abstract/
Pervasive gaming is an extremely new field in game research; there has been very little research in terms of how to make pervasive games, how to make pervasive games fun and immersive, and how to use pervasive games for academic purposes, such as inspiring interest in science.
We hope to address some of these research topics by creating a game based on a completely auditory game mechanic, comparing the use of audio cues with visual cues, and determining whether or not use of audio manipulation is more effective than visual elements. To do this, we worked on creating a battle system that uses gesture recognition for attacks and uses audio to indicate how the battle is progressing, such that the user does not have to rely on a visual interface to interact with the game.
While the game as a whole is still under development, a prototype of the battle system was tested with a group of twelve participants, who indicated that they liked the system, found it intuitive, and that they felt the use of audio created a very positive experience for them. In the future we would hope to complete the entire game, so that we may run longer tests and determine whether the entire game continues to immerse players in the game without being intrusive to their daily life.