Special Issue on
Mobile and Pervasive Games
Guest Editors:
Damianos Gavalas*, University of the Aegean, Greece dgavalas@aegean.gr
Vlasios Kasapakis, University of the Aegean, Greece v.kasapakis@aegean.gr
Bin Guo, Northwestern Polytechnical University, P.R. China guob@nwpu.edu.cn
* Corresponding guest editor
1. Introduction and motivation
Recent developments in the areas of information technology, mobile computing and
telecommunications shape a favorable landscape which generates massive opportunities for the
games industry. Pervasive technologies harness the potential of the increased wireless bandwidth
availability, the wide adoption of powerful mobile device platforms and the advent of networked
sensor technologies. Emerging from the fast‐paced growth of pervasive computing, pervasive
games represent an exciting development in gaming which leverages the use of sensor,
visualization and networking technologies to provide immerse game experiences. Pervasive games
extend the gaming experience out into the real world, be it on city streets or living rooms. Players
equipped with mobile devices move through the game world, while sensors either on‐board or
weaved into the game space capture contextual information used to adapt game activities that vary
depending on where users are, what they do or even how they feel. The inherent social and
community‐building aspects of networked games are widening the sector's influence on other
markets, thereby boosting their worldwide potential growth.
Pervasive games appear in several genres, including mobile, location‐based and
augmented/mixed/trans‐reality games, often utilizing novel system and network architectures
e.g., P P, cloud gaming . )nterestingly, significant efforts are put into leveraging networked games
beyond entertainment, towards educational, cultural, social, environmental and training directions,
thus highlighting a new potential for generating revenue. (owever, before such game applications
can be widely deployed and used, several fundamental technical, social and business challenges
need to be addressed.
The motivation behind this special issue is to solicit high‐quality articles on all aspects of mobile
and pervasive games and outline the state of the art in this exciting area of research.
2. Submissions, review process and summary of contributions
The special issue of the Springer s Personal and Ubiquitous Computing on Mobile and Pervasive
Games has attracted
submissions, representing three continents Europe, Asia, America . The
authors of submitted papers are affiliated with institutions in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany,
Greece, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom
and United States. Following a rigorous review process, outstanding papers acceptance rate
% have been finally selected for inclusion in the special issue. Each paper received three reviews
from independent experts. The accepted papers cover a wide spectrum of mobile and pervasive
games research.
The first paper, entitled "Expanding Social Mobile Games beyond the Device Screen" (by Misha Sra
and Chris Schmandt), introduces Spellbound, a physical mobile team‐based game. Spellbound has
been designed utilizing custom haptic hardware as player equipment. )t relies on user knowledge of
the real world and face‐to‐face communication to enhance the sense of collective experience,
showcasing that playing together can lead to increased engagement and fun and serve as a
facilitator for socializing. A user study verified that designing games which take into account player
interactions in the real world can increase social interaction and enjoyment; it also proved that
receiving information through a non‐visual channel haptics may be useful for maintaining game
flow as it reduces context switching between the real world and the screen.
The second article, titled "(ead‐mounted Mixed Reality Projection Display for Games Production
and Entertainment" co‐authored by Daniel Kade, Kaan Aksit, (akan Ürey and Oguzhan Özcan ,
presents a mixed reality MR application, designed to enable exploring a digital environment
without occluding the user s field of vision. The equipment consists of a retro‐reflective screen
covering surrounding walls and a headband integrating a laser‐scanning projector with a
smartphone. To explore the potential use case of their system into pervasive gaming, the authors
have created a MR game prototype and tested it with
participants. The user trials revealed high
levels of engagement and willingness of the players to use the device, providing evidence for the
suitability of the system in private entertainment and gaming.
The third paper, entitled "Pervasive Games Field Trials: Recruitment of Eligible Participants
through Preliminary Game Phases" contributed by Vlasios Kasapakis, Damianos Gavalas and Nikos
Bubaris , introduces a novel method for recruiting participants in pervasive game user trials. )n
particular, the authors propose the execution of cost‐effective preparatory game phases as a means
for recruiting highly qualified evaluators for pervasive game prototypes, thereby increasing the
reliability and quality of evaluation results. A pervasive game prototype entitled Barbarossa has
been developed to validate the appropriateness of the above method. The evaluation results
confirmed that the execution of a preparatory game mode, when applicable, can help developers to
recruit highly qualified participants. )t may also serve as a useful instrument for developers to train
evaluators on any technological equipment used in the game and enhance their awareness on the
overall game goal, scenario and gameplay.
The fourth paper, entitled "RouteMe – A Multilevel Pervasive Game on Mobile Ad‐hoc Routing" co‐
authored by Stefanie Lemcke, Kora (aedge, Raphael Zender and Ulrike Lucke , introduces the
pervasive educational game RouteMe that brings the rather abstract topic of routing in mobile ad
hoc networks MANETs to real‐world environments. RouteMe has been designed for university‐
level courses and supports these courses through engaging students in a motivating manner to
deepen their learning experience. RouteMe divides players students into two groups. The players
of the first group act as mobile nodes of the MANET. The players of the second group are enrolled in
sending messages via this MANET. RouteMe evaluation revealed a successful case study on how
pervasive educational games can support immersive learning experiences of students when dealing
with complex and abstract educational topics.
The last paper, entitled "Touch‐less )nteractive Augmented Reality Game on Vision Based Wearable
Device " by Zhihan Lv, Alaa (alawani, Shengzhong Feng, Shafiq ur Réhman and (aibo Li , presents
a touch‐less interaction framework, consisting of a wearable device and a gesture recognition
algorithm able to execute on both smartphones and Google Glass. The framework allows the
development of augmented reality games wherein the players can interact with the in‐game
content by performing dynamic hands/feet gestures in front of the device camera, triggering
interaction events. A user study on the framework revealed that Google Glass was the preferable
platform for touch‐less interaction and also that touch‐less interfaces can serve as valid substitutes
for present touch‐based mobile devices.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the authors of all the submitted papers for considering our special issue and
the Personal and Ubiquitous Computing journal as a potential publication venue for their research
results. We would like to especially thank the authors of the accepted papers for their effort in
revising and improving their work – occasionally several times – in response to reviewer
comments. Many thanks also go to the PUC Editor‐in‐Chief Prof. Peter Thomas for his trust,
guidance and support.
Finally, we would like to thank the following colleagues for doing an excellent job in reviewing the
submitted papers and making this special issue possible: Jon Back, Yin Bi, George Caridakis, Luca
Chittaro, Paul Coulton, Joel Fischer, Gwo‐Jen (wang, Flammer )vo, Stan Kurkovsky, Silvia Wen‐Yu
Lee, Tatsuo Nakajima, Rob Nadolski, Eunil Park, )gnazio Passero, Carsten Röcker, Joel Ross, Wenyao
Xu, Yan Xu, Zhiyong Yu.