Pepijn Rijnbout

GlowSteps A Decentralized Interactive Play Environment for Open-Ended Play

In this paper we present the interactive play environment GlowSteps. GlowSteps consists of ten flexible tiles that respond with light feedback on players actions. The play environment is developed to support both social and physical play and is designed with the intention to encourage children to create their own play and games. The tiles can be programmed with different interaction behaviors leading to a variety of play experiences. This showcase illustrates our design approach for such interactive play environments, combining the fields of decentralized systems and open-ended play.

i-PE: A Decentralized Approach for Designing Adaptive and Persuasive Intelligent Play Environments

This paper presents the approach of the intelligent Play Environments (i-PE) project. The aim of this project is to develop design guidelines for designing interactive environments that stimulate social and physical play. We want to create an environment that supports this play behavior and emphasizes on the flow of play by offering freedom in interaction. In this position paper, we describe our approach for designing such a play environment. We will introduce two focus areas for our research: playful persuasion and adaptation.

About Experience and Emergence - A Framework for Decentralized Interactive Play Environments

Play is an unpredictable and fascinating activity. Its qualities can serve as an inspiration for design. In designing for play, we focus on play environments with players and multiple interactive objects. The current understanding of how to design these objects and interaction opportunities to create meaningful interactions and engaging user experiences is limited. In this paper we introduce a framework focusing on the development of decentralized interactive play environments for emergent play. This framework combines knowledge from different fields including play, user experience, emergent behavior and interactions. Two case studies demonstrate its use as a tool for analysis.

A Design Approach to Decentralized Interactive Environments

We are exploring a design approach to the implementation of decentralized intelligent environments. We adopt the research through design process by creating an infrastructure of physical, interactive objects and explore the potential of a decentralized philosophy in four design iterations. Open-ended play serves as a fruitful context for design cases. Iterations of prototyping and user testing facilitate the exploration of emergence. One of the design outcomes is a simple decentralized system for soccer training which proved to be very successful on challenge and motivation, and inspired players to invent a range of games, both competitive and cooperative.

The richness of open-ended play: Rules, feedback and adaptation mechanisms in intelligent play environments

How can we design intelligent play environments for open-ended play that support richness in play? Rich play can be described as ongoing play that changes over time in character, form and nature. This paper elaborates on our initial insights on how rules and goals develop from interaction opportunities of the system, based on two pilot studies with an interactive play environment for open-ended play. Furthermore we will discuss the roles of feedback and adaptation mechanisms in the environment. Those system properties will change the interaction opportunities to match with the current situation in the play environment and to support richness in play.

Shake up the schoolyard: iterative design research for public playful installations

Three different design research topics are presented in this article: how to design social and active play for teenagers, how to design for openended and emergent play, and how to evaluate interactive playful installations in situ. The Wiggle the Eye installation, five interactive wiggle benches and a central lamp, was iteratively developed and evaluated with more than 1000 users, at two high schools, one university and a design festival. The installation succeeded in inviting teenagers to play in a social way, yet the interaction design proved challenging: uncoordinated mass usage and a variety of external factors influenced the exploration and discovery process for the users. The presented insights serve as advice for everyone designing for teenagers, public spaces or playful interactions.

2nd International Workshop on Ambient Gaming

Ambient games are games and playful activities that offer context-aware and personalized features. Because ambient play and games can be incorporated in everyday objects and routines, they allow players to play throughout the day. Ambient gaming offers promising opportunities for creating novel and unique player experiences. However, there are still many unanswered questions related to this new field of research, for instance related to gamification, personalisation and adaptation, aspects and issues of control and privacy. In this 2nd workshop on Ambient Gaming we intend to further discuss the opportunities and challenges in the field of ambient gaming and play with people from different disciplines (designers, researchers, and developers) who are active in this field.

The introduction of IMO, an integrated model for designing for open-­ended play

Designing for open-ended play poses specific new challenges to designers. Designing for closed games includes defining rules and goals to balanced the game properly. A design for open-ended play has no predefined rules and goals. The design needs to provide users with more freedom to continually change goals and rules of play, which distinguishes the field from designs of closed games. Gaining knowledge on the design process of creating this freedom is essential. For this purpose, an integrated model for open-ended play is proposed. This model is based on a combination of two existing models: Hunicke’s Mechanics Dynamics and Aesthetics (MDA) model and Grunvogel’s formal models for game design. Both of the above mentioned existing models are generalized to make them applicable for analyzing open-ended play. In the proposed combined model we distinguish between the perspectives of the design, and the perspective of play. It addresses how to handle changing rules and goals, instead of the assumptions that rules and goals do not change. Furthermore, the model was used to improve our understanding on progression and emergence, two key concepts that are commonly used in game design. The integrated model for open-ended play (IMO) was used in a preliminary case study with a digital play application, an interactive environment for open-ended play named the GlowSteps, to evaluate the model and to underline our insights on emergence and progression.

Investigating Perspectives on Play: The Lenses of Play Tool

This paper presents a new design tool for developing interactive playful environments. This design tool consists of a number of cards, which explain five perspectives or lenses on play. We describe three user evaluations that were carried out with the design tool and discuss how participants used the tool in their design activities and what they considered to be the value of the tool. The evaluations where mainly focused on two lenses: open-ended play and emergence. The tool provides inspiration for students, and other design researchers and practitioners working in the field of interactivity and play.