Mixed-initiative approaches to on-device mobile game design

Playing casual games is a wildly popular activity on smartphones. However, designing casual games is done by a smaller group of people, usually on desktop computers, using professional development tools. Our goal is to bring these activities closer together, in terms of who does them and how they do them. Our Gamika Technology platform is a 2D physics-based mobile game design environment. It comprises a 284-dimensional parametric design space, and poses mobile game design as the problem of navigating this space. We have built three mobile apps thus far to experiment with on-device, mixed-initiative navigation of the Gamika design space and some of its subspaces. We describe these apps here in terms of the initiatives that go into making a game with them, and how these are split between people and underlying AI software. Our overall goal is to democratise game design, so that anyone and everyone can make casual games directly on their mobile phones or tablets

Exploring Novel Game Spaces with Fluidic Games

AISB: Games AI & VR, 4 pages, 4 figures, game design, tools, creativityWith the growing integration of smartphones into our daily lives, and their increased ease of use, mobile games have become highly popular across all demographics. People listen to music, play games or read the news while in transit or bridging gap times. While mobile gaming is gaining popularity, mobile expression of creativity is still in its early stages. We present here a new type of mobile app -- fluidic games -- and illustrate our iterative approach to their design. This new type of app seamlessly integrates exploration of the design space into the actual user experience of playing the game, and aims to enrich the user experience. To better illustrate the game domain and our approach, we discuss one specific fluidic game, which is available as a commercial product. We also briefly discuss open challenges such as player support and how generative techniques can aid the exploration of the game space further

Staff perceptions towards virtual reality-motivated treadmill exercise for care home residents: a qualitative feedback study with key stakeholders and follow-up interview with technology developer

Objectives Health and care resources are under increasing pressure, partly due to the ageing population. Physical activity supports healthy ageing, but motivating exercise is challenging. We aimed to explore staff perceptions towards a virtual reality (VR) omnidirectional treadmill (MOTUS), aimed at increasing physical activity for older adult care home residents. Design Interactive workshops and qualitative evaluation. Settings Eight interactive workshops were held at six care homes and two university sites across Cornwall, England, from September to November 2021. Participants Forty-four staff participated, including care home, supported living, clinical care and compliance managers, carers, activity coordinators, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. Interventions Participants tried the VR treadmill system, followed by focus groups exploring device design, potential usefulness or barriers for care home residents. Focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. We subsequently conducted a follow-up interview with the technology developer (September 2022) to explore the feedback impact. Results The analysis produced seven key themes: anticipated benefits, acceptability, concerns of use, concerns of negative effects, suitability/unsuitability, improvements and current design. Participants were generally positive towards VR to motivate care home residents’ physical activity and noted several potential benefits (increased exercise, stimulation, social interaction and rehabilitation). Despite the reported potential, staff had safety concerns for frail older residents due to their standing position. Participants suggested design improvements to enhance safety, usability and accessibility. Feedback to the designers resulted in the development of a new seated VR treadmill to address concerns about falls while maintaining motivation to exercise. The follow-up developer interview identified significant value in academia–industry collaboration. Conclusion The use of VR-motivated exercise holds the potential to increase exercise, encourage reminiscence and promote meaningful activity for care home residents. Staff concerns resulted in a redesigned seated treadmill for those too frail to use the standing version. This novel study demonstrates the importance of stakeholder feedback in product design

Ragdoll Recovery: Manipulating Virtual Mannequins to Aid Action Sequence Proficiency

In this paper, we present a Virtual Reality (VR) prototype to support the demonstration and practice of the First Aid recovery position. When someone is unconscious and awaiting medical attention, they are placed in the recovery position to keep their airways clear. The recovery position is a commonly taught action sequence for medical professionals and trained first-aiders across industries. VR is a potential pathway for recovery position training as it can deliver spatial information of a demonstrated action for a subsequent copy. However, due to limits of physical interaction with virtual avatars, the practice of this motor sequence is normally performed in the real world on training partners and body mannequins. This limits remote practice, a key strength of any digital, educational resource. We present Ragdoll Recovery (RR), a VR prototype designed to aid training of the recovery position through avatar demonstration and virtual practice mannequins. Users can view the recovery position sequence by walking around two demonstrator avatars. Observed motor skill sequence can then be practised on a virtual mannequin that uses ragdoll physics for realistic and real-time limb behaviour. RR enables remote access to motor skill training that bridges the gap between knowledge of a demonstrated action sequence and real-world performance. We aim to use this prototype to test the viability of action sequence training within a VR educational space

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Short Stories in Short Game Play

What are the minimal requirements to tell a story by means of some digital game? What are minimal short stories worth to be told? How to establish the minimal preliminaries of interactive storytelling? What do we expect of computerized counterparts that are worth to be mentioned in a story humans experience when playing a digital game? The authors have designed, implemented and experimentally used some particularly simple game in which the personalities of digitalized agents–the good, the bad and the ugly–substantially contribute to stories that may be worth being reported

Synthesis and properties of carboxy‐functionalized poly(3‐alkylthienylenes)

The synthesis of a new type of, and doping mechanism in, “self exchange” or “self‐doping” conducting polymers based on 3‐(ω‐carboxyalkyl)thiophenes (with n = 4‐14) is examined (see figure). The properties of the polymers are different to that of those based on the corresponding sulphonic acids due to the lower acidity of the carboxylic acid function