✨ Abstract
Analog board games enable social interaction through physical presence, shared artifacts, and nonverbal communication. Mixed reality translates these principles into hybrid spaces—blending physical tabletops with digital content—while increasing the need for careful design of attention and coordination.
Unlike VR, MR operates in open, real-world environments and must balance visual coherence with social affordance. In co-located play sessions, individual viewports, asymmetric interfaces, and fragmented feedback often disrupt shared experience.
This thesis investigates how co-presence and equal interaction can be supported in MR tabletop games. A playable prototype for 2–4 players will be developed, along with actionable design principles for social MR play.
🎯 Goals
- Build a functional MR tabletop prototype
- Enable shared attention and social presence
- Ensure balanced and embodied interaction
- Derive design principles for spatial interfaces
🧠 Theoretical Background
Key concepts and references include:
- Co-Presence & Shared Presence
- Embodied Interaction
- Distributed Cognition
- Affordances & Feedback
- Spatial Interface Design
🔍 Research Question
How can shared presence and equal social interaction in locally synchronized mixed-reality tabletop games be supported through targeted design strategies, in order to transform the collaborative experience of analog board games into immersive, interactive MR play environments?
🛠️ Methodology
- Case study analysis: Unity XR Toolkit, Tilt Five
- Technical prototyping: Unity, OpenXR, Meta Quest 3
- Qualitative evaluation: playtesting, interviews
- Sustainable process: paperless, local, privacy-aware
📈 Expected Outcomes
- Practical design guide for MR gameplay
- Interaction rules for visibility and feedback
- Recommendations for spatial interface layouts
- Fully playable and testable local MR prototype
📎 Additional Info
📄 Download full thesis proposal (PDF, in German)