Co-located smartphone gaming

• Main Author: Wong, Da You
• Other Authors: Goh Wooi Boon
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Computer and Information Science; Co-located; Mobile gaming; Smartphone gaming; Game; Social; Collaboration; Teamwork
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175303
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

With the inculcation of smartphones into our everyday lives, mobile games have proliferated and their impacts on people have been often mentioned and studied. While mobile games have received scrutiny for their negative impact on people’s social lives, they have also been shown to be effective in education. Co-located games developed by researchers to understand social development have also shown that they can promote positive social behaviour, such as collaboration. Hence, this final year project aimed to develop a co-located mobile game and discover its effects on players’ social skills. The game aims to allow two users to face each other and play by physically manipulating their phones. The rear camera would be used to observe how the other player was handling their smartphone. A user study was conducted on students ages 18 to 25 to explore how they perceived the game, and how effective it was in fostering collaboration. The study found that the game was well-received and players perceived it to be effective in building teamwork and communication. This report covers the design, development, and testing process and analyzes the results of the user study.