Backseat Playground


	BACKSEAT PLAYGROUND
	Interactive Institute - Stockholm 2005 mobile game research project John Paul Bichard - Liselott Brunnberg - Oskar Juhlin
	Previous research on Backseat Games ... Backseat Gaming - Road Rager Contact - liselott[dot]brunnberg[at sign]tii[dot]se
	Road Rager Road Rager is a multiplayer game, which uses wireless ad hoc peer-to-peer networking technology to enable game-play between car passengers as they come within each others vicinity. Contingent traffic encounters such as rapid meetings, protracted overtaking or gatherings i.e. traffic jams or red light accumulations constitute an essential part of the experience of travelling along a road. Encounters create a social situation we not so often think about. We explore in this prototype how these contingent traffic encounters can be used to create a fun and compelling mobile game and how it can add to the gaming experience.
		View video clip from user test
		Traffic encounters arise when two or more people on the roads are co-located and are within visible sight of each other. It is important to recognize that traffic encounters occur in a variety of ways, this imply that different kinds of encounters call for different possibilities to interact. Some encounter can be extremely momentary, others more persistent. When designing the game we chose to focus on three different encounters, i.e. meeting in opposite lanes, overtaking and traffic-light accumulations. These encounters were chosen because we believe that they constitute short gaming events but bring about different challenges regarding interpretation, exploration and manipulation for the game-play. The idea when designing the game was that it should be rewarding for the player to identify the kind of encounter taking place, in this way we further try to stimulate the player to engage with the surrounding physical world.
		The game consists of a framing story, a set of game level stories and of manipulative events automatically taking place when players are in the proximity of each other. The framing story is told when the game starts to provide the player with the story as well as an understanding of the rules and goals of the game. Game level stories are told in between manipulative events with the purpose of cultivating the fantasy of the game-play. The player’s goal is to gain as high magic power as possible and this can be gained both by achieving knowledge, such as new spells or by gathering powerful objects by being the most powerful in battles. When two players are within wireless reach the game initiates a duel with the purpose of enchanting the opponent.
		The game is developed on a PDA and is aware of the player’s geographical position by means of a Bluetooth GPS-receiver. The PDA is equipped WLAN capability and uses the MongerLib library in order to handle this ad hoc peer-to-peer connection. Mongerlib is based on a rapid mutual peer discovery protocol to quickly detect and connect the players when they meet.
	In order to preserve the connection with the physical world during brief meetings we have partly used a tangible interface for interaction during manipulative events. In swift meetings, when the period of time for interaction with other players is limited, the player can concentrate on spotting the other player and act instantly without looking at a screen. The tangible interface is realized as a magic gadget equipped with fourteen LED’s and is aware of the player’s gestures and aiming direction. The LED’s communicate certain information relevant for the game-play. Four of these, so-called locator LED’s, inform the player about the direction to the opponent player. Ten smaller LED’s, so-called power bars, are placed in two rows and are sequentially turned on and off to indicate the amount of magic power the players possess. The interaction during manipulative events relates to the traffic encounters in terms of direction and distance to opponent player. These design parameters are varied to enable the magic gadget to be turned into any of three different virtual tools, i.e. an Electro squeezer, a Sludge thrower and a Magic wand, and are designed to be more or less suitable for different kinds of encounters.
		The Electro Squeezer is based on neither direction nor distance. This tool can be used in a battle without knowing anything about the location or direction to the opponent player, as long as being within wireless reach. It sends out electric pulses and is fired by squeezing the magic gadget.
		The Sludge thrower is based on direction. When using the Sludge thrower the locator LED’s are active and indicates, if lightened, the direction to the opponent. With this tool the player can throw magic sludge and is used in the same fashion as if throwing something, i.e. the player has to move the Clutcher forward/ downwards at the same time as aiming it towards the opponent. The player will hear a sound indicating that something is flying through the air for two seconds and then a sound indicating hit or miss.
		The Magic wand is based on both direction and distance. It can be used to cast spells. To do this the wand should be swung to follow a circular pattern, but it can only be used once during an encounter. Similar to the Sludge thrower it shows the direction to the opponent player with the help of the locator LED’s. It makes use of distance in the way that the closer the player is to the opponent player the more powerful is the tool.
	See further: Brunnberg, L., The Road Rager - Making Use of Traffic Encounters in a Mobile Multiplayer Game, In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM2004), College Park U.S.A, 2004. [PDF]