DungeonMaker: Embedding Tangible Creation and Destruction in Hybrid Board Games through Personal Fabrication Technology

TL;DR

DungeonMaker is developed, a fabrication-augmented HBG bridging physical and digital game elements that provides an engaging experience, may support players' connection to their figures, and potentially spark novices’ interest in fabrication.

Abstract

Hybrid board games (HBGs) augment their analog origins digitally (e.g., through apps) and are an increasingly popular pastime activity. Continuous world and character development and customization, known to facilitate engagement in video games, remain rare in HBGs. If present, they happen digitally or imaginarily, often leaving physical aspects generic. We developed DungeonMaker, a fabrication-augmented HBG bridging physical and digital game elements: 1) the setup narrates a story and projects a digital game board onto a laser cutter; 2) DungeonMaker assesses player-crafted artifacts; 3) DungeonMaker's modified laser head senses and moves player- and non-player figures, and 4) can physically damage figures. An evaluation (n=4x3) indicated that DungeonMaker provides an engaging experience, may support players' connection to their figures, and potentially spark novices' interest in fabrication. DungeonMaker provides a rich constellation to play HBGs by blending aspects of craft and automation to couple the physical and digital elements of an HBG tightly.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Overview of all components used in DungeonMaker and how they are interconnected. The core components are the DungeonMaker game, the camera-based input system (used to scan tokens, dice, or crafted inputs), and the motion control system connected to the laser cutter. Visual output is handled through a projector, rendering onto two surfaces: the lid of the laser cutter and its working area (the top projection in this figure was composited for clarity).
• Figure 2: DungeonMaker adds a module to the laser head (a), consisting of an electromagnet for gripping figures, a servo motor to rotate them, a camera module (a/b, top) to recognize figures on the board, supported by LEDs to ensure a well-lit workspace. The attachment design (c) allowed the laser cutter to remain operational as a fabrication device despite the modification.
• Figure 3: Tangible inputs handled by DungeonMaker: a) dice are recognized using blob detection, while tokens have a fiducial marker on their backside. b) to move a figure, players place a set of motion tokens, which are converted to a path (here: right--right--up); c) crafted weapons are put on the plate, and contours are extracted d) and matched with a reference shape. The similarity score defines the game-relevant value of the crafted artifact.
• Figure 4: Overview over the projected output of DungeonMaker: a) output from the Godot application; b) view inside the laser cutter with player figures on top of the projection (projection surface 1); c) game UI with player and enemy statistics (projection surface 2).
• Figure 5: Modular character models consist of a base (a) to enable tracking/gripping and enable different character designs, used for player models (b) or tangible NPC figures (c).