Title Zach Laster Title Try it! Introduction What is LARP? Interactions Methods for Immersive Magic Game Design Spells Systems in LARP through Augmented Reality Interaction Design Prototype Zach Laster Design Positioning Mechanics Network University of Helsinki Department of Computer Science Evaluation Conclusions and Future November 22, 2013 Work Future Work Questions? Bibliography Zach Laster (HY-CS) November 22, 2013 1 / 21 Try it! Zach Laster Title Try it! Introduction What is LARP? Game Design Spells Interested in trying the prototype? Go here: Interaction Design www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/laster/2013/fall/AR/ Prototype larpcaster.apk Design Positioning Mechanics Network Evaluation Conclusions and Future Work Future Work Questions? Bibliography Zach Laster (HY-CS) November 22, 2013 2 / 21 Introduction Zach Laster Title Try it! The goal of the project is to craft a an interaction mechanic to Introduction enable magic in a fantasy roleplay game through the use of What is LARP? Augmented Reality (AR). Game Design Spells In order to accomplish this, a very basic game with a strong Interaction focus on magic was designed in order to set the baseline Design Prototype standards to acheive and test against. Design Positioning The primary target of this system will be live-action roleplay Mechanics Network games. Such a game is typically played in real-time and is very Evaluation much bound to the real world. This implies several limits upon Conclusions the allowable game mechanics, particularly with movement of and Future Work characters and the general lack of availability of real magic. Future Work Questions? Bibliography Zach Laster (HY-CS) November 22, 2013 3 / 21 Introduction What is LARP? Zach Laster Live-Action Roleplay (LARP) is effectively the live variation of Title pen-and-paper roleplay games games. They can range in Try it! setting, from historical recreations to high fantasy, and the Introduction rules between any two games can vary largely, especially on What is LARP? details of the execution of combat. For this case study, the Game Design Spells focus will be on high fantasy settings, where magic plays a Interaction Design major and obvious role. Prototype A large portion of LARP-style games, like most roleplay games, Design Positioning focuses on social interaction between players. Mechanics Network This differs from most computer-based games, which tend to Evaluation inadvertently eliminate social situations from games. Conclusions and Future One possibility to help bring virtual gaming back to a true Work Future Work social setting is to utilize ubiquitous Questions? computing[Bj¨orket al., 2001] in games. A combination of AR Bibliography and live-action gaming seems an ideal blend on that path. Zach Laster (HY-CS) November 22, 2013 4 / 21 Game Design Zach Laster Title Since we are focusing on the illusion of magic, the game rule Try it! Introduction set should be almost entirely magic dependent. What is LARP? In order to simplify interaction with the virtual world, the Game Design Spells magic system utilizes \wands" to cast spells. With this in Interaction mind, the two strongest influences on the game design will be Design Dungeons and Dragons and Harry Potter style magic. 1 Prototype Design Positioning Examples of spells a player could cast include Fire Bolt, Mechanics Network Flame Wall, Teleport, and Invisibility. Each of these Evaluation spells has fairly unique requirements from the game system. Conclusions and Future Work Future Work Questions? Bibliography 1The magic system of the Harry Potter lore is terrible and illogical, at least from a game standpoint, but the interaction itself is still good as a reference point. Zach Laster (HY-CS) November 22, 2013 5 / 21 Game Design Spells Zach Laster Title Try it! Flame Wall is the simplest spell, requiring only handling Introduction What is LARP? collisions with elements that move into it. Fire Bolt requires Game Design real-world collisions and physics, which is a step up from the Spells Flame Wall. Invisibility requires the ability to track an Interaction Design individual as they move and to apply an \invisibility effect” to Prototype them, regardless of pose. Lastly, Teleport is an advanced Design Positioning mechanic with multiple possible solutions, such as making the Mechanics Network user invisible and intangible (to in-game objects) for the Evaluation duration of transit or making the game world freeze until the Conclusions and Future player relocates. Work Future Work Questions? Bibliography Zach Laster (HY-CS) November 22, 2013 6 / 21 Game Design Spells Zach Laster Title Try it! Teleportation and Invisibility are staples of most magical Introduction What is LARP? game systems. While AR cannot directly produce any form of Game Design Teleportation, it may be able to create effects that facilitate Spells illusions of Teleportation, such as making the user invisible or Interaction Design pausing the game. Invisibility, on the other hand, is a very Prototype localized illusion, and might be possible using Diminished Design Positioning