The Interactive-Token Approach to Board Games
Résumé
Recent advances in interactive surfaces and Tangible User Interfaces created a new interest in digital board games, aiming at mixing the benefits of traditional board games with the interactivity of video games. Within this strand of research, we propose a new approach centered on the concepts of tokens, constraints, spatial expressions and interaction events. While mainstream solutions implement game interaction using interactive surfaces, our approach relies on physical manipulation of interactive objects on conventional surfaces. We illustrate the proposed approach by describing the design and development of a game for training of emergency workers. Building on feedbacks from user evaluation and our experience with the development, we outline design opportunities and challenges of the approach.