Mixing and re-purposing realities.

Flint, Tom; Hall, Lynne; Stewart, Fiona

Abstract

This paper discusses a mixed reality that intertwines two parallel spaces, a real and a virtual contemporary sculpture park. With the goal to create a game that motivated children to explore the park and engage with the artworks, we engaged with children as informants. We developed a cast of characters based on the children’s input that lived in the sculpture park. Using the characters as inspiration we created a three-act narrative, with the canonical trajectory provided as a sequential clues treasure hunt. The clues are integrated into character dialogue, with traversal and transitions reinforced through the narrative. Although the narrative and game were designed for a collaborative, multi-user, multi-device experience, the characters, narrative and experience were rapidly re-purposed for an individual game on a mobile phone. This re-purposing focused on the transitions, using dramatic narrative to reinforce and mask reality change. Our results are positive, children enjoyed the mixed reality experiences and are keen to engage in different realities. Re-purposing assets, such as characters and narratives as well as virtual spaces is effective, enabling rapid development of similar, yet very different mixed reality experiences.

Citation

Flint, T., Hall, L., & Stewart, F. (2018, July). Mixing and re-purposing realities. Presented at Proceedings of the 32nd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference, Belfast, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: Proceedings of the 32nd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference
• Start Date: Jul 2, 2018
• End Date: Jul 6, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018-07
• Deposit Date: May 11, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 27, 2023
• Series Title: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)
• Series ISSN: 1477-9358
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.39
• Keywords: Child Computer Interaction, Digital Narrative, Mixed Realities
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1181589