide an engaging tag experience while facilitating the analysis of player behavior and promoting key aspects of play

Automatic behavior analysis in tag games: from traditional spaces to interactive playgrounds

Tag is a popular children’s playground game. It revolves around taggers that chase and then tag runners, upon which their roles switch. There are many variations of the game that aim to keep children engaged by presenting them with challenges and different types of gameplay. We argue that the introduction of sensing and floor projection technology in the playground can aid in providing both variation and challenge. To this end, we need to understand players’ behavior in the playground and steer the interactions using projections accordingly. In this paper, we first analyze the behavior of taggers and runners in a traditional tag setting. We focus on behavioral cues that differ between the two roles. Based on these, we present a probabilistic role recognition model. We then move to an interactive setting and evaluate the model on tag sessions in an interactive tag playground. Our model achieves 77.96 % accuracy, which demonstrates the feasibility of our approach. We identify several avenues for improvement. Eventually, these should lead to a more thorough understanding of what happens in the playground, not only regarding player roles but also when the play breaks down, for example when players are bored or cheat

Steering gameplay behavior in the interactive tag playground

This paper deals with steering player behavior in the Interactive Tag Playground (ITP). The ITP, an ambient environment instrumented with contact-free sensor technology and ambient display capabilities, enhances the traditional game of tag by determining when a valid tag has been made and visualising the current tagger. We present three modifications of the ITP that aim to steer the gameplay actions of the players. The modifications are intended to influence who will be chased next by the tagger; to make good players easier to tag and less skilled players harder to tag; and to influence the locations visited by the players. We report on a user study showing that two of the three modifications have a significant effect on the behavior of players in the ITP and discuss opportunities for future research that follow from his study