Smartphones as Controllers in Multiplayer Games

Final Results

Smartphones as Controllers in Multiplayer Games

Advisor: Sneha Narayan, W/S

Video introduction

Background

Months into a global pandemic, we're living in a time where we're more dependent than ever on technology; not just to get work done, but to maintain basic human connection and stave off boredom. One of the ways I've been passing time while stuck at home is by playing multiplayer games with friends from afar, particularly ones from the developer Jackbox.

If you haven't played one of their games before, the setup usually involves one person running an application on a computer or a TV, and up to seven other people using a browser on a personal device (such as a smartphone) as an input device that allows them to connect to the game and submit their moves. For example, one of the games I play has every player submit humorous answers to silly questions like "What's the nickname that Van Gogh gave his remaining ear?" on their smartphones, which then get displayed on a shared screen so that everyone can see the answers and submit votes for their favorite ones. You can see what a few minutes of gameplay looks like here.

In this project, you will be designing and implementing a multiplayer game in this vein, where smartphones are used as input devices. There are a few reasons why I think this is a super interesting design space. Smartphones are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and using them as input devices for gaming opens up the possibilities of who gets to experience multiplayer games and what forms they can take. Since more and more people have them readily available, games like this can be played spontaneously, and don't require access to specialized hardware like gaming consoles. (Relatedly, did anyone else miss the boat on getting a Nintendo Switch before they sold out at the start of the quarantine and find themselves unable to play Animal Crossing with their friends? Just me? Okay. That's okay.)

Using a smartphone as an input device for gaming also poses some interesting challenges for network games. If (for example) you're using a wifi connection to send information from your phone to a server, that's going to introduce some latency. There may be up to a second or two of delay before your moves get resolved and displayed back to you. That may be fine for many turn-based games, but not for real-time combat or platformers. This introduces constraints not just for the kind of game that you can implement, but also for how you create a smooth user experience that clearly communicates what's going on to people playing along.

There's also just a lot of interesting ways that you might approach building a system like this from a software design perspective, and part of this project will entail exploring this space of possibilities. Which processes would need to run client side, and which ones should be run on a server? How do you handle security in such systems, and ensure that players can't use their devices to inject code that helps them cheat? And how do you ensure a seamless user experience in games that have people looking at multiple screens? Thinking through and resolving questions like this will form the heart of this project.

The project

In this project, you will design and implement a multiplayer game where players use browsers on their smartphones or tablets to provide input. Here are some basic criteria that the system should meet:

Players should be able to easily use existing personal devices to play the game. Gameplay should not depend on access to controllers or mice, or even require players to download an app.
The system should be able to support multiple instances of the game occurring at the same time (so two different groups of players should be able to start and play their own games).
The game should be fun to play by people who are either colocated in the same room, or are far apart.

The project entails the following activities:

Spend some time researching (and playing!) existing games in this space (I've included links to a few potential sources of inspiration below).
Based on this, come up with an idea for a game that you'd like to implement in this design space. Good, original ideas for games can be hard to come by - it's fine if you choose to implement a (potentially Carleton-themed?) version of a game that already exists.
Design the system architecture for your game. There are lots of possibilities for what this might look like; this part of the project will involve researching and evaluating different approaches before settling on one.
Implement a very simple turn-based multiplayer game (like tic-tac-toe or dots-and-boxes) that allows you to test and refine your system architecture. At this stage, you'll be focusing on ensuring that you can create a bare bones end-to-end system that consistently accepts, validates, and resolves input from multiple players.
Begin developing the game you envisioned. At this point, the focus shifts to front-end programming and user interface details. Do players always know what to do next? How do they know which screen they should look at?
Conduct usability tests with a variety of participants, and iterate on your design.

Recommended experience

Background from CS 257 (Software Design) or equivalent experience is essential for this project. CS 344 (Human Computer Interaction) would also come in handy.

References/inspiration

The primary inspiration for this project was the Jackbox library of games. Here's a video demoing a few minutes of gameplay from one of my favorite Jackbox games: Quiplash.
One platform that's trying to enter this space is Airconsole, and they have a few games you can try out for free.

Meeting times

TBD