IxD graduate thesis
Greengrowers: a location-based game for the city of Venice
Location-based games are new forms of play that take place in real space and are played with digital mobile technologies. A location-based game usually needs location awareness or positioning technologies and an Internet connection to be played. The aim of my thesis was to create a new ludic experience through a mixture of virtual elements with the real world. A casual game that could be, as I’ve often heard during my internship, collaborative (promoting social interaction, organization, teamwork and strategy), creative (not a “top down” concept but an experience where players could produce part of the game), contagious and concrete (dealing with real world issues and trying to infect physical spaces with the imaginary power of virtuality).
CONCEPT
Greengrowers is a location-based game for iPhone. Using GPS technology, players can plant various virtual seeds in the Venetian squares; the aim is to grow and make virtual plants bloom before other players do over 14 days periods. Players can use humus (site-specific), water and sun (from real weather data), and an increasing set of tools. Climatic seasons also have an effect on game elements and their attributes. At the end of each period winners receive real seeds that local institutions will plant in the players’ favourite square.
GRAPHICS
From the very beginning I thought the game should have a very delicate and abstract aspect. Bruno Munari’s works (an Italian designer who gave an enormous contribution to basic design, games and creativity) have really inspired me. I decided to work with paper and to exploit its physical qualities. The plants in the game are bits of coloured paper animated with video editing techniques: an attempt to mix tradition with digital technologies.
PROTOTYPING
Game design is an iterative process. After an early focus group with possible users, I quickly turned to prototyping. However, the development of a shiny, polished and fully working prototype is just the last step of a series of trials. A location-based game is probably even more though to evaluate and that is why I decided to start from low-fi prototypes to refine my design. I made small paper booklets with a simplified version of the main rules I had designed; I attached lists of seeds, half a dozen places where to play, and their characteristics; finally I asked testers to fill in data and to carry on their strategy, always being inside one of the given Venetian squares. Results were analyzed and evaluated with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire and really helped me define the major issues to be revised. However what I believe was the best result is the really great fun participants had even with such a “quick and dirty” attempt.
Follow the thesis progress
My thesis page on www.interaction-venice.com
Download here the abstract, index and sources of the thesis report [PDF | 94KB]
