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Design of a board game with augmented reality

Article in FME Transactions · January 2019

DOI: 10.5937/fmet1902253R

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 Design of a Board Game With
Augmented Reality
This paper presents the design process of a board game with augmented
reality. The board games have remained attractive in this time of complete
digitalization. The experience of hands on play has been the key feature of
the board game. By introducing AR in the board games this key feature is
Tashko Rizov kept together with digitalization of some elements of the gameplay.
Assistant Professor Augmented reality games provide players with a rich and potentially
University of “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” in unlimited range of interaction possibilities. Implementation of AR creates
Skopje added value to the game. We want to enhance the game experience by
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering - Skopje
N. Macedonia combining the best features from classical board games and video games.
The benefits of playing board games are numerous contrary to the video
Jelena Djokic games. By implementing AR, the game will draw interest of the video
Teaching Assistant games players too.
University of “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” in
Skopje
This paper presents an example of the design of what is known as AR
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering - Skopje Board Game, a class of table-top games that combines handheld devices
N. Macedonia (such as smart phones) with physical game pieces to create a merged
physical/virtual game on the table-top. Along with that, the paper
Milan Tasevski
describes the process of designing a board game that incorporates AR,
Game developer
Archona Games, Skopje along with technical implementation. The design process is performed
N. Macedonia using the well-known principles (fig.1).
The goal of the research is to identify the benefits for the players of
introducing digital technology in the analogue world of the board games.
Comparison of the user experience in the case of using just the board game
and the board game with AR is conducted. For the sample under
consideration were accounted board game players but also video games
players. Results of the conducted comparison are presented and discussed.
At the end the whole experience of designing such a product is presented
along with ideas for further work.

Keywords: augmented reality; board game; design process; gameplay.

1. INTRODUCTION digital computer games declined in visceral, beha–

vioural and reflective levels when compared with
Board games have existed from 3500 BC in Ancient traditional board games (Fig. 1). The appearance of the
Egypt. They have a certain amount of devoted players but traditional board game could impress people at first
that number has significantly decreased since the emer- sight and reduce errors in operation. Players can feel
gence of the video games. They are both very different intimacy, vivid imagery, sympathetic responses and
but the idea to entertain and amuse the crowd is same. satisfaction while playing the board game.
Nevertheles, it is evident that the number of video games
players is increasing in account to board game players.
With the research presented in this paper we are
trying to increase the interest for board games, because
we believe that board games have huge social impact on
young individuals. Our proposal is to implement
augmented reality in the game play creating AR board
game. In our opinion, AR board game will implement
new levels of intrigue and excitement but still maintain
the social factor that video games lack.
Comparing board games and video games [1],
statistic results indicated that satisfaction degree of

