Project AGDA (Analog Game, Digital Assistant)
(research area)
Premise
Project AGDA[1] is a research area with a simple premise:
- How can a software/hardware system track a physical tabletop game and offer help and enhancements to the players while disturbing the physical and social connection of the players as little as possible?
Background
I'm super passionate about board games, especially played sitting around a table with other humans IRL[2] with bits of cardboard, plastic, and wood.
It's a humanizing, social activity that's a great counterbalance to our increasingly online, digital lifestyle.
But learning and playing games in person could use some assistance during setup, teaching, playing with "bot" players, etc.. For certain games with complex rules or lots of overhead, sometimes the digital version on something like Board Game Arena can push players to prefer the digital version over the physical despite the loss of human connection.[3]
Goals
The goals are to:
- minimize modifications to the physical gameplay
- minimize distracting, "computery" interactions that break the atmosphere and focus of play
- drop into the background and offer scalable interactions per the preferences of the players
Given how heavily this research area overlaps with my passions of tabletop gaming, good UX design, and software development there's a huge amount of territory to explore.
Analog Game, Digital Assistant - the cheesy title is all mine. ↩︎
In Real Life ↩︎
When building your zoo in Ark Nova you find yourself wondering if you're allowed to put that Leopard in your empty exhibit space. Do you have a partnership with an African Zoo, enough cash, and a large enough space that's next to rocks? Did you see all the icons for those conditions when the card is sitting 4 feet away on the table? The Board Game Arena version lets you hover over the animal and see a list of conditions with green checks and red Xs at a glance. ↩︎