Affective Tabletop Game: A New Gaming Experience for Children

In this paper, we discuss various options for enhancing the gaming experience in augmented tabletop games. More specifically, we propose to incorporate psychophysiological measurements as a part of the gaming experience, and to integrate a desktop game within its real surrounding (i.e., the entire room) in order to promote more physical activity. Such design options, together with other game rules, aim at promoting social interaction between participating players, as this is considered to be a major characteristic of any good multi-player game. We concretized and informally evaluated the above aspects within a specific tabletop game that we designed for children aged 7 to 11 years. Our findings indicate that psychophysiological feedback in a tabletop game does indeed facilitate social interaction and adds to the fun element. Our results also reveal that children appreciate the involvement of the real world environment in a tabletop game.