Figure 1. Levels of processing: Visceral, Behavioural and

Received: June 2018, Accepted: December 2018. Reflective (Norman 2004).
Correspondence to: Tashko Rizov, Assistant Professor,
University of “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje, The results also concluded that traditional games not
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, N. Macedonia only evoked users’ stronger emotional reactions, both
E-mail: [email protected] positive and negative, but also received higher prefe–
doi:10.5937/fmet1902253R
© Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Belgrade. All rights reserved FME Transactions (2019) 47, 253-257 253
rences. Regarding social interaction, traditional games users with head mounted displays. Their imple–
could improve interpersonal relationships. New digital mentation focuses more on the technical challenges
games could not replace the sense of social interaction faced at categorising public vs. private information in
created by traditional physical games. Research con– games like roulette and mahjong (Chineese tile-based
ducted by Lazzaro [2] is confirming previously said that game). Implementation of the social aspects of
playing in a group emotes more frequently and with traditional board games computer games is also found in
more intensity than those playing on their own. Group [18]. The authors design and implement a multi-player
play adds new behaviours, rituals, and emotions that game ‘Pirates!’ on handheld computers, using radio-
make games more exciting. frequency identification tags (RFID) to sense player
locations. The game is an attempt at using elements of
2. BACKGROUND the world as a game board. A similar concept is
described in [19] implementation of the popular video
The development of the AR technology and affordances game Quake using AR. The first-person shooter
of the AR devices have enabled implementation of AR ARQuake allows the player to roam around in the
in different applications. In board games AR has been in outside world while playing a game in the computer
use for some time and has been used for different generated world. The game monsters res–ponded to the
purposes. Magerkurth and colleagues [6,7] developed lighting conditions in the physical world to make them
AR KnightMage, board-based role-playing adventure more visible. The implementation is very interesting, as
game. Physical game elements, such as dice and avatars, it uses ‘the world as a game board’ in an innovative
affect the virtual game world when moved and placed way. Oda and colleagues [20] are developing AR
on top of the projected display [4]. They use stationary Racing car game. The physical interface is a board with
camera placed on top of the board and use radio markers which represent different object in the virtual
identification for board sensing. Lee and colleagues [8] environment.
developed a table-top card battle game using front Research of Andersan and colleagues [21] has
projection. Optically tracked markers are attached different approach. They are combining the best features
below the cards, and the cards are visible to a camera from classical board games and computer games in
underneath a transparent glass table. Molla and Lepetit order to enhance the game play experience. They use
[9] are implementing shape recognition of the pawns for traditional board game and convert it to a video game.
Monopoly using web cam. The element that they They use ARToolkit platform to create the augmented
incorporate in the game is 3D imaginary of the chance part. The players have to have VR helmets with webcam
field and of the pawns [5]. Their implementation does or monitor in front of them.
not include game logic. Cooper et al. [10] propose an Thakar [22] has different aim in his PhD thesis. He
AR system for Chinese checkers using markers. They is using AR not for the amusement and enrichment of
explore user interface issues for table top projected AR the gameplay but more introductions of new comers. He
entertainment applications. Ngyuyen and colleagues discovers that new comers don not bother reading the
[12] implemented a collaborative handheld augmented manuals and during the gameplay they bother other
reality with Art of Defence, board game. The authors player. So, to solve this problem he is implementing the
define an AR board game as “a class of tabletop games manual throughout the gameplay.
which combine handheld computers such as camera
phones with physical game pieces to create a merged 3. ADDING AR IN A BOARD GAME
physical/virtual game on the tabletop.” Their goal is to
explore the affordances and constraints of Handheld- The board game used in this scenario is called Small
Augmented Reality (HAR) interfaces for collaborative Star Empires and it is an abstract strategy game with
social games. From the conducted user study showed grid movement mechanics (Fig. 2). The game is already
high levels of enjoyment among player and experience designed and available on the market. At this point the
unlike non-AR computer games [13]. This is something development team has created two expansions of the
that we have been also working on in our research. game in order to enrich the game contents. In addition
As computers increased in power during the past to the expansion of the game content the development
few years, researchers have ported AR infrastructures to team wanted to add augmented reality (AR) in order to
hand-held devices that are less costly, simpler, and further enrich the gaming experience.
lighter than earlier wearable AR systems. Wagner and The rules are pretty simple and straightforward. The
colleagues [11] demonstrated an AR train game using a ultimate goal of the game is to control more planets in
camera equipped PDA device. A miniature physical the galaxy. With the Dawn of Discoveries expansion
railroad track on a flat surface is surrounded by fiducial add a bit more depth and variety of play styles.
markers for tracking [14]. Multiple players can each This expansion adds minerals, a technology deck
interact through a PDA [15]. Game play involves and Research Stations. The minerals are placed in a
switching the track direction at intersections to avoid cloth bag, shuffled, and 1 is randomly placed on each 1-
collisions among several trains. Mobile-phone–based planet system. The technology deck is shuffled and a
AR games are also being actively investigated as an number are revealed depending on player count. Each
affordable AR system with multiplayer capabilities [16]. player also receives 3 Research Stations in their colour.
AR has potential in the board gaming industry, in The Technology Cards are one-time-use powers you can
creating mixed reality games, or AR games, as noted in buy during the game (Fig. 3). There will always be one
[17]. The authors construct an AR setup with multiple card + the number of players’ worth of cards available

254 ▪ VOL. 47, No 2, 2019 FME Transactions

for purchase. They cost a combo of minerals and you to the game would jeopardize the wanted hands-on
cannot purchase multiples of the same techs. Once experience which is the key element why players play
purchased, they go in front of you face up. When you board games over computer games. One of the analyzed
use them, you flip them face down. options was to add augmentation to better explain the
rules at the very beginning of the game. But this idea
was overruled due to the fact that the focus of the
research was to evaluate the effect of AR to the actual
game play and not the supporting elements.
Considering the game plan, the most suitable
solution for adding the augmentation were the
Technology Cards. They are great to serve as markers
and the elements shown as pictures on them are suitable
to be presented in 3D using augmented reality. In this
manner the player can get a better visualization of the
element shown on the technology card and better
understand its abilities.
Since the decision was locked on hand-held devices,
as best solution for performing the augmentation was
selected the software platform Augment. This software
platform has a web based account manager and a free
Android and iOS based app. Using the web based
Figure 2. The game plan of the board game.
manager one can create a custom marker using a pic–
ture. The custom marker has to have a distinctive and
unique pattern in order for the image recognition algo–
rithm to be able to recognize it. Again, using the web
based account manager one can add the 3D model and
link the model and the marker. In that way, whenever a
user of the app scans the custom marker, the app will
display the appropriate 3D model in AR (Fig. 4).

