Castles

A Strategy Game Exploring Mobile Collaborative Adaptive Software

Matthew Chalmers, Malcolm Hall, Marek Bell

University of Glasgow, UK

Castles

And Some Other Seamful Games

Matthew Chalmers, Malcolm Hall, Marek Bell

University of Glasgow, UK

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 possibilitiesWired 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?)

Treasure (a.k.a. Bill)

Two teams of players, Blue and GreenEach player has PDA+802.11+GPS

Designed for disconnectionServer drops coins on each PDA’s

mapCoin locations often outside networkOnly receive this info when in network

Get close, pickup coins, get back into network, upload, get points

Pickpocket: steals another player’s coinsOnly works when in network area

Shield: protection from pickpocketsReal-time maps of sampled coverage

Based on history of movement

Bandwidth and Memory

802.11: hot spots set in cold expansesCost 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 networksRely 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

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’ itOther 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…

Yoshii Feeding (Illegal Version)

Some play is indoors/online Home wi-fi used like a (glowing) hotspot for

street playersAlso maps, stats and similar web paraphernalia

Most play is out in the street with PDAsLooking 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

Can’t connect through the AP?It’s 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

Yoshii Feeding (Legal Version)

Some play is indoors/online Web site shows game score tables

Most play is out in the street with PDAsLooking 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?It’s 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

Castles: First Prototype

Domino

Castles’ subsystem for handling assemblies of software componentsP2P 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 module’s class and class dependencies

Social and technical means for security and privacyTransfer done as part of face-to-face game play

Also: certification of modules? Sandbox? Showing logs of use?

The Current State of Affairs

Legal Yoshi user trial just finishedStripped-down downloadable version just made available

Pilot runs of Castles recently doneSame 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 OctoberInterface and comms improvements, larger component set

Video and system logs sync’d 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

Conclusion

Games as a testbed for ubicomp, ubicomp as a testbed for gamesExploiting 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 gameMore coarse-grained and accessible than modding code

How will players handle dynamics, develop strategies and adapt game play?

matthew@dcs.gla.ac.uk www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~matthew

www.equator.ac.uk