Reality. In-game objects are also possible to represent using Mechanics Network AR. This means that spells which would produce visual effects Evaluation directly, such as Fire Bolts or summoned creatures, are Conclusions and Future readily possible. Work Future Work Questions? Bibliography Zach Laster (HY-CS) November 22, 2013 7 / 21 Interaction Design Zach Laster Title Try it! Introduction What is LARP? In order to make the interface system as extensible as possible, Game Design we use hand-held \wands" to draw points in space. Spells Interaction These points can then be recognized as some form of Glyph or Design symbol. This recognition draws from normal character Prototype Design recognition using drawn points. Positioning Mechanics We can additionally handle direct gestures such as shaking or Network moving the wand in particular patterns. Evaluation Conclusions and Future Work Future Work Questions? Bibliography Zach Laster (HY-CS) November 22, 2013 8 / 21 Interaction Design Zach Laster Title For simple spells, a single recognized Glyph can produce a spell Try it! result, using on location and orientation. The simplest example Introduction is casting a Fire Bolt, which will originate from the center of What is LARP? 2 Game Design the glyph and travel in the direction the Glyph is \facing" . Spells More advanced spells could use larger, more complex Glyphs, or Interaction Design even multiple Glyphs chained together. The latter would Prototype require that the user have control over when they are creating Design Positioning particles. Ultimately, this does not affect the core premise of Mechanics Network the interaction. Evaluation Conclusions and Future Work Future Work 2 Questions? Assuming Glyphs are essentially 2D characters drawn in the air, this would give them a normal which is the direction the user was facing when Bibliography they drew it. Alternatively, the normal may face the user and the inverse normal would be the direction away. In any case, the Glyphs are highly orientable. Zach Laster (HY-CS) November 22, 2013 9 / 21 Prototype Design Zach Laster Title Try it! Introduction What is LARP? The prototype allows users can create virtual particles in the Game Design air. It is a networked system, which means that other users can Spells connect to see the same particles or to create their own. Interaction Design Ideally, wierless wands and visors would be available for such a Prototype Design system, but a smartphone can serve as well. The prototype is Positioning Mechanics built for Android devices, though only some are supported. I Network used a Samsung Galaxy S2 for testing. Evaluation Conclusions and Future Work Future Work Questions? Bibliography Zach Laster (HY-CS) November 22, 2013 10 / 21 Prototype Positioning Zach Laster The primary challenge that must be overcome is to accurately Title and precisely position the devices in space. Try it! Introduction Most positioning systems will not work for this context. GPS is What is LARP? the highest precision positioning built into most phones, and it Game Design can be off by ten meters when performing at its best. Spells Interaction Relative positioning using the in-built sensors such as the Design accelerometer have strong tendencies to drift, meaning that Prototype Design motion would be exaggerated and the particles would drift. Positioning Mechanics SensorFusion, which is applying all of the native sensors to Network Evaluation provide more advanced information, is better, but still produces Conclusions drift over time. and Future Work Wi-Fi based positioning can be utilized, but this is still error Future Work prone and requires very established Wi-Fi hotspots and the Questions? system must be trained to the network topology. Bibliography Zach Laster (HY-CS) November 22, 2013 11 / 21 Prototype Positioning Zach Laster Robotics has used Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for decades in order to build maps of a Title robot's environment, allowing it to traverse and navigate that Try it! Introduction environment. What is LARP? We can apply a similar approach using a camera built into a Game Design Spells handheld device to construct similar mappings. This will allow Interaction us to precisely and accurately determine the location of the Design camera in space. Prototype Design Positioning This approach has some drawbacks, particularly that the map Mechanics Network must be built in advance and is slow to make. However, it also Evaluation means that the prototype can be used anywhere and does not Conclusions require any devices beyond the used smartphone. and Future Work The PointCloud API was used to provide SLAM mapping Future Work Questions? mechanics for the API. The API was originally developed for Bibliography iOS and is being ported to Android. Because of this, it does not support very many devices yet and is not fully functional. Zach Laster (HY-CS) November 22, 2013 12 / 21 Prototype Mechanics Zach Laster Title Try it! Introduction What is LARP? A device running the prototype can determine it's location and Game Design Spells orientation in space.