Gnome Trader: A Location-Based Augmented Reality Trading Game
F. Zünd, M. Tschanen, M. Lancelle, M. Olivares, M. Ryffel, A. Marra, M. Bombsch, M. Gross, R. Sumner
Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Game and Entertainment Technologies (GET) (Madeira, Portugal, July 2016)
Paper Abstract
We explore a location-based game concept that encourages real-world interactions and gamifies daily commuting activities. Enhanced with augmented reality technology, we create an immersive, pervasive trading game called Gnome Trader, where the player engages with the game by physically traveling to predefined locations in the city and trading resources with virtual gnomes. As the virtual market is a crucial component of the game, we take special care to analyze various economic game mechanics. We explore the parameter space of different economic models using a simulation of the virtual economy. We evaluate the overall gameplay as well as the technical functionality through several play tests.