Blog Post #1: Reflective Paper_Part 1
2/10
Team Leader : Woosuk Ki
Team members : Kijoon Yun, Douaa Mir, Haehyun Kim
We will conduct our analysis by looking at numerous smartphone gaming applications that use augmented reality methods to enhance user immersion. We will look at both successful and unsuccessful applications to see what factors contributed to their various outcomes. This will assist us in developing a thorough set of recommendations for successful augmented reality games on smartphone devices.
The recommendations will then be applied to an existing AR game that did not perform well in hopes of creating an enhanced version. We intend to create an AR game that is more engaging and immersive for users by following our guidelines, while also delivering vital insights into the world of smartphone gaming and AR technologies.
Our plan :
1. Analyzing existing game applications with AR techs: Pokémon Go, Ingress Prime, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, The Walking Dead: Our World, and so on…
2. Evaluate their UX — specifically on how appropriately their AR tech was used to enhance both UX and immersive-ness.
3. With a comparison between successful cases and unsuccessful cases, extract the key elements that are needed for a smartphone-based game application involving AR techs to be successful.
4. With those extracted elements, form a guideline or manual, and apply it to a less-successful case to improve its overall UX and immersive-ness, finally producing some sort of prototype.
First and foremost, what type of AR games are there?
- Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs
The game includes 70 stages, some of the original Angry Birds characters, and other additional features. However, it seems that the developers haven’t released any updates for a couple of years, indicating that they may not be adding more content. The augmented reality aspect of the game can sometimes be a bit tricky, but overall it functions reasonably well.
2. Egg, Inc
Egg, Inc is one of the best idle clicker farm games. You tap the screen to generate chickens. Those chickens generate revenue, which you then use to build out your farm. It’s a reasonably relaxing game where you spend most of your time waiting around to purchase more upgrades. Most of the game’s UI is on your phone screen and not in augmented reality.
3. Five Nights at Freddy’s AR
Five Nights at Freddy’s AR is an enjoyable crossover game that incorporates augmented reality. The gameplay is similar to traditional Five Nights at Freddy’s games where the player must monitor malfunctioning animatronics. However, this version involves animatronics leaping out of walls, requiring the player to shock them to keep them at bay. Since the game does not have an ending, it can be played at any location and time. The game also includes collectibles that players can acquire to construct their animatronics. Although the game has not received an update in a year, it remains functional on most smartphones.
4. Ingress Prime
One of the first really good AR games on Android. The same company as Pokemon GO, it was a new concept of gaming. The game shows you where some portals are. You hack the portals for your team and then build them up so that the other team can’t. You’ll have two teams to pick from and that’s where the challenge comes from. The game underwent a huge change in late 2018 and re-branded to Ingress Prime.
5. Jurassic World Alive
Jurassic World Alive is an AR game similar in mechanics to games like Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Pokemon Go. Players roam the real world in search of various dinosaurs for them to collect. From there, players battle it out with other players and they can even create hybrid dinosaurs in the game’s lab mode. The game had some bugs early in its development and which made the game difficult to recommend. However, it seems to have hit its stride.
6. NBA All-World
NBA All-World is the latest game from Niantic, released in January of 2023. The game uses the core mechanics of most Niantic games like Ingress and Pokemon GO. You roam the world, collect items, and challenge other players in PvP. This game uses basketball instead of monster collecting or hacking. There is also a larger emphasis on 1v1 battles instead of collecting things. There are actual NBA players in the game that you can play against and do mini-drills with as well. It’s a good game, and it shows that Niantic is still going strong, even in 2023.
7. Zombies, Run!
Zombies, Run is a fitness game. It bills itself as an immersive audio adventure game. The way it works is that you go for a walk or a run. As you go, you’ll unlock various pieces of the story. The drama involves you in a creative way that helps motivate you to keep going. The game will even work on treadmills in case you don’t want to go outside. It’s a popular game and it’ll help you stay in shape. You can play the first four missions for free and you can unlock new missions each week.
How is AR incorporated into the following three types of games?
Egg Inc.
Not overwhelmingly relying on AR may keep the users continuously playing. People can play the game both in and out of their homes.
Five Nights at Freddy’s AR
Using a popular game, users can interact with the characters of the game in their rooms, and based on the gameplay, it does still provide that scare and the gaming experience you would expect in designated locations that the user wants.
NBA All-World
Using the game to meet with new people and interact both in and out of the mobile device. Pokemon GO’s limitation with AR is that the in-game AR battle feature is not that much of an AR characteristic but by using basketball, it is easier to meet the MR using AR.
Photos and Sketches of our research
Definition of Immersion :
Immersion within Augmented Reality (AR) can be determined by the user’s mental sensation of engagement with the created environment. For instance, when the interaction with the created environment is immersive to the point that the user forgets their surroundings, identity, situation, and life for a moment.
The Problem space is that it is difficult to determine what makes a game or application immersive as it depends on the users’ experience and is very subjective.
Device & Target:
- Smartphone-based Games with AR technology.
- Portable, convenient, and meets the requirements needed for AR such as screen display, camera, and motion sensor.
Why are some games able to maintain their success like Pokemon Go? While the majority of other games can not?
- Nostalgia
- Adopting new technologies
- Creating an environment that encourages users to form a network.
- A Lore, World, 세계관 that the user would actively desire to dive into
A. Pokemon Go (PG) -> Pokemon lore (positive, pleasurable)
B. Harry Potter Wizard Unites (HPWU) ->Wizarding World lore (positive, pleasurable)
C. Walking Dead Our World (WDOW) -> Zombie Apocalypse lore (negative)
Why would a certain user want to dive into negative lore?
D. Ingress Prime -> their own created lore
2. AR plays an actual key role in the overall game, in a way that the immersive-ness is greatly increased
A. PG -> makes users feel like the actual Pokemon is around them, and that the Pokemon Lore has been partly brought into the world they dwell in (+GPS)
3. Be aware that smartphone, where the AR tech is utilized, has fundamental limitations => making users do too many activities with AR can be a bad idea… has to be smart in assigning what to be done with AR, what is done with GPS, and what to be done with other elements
A. PG => Only a few simple activities is required on AR: spotting the Pokemon and throwing a Pokeball to catch it.
[3: User involvement process]
1. Pokemon Go
- Pokemon Go Official Community: https://cafe.naver.com/uuccdrama
- DCinside Pokemon Go Gallery: https://gall.dcinside.com/board/lists/?id=pokemongo
2. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite: ended service in November 2021… few data sources are left
=> Target certain PG communities for observation and extract some key findings
