Movement Empowerment in Mixed-Reality Trampoline Games
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Movement Empowerment in Mixed-Reality Trampoline Games Lauri Lehtonen School of Science Thesis submitted for examination for the degree of Master of Science in Technology. Espoo 27.05.2019 Supervisor Prof. Perttu Hämäläinen Advisors Dr Max D. Kaos Dr Raine Kajastila Copyright ⃝c 2019 Lauri Lehtonen Aalto University, P.O. BOX 11000, 00076 AALTO www.aalto.fi Abstract of the master’s thesis Author Lauri Lehtonen Title Movement Empowerment in Mixed-Reality Trampoline Games Degree programme Information Networks Major Media Code of major SCI3047 Supervisor Prof. Perttu Hämäläinen Advisors Dr Max D. Kaos, Dr Raine Kajastila Date 27.05.2019 Number of pages 43 Language English Abstract Lack of motivation for physical activity is a significant public health concern. Ex- ergames or games that require physical exertion can be designed to help alleviate this issue by providing an alternative exercise form that caters to psychological needs important for motivation. Granting people superhuman movement abilities through movement empowerment has been shown to support feeling of competence, an important human need and an essential intrinsic motivation factor posited by self-determination theory. This thesis introduces three mixed-reality trampoline games for the ValoJump trampoline game platform. The games empower movement in both the real world and the game world; a real trampoline exaggerates movement in the real world while the games artificially further exaggerate the movement in the game world. Two of the games were designed and implemented through an iterative process at Valo Motion Oy and one of the games is based on earlier research in Aalto University. This thesis describes the problems we faced when designing the games, how we overcame them and how we created designs that work in the context of commercial indoor activity parks. One of the games is the first mixed-reality empow- erment game for trampolines with multiplayer gameplay. For this game, the thesis also presents an in-the-wild user study in which 26 participants played the game in a Finnish indoor activity park. The game scored high in Physical Activity Enjoyment Survey (PACES) as well as in Ubisoft Perceived Experience Questionnaire (UPEQ) and thus further demonstrated the potential of movement empowered exergames in satisfying human needs important for intrinsic motivation. Keywords Movement empowerment; mixed-reality games; exergames; social play; self-determination theory; trampolines Aalto-yliopisto, PL 11000, 00076 AALTO www.aalto.fi Diplomityön tiivistelmä Tekijä Lauri Lehtonen Työn nimi Liikeen voimistus sekoitetun todellisuuden trampoliinipeleissä Koulutusohjelma Informaatioverkostot Pääaine Media Pääaineen koodi SCI3047 Työn valvoja Prof. Perttu Hämäläinen Työn ohjaaja Max D. Kaos, Raine Kajastila Päivämäärä 27.05.2019 Sivumäärä 43 Kieli Englanti Tiivistelmä Liikuntamotivaation puute on merkittävä kansanterveydellinen ongelma. Liikunta- pelit (exergames), joiden pelaaminen vaatii fyysistä rasitusta, voidaan suunnitella lievittämään tätä ongelmaa. Liikuntapelit voivat tarjota liikuntamuotoja, jotka täyt- tävät liikuntamotivaation kannalta tärkeitä psykologisia tarpeita. On tutkittu, että koetun pätevyyden tunnetta voidaan tukea tarjoamalla ihmisille yliluonnollisia liikku- miskykyjä liikkeen voimistamisen kautta. Pätevyyden tunne on tärkeä psykologinen perustarve ja oleellinen sisäisen motivaation osa. Tämä diplomityö esittelee kolme sekoitetun todellisuuden trampoliinipeliä ValoJump trampoliinipelialustalle. Pelit voi- mistavat liikettä sekä oikeassa maailmassa, että pelimaailmassa; trampoliini liioittelee liikettä oikeassa maailmassa samanaikaisesti kun peli liioittelee liikettä keinotekoisesti pelimaailmassa. Kaksi peleistä on suunniteltu ja toteutettu iteratiivisen suunnittelu- prosessin kautta Valo Motion Oy:ssä ja yksi pohjautuu Aalto Yliopiston aikaisempiin tutkimuksiin. Diplomityö kuvaa ongelmat, joita pelien suunnittelussa kohdattiin, kuinka ongelmat ratkaistiin ja kuinka luotiin pelejä, jotka toimivat kaupallisissa sisäaktiviteettipuistoissa. Yksi peleistä on maailman ensimmäinen sekoitetun to- dellisuuden trampoliinimoninpeli. Kyseisen pelin osalta diplomityö sisältää myös käyttäjätutkimuksen sisäaktiviteettipuistossa. Peli sai korkeat pisteet liikunnan iloa mittaavassa PACES-kyselyssä sekä pelikokemusta mittaavassa UPEQ-kyselyssä. Tut- kimus demonstroi liikettä voimistavien liikkunnallisten pelien potentiaalia tyydyttää ihmisen sisäiselle motivaatiolle oleellisia tarpeita. Avainsanat liikkeen voimistaminen, trampoliinit, liikuntapelit 5 Preface I first want to thank my supervisor Professor Perttu Hämäläinen and my advisorDr Max D. Kaos for making this thesis possible. Big thanks for all your guidance and