Designing mechanics for asymmetric cooperation in hybrid co-located social games

Sammanfattning: This thesis addresses a game design matter with an interaction design perspective, arguing that both are strongly related and can learn from each other. It explores the topic of designing mechanics for asymmetric cooperation in hybrid social co-located games. Co-located social games are games played in a same space, and hybrid games merge analog and digital features. When dealing with asymmetric cooperation mechanics, players work together towards the same goal but with different mechanics (different ability to act or to access to information). Cooperation is more and more popular in the game field and, among with other benefices, asymmetry can strengthen it by making the performances of the players fully complementary. In hybrid games, this kind of mechanics could make people bridge the gap between physical and digital materials through cooperation, by combining actions or sharing information. Following a theoretical investigation on the matter, this paper presents several experiments of asymmetric cooperation mechanics involving digital aspects thanks to a smartphone, and sparking strong social interactions. A discussion is drawn upon them to share the resulting observations on hybrid asymmetric cooperation and on the process of prototyping game mechanics.