Figure 3. The technology cards.

During the design phase of the expansion and the

opportunity to add AR features to the game a focus
group was created. The goal of the focus group was to
analyse the available opportunities in order to make an
appropriate conclusion. The focus group is consisted of
25 members, 15 of which male and 10 female parti–
cipants. Also, the focus group covers different education
levels and areas. The group has experienced board game
developers, experienced board game players, moderate Figure 4. The technology cards presented in AR.
game players and novice game players.
During this research an analysis was conducted with 4. RESULTS
the focus group on the possible ways to introduce the
augmentation to the game. The options were to use AR The first test of the results was with the focus group.
technology for desktop or laptop computers, for hand- The members of the group played the game with and
held devices or for Head-Mounted Displays (HMD). without the AR feature. As discussed in the introduc–
Considering the scenario of the game play and the tion, the developers of the game should enjoy playing
setting of the game (a tabletop with players sitting themselves, otherwise others will not enjoy playing the
around) the option for hand-held devices was selected as game either. The focus group was the first test that
most suitable. helped us understand whether AR makes the game
The next step was to choose for which elements of experience better. The result of the interview with the
the game play the augmentation should be created. The focus group showed that the feature adds an interesting
options here are numerous. The main setback is the time experience to the game and it definitely attracts players
needed to create 3D models of the graphic elements to the game.
used in the game. Also, adding too much augmentation

FME Transactions VOL. 47, No 2, 2019 ▪ 255

 The second test was at a board game tournament. Workshop on Pervasive Gaming Applications,
This was a more focused experiment. The results of the PerGames (Vol. 5, No. 2.1).
conducted interview with the players after they played [9] Molla, E. and Lepetit, V., 2010, October.
the game was that the AR experience is good to some Augmented reality for board games. In Mixed and
extent. The effect of it would be much greater if the AR Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 2010 9th IEEE
feature is used directly into the game play, meaning that International Symposium on (pp. 253-254). IEEE.
using the AR feature you control elements of the game.
[10] Huynh, D.N.T., Raveendran, K., Xu, Y., Spreen, K.
Since this a board game that uses physical objects, this
and MacIntyre, B., 2009, August. Art of defense: a
means that the AR feature should use object recognition
collaborative handheld augmented reality board
instead of image recognition algorithms.
game. In Proceedings of the 2009 ACM
5. CONCLUSION
SIGGRAPH symposium on video games (pp. 135-
142). ACM.
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 for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and потенцијално неограничен опсег могућности
Telecommunications Engineering). интеракције. Имплементација AR ствара додатну
[21] Andersen, T.L., Kristensen, S., Nielsen, B.W. and вредност игри. Желимо да побољшамо искуство
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3D experience. In Proceedings of the 2004 предности играња друштвених игара су бројне.
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Овај рад представља пример дизајна онога што је
[22] Thakar, N., 2014. A design-led investigation of
познато као AR Board Game, класа стоних игара која
augmented reality: a case of AR for board games.
комбинује ручне уређаје (као што су паметни
PhD thesis. School of Architecture and Design.
телефони) са физичком игром да би се креирао спој
RMIT University. Australia.
физичке и виртуелне игре на површини табли. Уз то,
у раду се описује процес дизајнирања игре на плочи
која укључује AR, заједно са техничком
ДИЗАЈН ИГРЕ НА ТАБЛИ СА ПРОШИРЕНОМ
имплементацијом. Процес пројектовања се изводи
СТВАРНОШЋУ
помоћу познатих принципа (слика 1).
Циљ истраживања је да се идентификују предности
Т. Ризов, Ј. Ђокић, М. Ташевски
које играчи имају од увођења дигиталне технологије
Овај рад представља процес дизајна игре на табли са у аналогни свет друштвених игара. Упоређује се
проширеном стварношћу. Друштвене игре су остале искуство корисника у случају коришћења само игре
атрактивне у овом тренутку потпуне дигитали– на плочи и игре на плочи са AR. За узорак који се
зације. Спретност руку у игри била је главна разматра узети су у обзир играчи на табли, али и
карактеристика игре на табли. Увођењем AR у игре играчи видео игара. Представљени су и дискутовани
на табли ова кључна карактеристика чува се заједно резултати спроведеног поређења. На крају се пре–
са дигитализацијом неких елемената игре. Игре у зентира читаво искуство дизајнирања таквог
проширеној стварности пружају играчима богат и производа и идеје за даљи рад.

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