assistance! Special thanks to Max D. Kaos for his considerable involvement in the study and for assisting me with his vast knowledge of exergame research. Additional thanks also to Perttu Hämäläinen for guiding me with my studies and career in the game industry during the past years. I also want to thank Valo Motion CEO Dr Raine Kajastila and the entire Valo Motion team for the great effort in making the ValoJump trampoline game platform a reality. Special thanks to Valo Motion CTO Joni Vähämäki for all the technical guidance and assistance in implementing the ValoJump games and for implementing the tracking software that makes the ValoJump games possible. Thanks also to Lassi Vapaakallio for performing the interviews in our study and sacrificing his weekends for them. Furthermore, I want to thank my parents Marja and Ari Lehtonen and my partner Joanna Wong for their never ending support. Thanks also to my grandma Raili Rajala for believing in me, continuously asking me when I will graduate and for making me warm woolen socks for the cold Finnish winters. Otaniemi, 27.5.2019 Lauri Lehtonen 6 Contents Abstract 3 Abstract (in Finnish) 4 Preface 5 Contents 6 Symbols and abbreviations 8 1 Introduction 9 2 Background 12 2.1 Movement empowerment ......................... 12 2.2 Other Ways of Manipulating Movement . 13 2.3 Intrinsic motivation ............................ 13 2.4 Mixed-Reality ............................... 14 2.5 Gaps in literature ............................. 14 3 Designing Games for Trampolines 15 3.1 Movement Empowerment ......................... 15 3.1.1 Jump Exaggeration ........................ 15 3.1.2 Horizontal Movement Exaggeration . 15 3.2 Design Constraints ............................ 16 3.2.1 Transitioning between jumping and standing . 16 3.2.2 Limited control over flight trajectory . 16 3.2.3 Disconnecting horizontal position . 16 3.2.4 Trampoline Safety ........................ 17 3.2.5 Skill Differences .......................... 17 3.2.6 Game time limitations ...................... 18 3.2.7 Guiding the Player’s Attention . 18 3.2.8 Designing Around Latency .................... 18 3.2.9 A Practical Example ....................... 19 4 Platform and Game Descriptions 21 4.1 The Platform ............................... 21 4.2 Game 1: Skytails ............................. 21 4.2.1 Game Mechanics ......................... 21 4.2.2 Design of Skytails ......................... 22 4.2.3 Remaining Issues ......................... 23 4.3 Game 2: Toywatch ............................ 23 4.3.1 Game Mechanics ......................... 24 4.3.2 Design of Toywatch ........................ 25 4.3.3 Remaining Issues ......................... 26 4.4 Game 3: Super Stomp .......................... 26 7 4.4.1 Game Mechanics ......................... 26 4.4.2 Design of Super Stomp ...................... 27 4.4.3 Remaining Issues ......................... 29 5 Evaluating Super Stomp 30 5.1 Participants ................................ 30 6 Results of the Super Stomp study 31 6.1 Players Had High Autonomy ....................... 32 6.2 Players Felt Competent When Playing . 32 6.3 Players Had High Relatedness ...................... 32 6.4 Spectators Did not Negatively Impact the Play Experience . 34 6.5 Players Felt as if They Had Superpowers . 35 7 Discussion and Key Takeaways 36 7.1 Support Autonomy when Faced with Design Challenges . 36 7.2 Empower Movement to Support Human Needs . 37 7.3 Designing Multiplayer Trampoline Games Is Possible . 37 8 Limitations 38 9 Conclusion 39 8 Symbols and abbreviations Abbreviations FEC Family Entertainment Center M Mean Average Mdn Median PACES Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale SD Standard Deviation SDT Self-Determination Theory UPEQ Ubisoft Perceived Experience Questionnaire 9 1 Introduction Lack of exercise is a major public health concern [6, 11]. One way to address the problem is to ensure people are motivated to exercise by satisfying their innate human needs. Games have potential to satisfy these needs, as they can offer a great amount of autonomy (e.g., players can choose which character abilities to enhance and freely explore the game world). Games can also support competence by providing challenging tasks to master, and can support relatedness by including multiplayer features that provide an opportunity for social interaction and bonding. These components—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—are considered innate human needs to satisfy for optimal growth and function in psychological theories of human motivation [8, 10]. Games are also in a unique position to empower players by granting them abilities that go beyond what they are capable of in the real world; in other words, they can provide superhuman abilities, such as flying. This can be applied in both traditional video games and exergames