Spatial gamification toolkit

Abstract

Level editors are common tools that non-professional game designers can use to create their own games or game content. Typically, game developers release their internal tools, or simplified tools, to the public which also contains a variety of art assets that are available to the user. However, this means that the user is typically limited to creating content within a fixed virtual environment. The proliferation of augmented reality technology has made it easier for end-users to access and experience augmented reality content, including using their physical space as a game level. Despite the popularity of augmented reality gaming, current applications do not support custom game creation in augmented reality, and rather utilize generic content that can automatically adapt to a variety of spaces. This means that the unique characteristics and details of the room cannot be used by the application and that the user cannot leverage their creativity to create games tailored for their own space. In this thesis, we detail the motivation, related work, and design concept for the Spatial Gamification Toolkit, an augmented reality authoring tool for the HoloLens that enables users to create interactive games and experiences for their homes. We evaluated the Spatial Gamification Toolkit with non-professional game designers to demonstrate its ability to allow users to utilize spatial trigger-action programming in order to create games in and for the physical space the user is in. Through the user evaluation, we have identified user behavior which resulted in the proposal of design guidelines for the development of future interfaces. We conclude this thesis with a discussion of the improvements to be made to the system for the future and additional research opportunities.