BragFish: An AR Party Game for Mobile Devices

Georgia Institute of Technology

Students (listed alphabetically):

Sami Deen –Georgia Tech Research Institute

Sami.Deen[at]gtri.gatech.edu

Brian Schrank – School of Literature , Communication and Culture

bschrank[at]gmail.com

Yan Xu –Human-Centered Computing

vivi.xy[at]gmail.com

Faculty (listed alphabetically):

Jay Bolter – School of Literature, Co mmunication and Culture

jay.bolter[at]lcc.gatech.edu

Maribeth Gandy –Interactive Media Technology Center

maribeth.gandy[at]imtc.gatech.edu

Blair MacIntyre –College of Computing/Augmented Experiences Lab

blair[at]cc.gatech.edu

Game design document by Brian Schrank.

CONCEPT

BragFish is a multiplayer Augmented Reality action game where players use cell phones to cruise virtual boats around a (physical table-top) game board and catch virtual fish.

DESCRIPTION

Players look at the game board through their cellphone screens and control their boats using the cellphone’s buttons. The virtual boats and fish, water and effects are rendered on top of live video streaming in through each player’s cellphone camera. The physical game board is made of hexagonal coasters that players snap together however they wish, resulting in hundreds of possible unique game board configurations. Each hexagon represents a different type of lake terrain, such as reeds, deep water, eddy, sand bar etc., each of which influence fish differently, some serving as spawning grounds, some slowing down boats, such as eddies, etc. Players select their boat and character at the beginning of the game. Each character and boat has certain skills and weaknesses. The gameplay can be competitive or cooperative as each player decides how they will use their character’s abilities, of speed, cast, lure and stealth.

BASIC GAME CONTROLS

BOAT CONTROLS:

Boats movement is controlled by cellphone buttons (whether or not player’s boat is in view):

CASTING CONTROLS:

Players cast by centering camera at their desired cast aim and pressing the 5 button:

CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES

Players have a selection of characters to choose from, each with unique attributes:

Character attributes are on a scale of 0-10. 0 is the weakest and 10 is the strongest:

Speed:

A high speed attribute indicates that character has quick acceleration and a higher maximum speed:

CAST:

A high cast attribute indicates that character can cast farther:

LURE:

A high lure attribute indicates that the lure has a greater effective range to lure fish and fish will be more inclined to bite lure:

Fish Bite Distances:

Different fish have different bite and lure attributes of their own:

Stealth:

If a boat is moving and a fish is within its disturbance radius the fish will quickly swim away:

Boat disturbance decreases over time. For example if a boat slows to a stop:

CHARACTERS

(Please note that the character images are only included to bring nuance to the descriptions and that the final game graphics should probably rely more on how these character’s boats look rather than their persons or faces look.)

1.      Dynamite Bob –A lazy yet violent freeloader with a love for sun and explosives.

2.      Granola Calm –This hippie is deeply in tune with what fish like, but he’s slow as hell.

3. Cigarette Sally –She loves the wind in her hair but can’t cast that far (from smoking).

4.      Old Santiago –This well-balanced fisherman gave his heart away to the sea long ago.

5.      Ferret Runner –This old dame learned stealth boating tactics in the Vietnam War.

6.      The Wonder Kid –His boat scares nearby fish but the miracle kid can cast past them!

GAME BOARD

There are various terrain types that effect, boat speed and fish repopulation. Certain fish prefer certain types of terrain.

Terrain Types –number of physical hexagons included in each game (total = 12)

a.       Shallow 2

b.      Mid-Deep 3

c.       Deep 2

d.      Sand Bar 1

e.      Sea Weeds 3

f.        Eddy (swirling currents of water) 1

(NOTE: These are probably not how the hexagon graphics will look; they will all require a top-down view. These are included here to provide an impression.)

B.      Boat Speeds in Terrain

C.     Terrain Effect on Fish Density –tendency of fish to gather in each terrain

D.    Terrain Effect on Fish Population Growth –How fast fish reproduce in terrain

The physical hexagon coasters are each approximately 3 inches in diameter and can be combined in a variety of ways. Game boards can have irregular shapes but regardless the game board will always be around a foot square. Here are some examples:

CATCHING FISH

If the player casts the lure and the range is within their character’s maximum cast distance the lure will land exactly where it is cast. If it is outside their character’s cast distance the lure will land as far as it can in that direction.

Players can reel in their lure at any time by pressing the 5 button.

If a fish swims within lure range they will nibble the lure. The cellphone vibrates a little to indicate to the player to reel in the fish.

NOTE: The player’s cellphone doesn’t need to have boat in view for fish to nibble at lure. This allows for an optional passive style of gameplay where the player drives his boat to the desired spot, casts out his lure and then waits to for fish to nibble.

The larger the fish the more they have to reel.

After the player catches the fish it grows to enormous size so he can examine it and show it off to other players. Afterwards it will shrink back down and disappear in the player’s boat. Previously caught fish can be reexamined any time by selecting the boat.

TECHNOLOGIES

Mobex 3D as game engine

AR Toolkit Plus as Augmented Reality fiducial marker tracking

SPECIAL NOTES

This game was prototyped using the Gizmondo device with plans to be ported to mobile phones in the future.