Believable environments

Abstract

Generating content into vast areas is a relevant challenge in the field of location-based pervasive games. In this paper, we present a game prototype that enables children travelling in the back seat of a car to enjoy a narrated experience where gameplay combines with the experience of traveling through the road network. The prototype is designed to provide what we refer to as a believable environment. We propose four design characteristics to persuasively include a journey within a pervasive game. First, the story should refer to geographical objects with their everyday meanings. Second, the game's scale needs to cover vast areas. Third, the application should provide sequential storytelling to make it fit with the journey experience, and finally it should provide interaction support where players can engage in gameplay and interact with the computer in various ways at the same time as they are looking out of the car window. We describe how these requirements have been implemented in the prototype and present an initial performance test.