Castles A Strategy Game Exploring Mobile Collaborative Adaptive Software

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CastlesA Strategy Game Exploring Mobile
Collaborative Adaptive Software

• Matthew Chalmers, Malcolm Hall, Marek Bell
• University of Glasgow, UK

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CastlesAnd Some Other Seamful Games

• Matthew Chalmers, Malcolm Hall, Marek Bell
• University of Glasgow, UK

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Background

• Seamful games as a testbed for ubicomp research
• Seamfully revealing system structure and use
• Combining histories from multiple people,
  programs devices
• Using wireless networks to share or disseminate
  information
• Bandwidth and memory constraints and
  possibilities
• Wired and long-range infrastructure wireless
  networks slow/costly?
• Short-range wireless networks, e.g. 802.11, UWB
  fast and free?
• Substantial memory in mobile devices (backed up
  by servers online?)

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Treasure (a.k.a. Bill)

• Two teams of players, Blue and Green
• Each player has PDA802.11GPS
• Designed for disconnection
• Server drops coins on each PDAs map
• Coin locations often outside network
• Only receive this info when in network
• Get close, pickup coins, get back into network,
  upload, get points
• Pickpocket steals another players coins
• Only works when in network area
• Shield protection from pickpockets
• Real-time maps of sampled coverage
• Based on history of movement

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Bandwidth and Memory

• 802.11 hot spots set in cold expanses
• Cost and ownership are significant constraints
  too
• Many 802.11 apps assume constant access to one
  network
• but perform poorly on mobile devices that are
  really mobile
• Peer-to-peer mobile ad hoc networks
• Rely less on central servers, active Internet
  connection, particular access points, having a
  specific static IP address
• Issues of transience and security
• High short-range bandwidth, taking advantage of
  local storage
• New possibilities for interaction and gaming

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Monopoly

• Wi-fi hotspots in the city are used as
  properties
• Players PDAs detect and identify wi-fi access
  points
• First player to find a property can buy it
• Other players owe rent if they pass by
• Rent paid in face-to-face meetings between
  players
• Information spreads peer-to-peer, between players
• Small ad hoc networks between players PDAs
• Epidemic algorithms for spreading state P2P
• Rent due, players locations, new properties,
  bids to buy, offers to sell

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Yoshii Feeding (Illegal Version)

• Some play is indoors/online
• Home wi-fi used like a (glowing) hotspot for
  street players
• Also maps, stats and similar web paraphernalia
• Most play is out in the street with PDAs
• Looking for wi-fi hotspots and other players
• Can auto-connect to net through AP?
• A Yoshi lives there (and a Yoshi likes fruit)
• Bring Yoshi its desired fruit to get a game point
• Cant connect through the AP?
• Its presented as a plantation, to seed and pick
  fruit from
• Players can connect to each other directly
  MANETs
• Swapping/stealing fruit, and info on plantations
  Yoshis

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Yoshii Feeding (Legal Version)

• Some play is indoors/online
• Web site shows game score tables
• Most play is out in the street with PDAs
• Looking for wi-fi hotspots and other players
• Open AP?
• A Yoshi lives there (and a Yoshi likes fruit)
• Bring Yoshi its desired fruit to get a game point
• Closed AP?
• Its presented as a plantation, to seed and pick
  fruit from
• Players can connect to each other directly
  MANETs
• Swapping/stealing fruit, and info on plantations
  Yoshis
• Stripped-down version available at
  www.yoshigame.com

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Castles First Prototype

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Domino

• Castles subsystem for handling assemblies of
  software components
• P2P ad hoc recommendations of software modules
• Dynamic sharing, dependency resolution and
  integration
• Recommendation based on patterns of use, and on
  classes and dependencies
• But users express utility or contextual relevance
  in and through their use
• Designers specify modules class and class
  dependencies
• Social and technical means for security and
  privacy
• Transfer done as part of face-to-face game play
• Also certification of modules? Sandbox? Showing
  logs of use?

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The Current State of Affairs

• Legal Yoshi user trial just finished
• Stripped-down downloadable version just made
  available
• Pilot runs of Castles recently done
• Same base set of 54 components buildings,
  adapters and units
• And also two other buildings, two other adapters,
  one extra unit
• Recommendations helped players who had poor
  setups
• Full trials of Castles beginning in October
• Interface and comms improvements, larger
  component set
• Video and system logs syncd for playback in
  Replayer tool
• Issues of uniformity of system structure the
  cost of winning battles?
• Building Bluetooth version of Domino
  infrastructure
• Links with U. Nottingham, UCL, U. Bristol and
  Blast Theory

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Conclusion

• Games as a testbed for ubicomp, ubicomp as a
  testbed for games
• Exploiting fast comms and storage of mobile
  devices
• Seamful exposure of system (infra)structure
• Past use as a resource for adaptation of system
  structure and ongoing use
• Castles system adaptation as part of a
  multiplayer game
• More coarse-grained and accessible than modding
  code
• How will players handle dynamics, develop
  strategies and adapt game play?

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matthew_at_dcs.gla.ac.uk www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/matthew
www.equator.ac.uk