TUBULAR

Problem
Motion controls commonly rely more on transient interactions, like swatting or tapping. How would it feel if we could directly, and accurately interface with the device?

How can we keep players engaged in the experience without having to “tap” the screen to start each game?

Prototype

• Modified “Joystick” allows wide range of dynamic range of continuous input (unlike a mouse or keyboard, more granular than a joystick)
• Explorations were made using hands, chest, and nose.
• Build uses Mixpanel and PlayFab to collect data about devices and players.
• Implemented Auto-Replay functionality to prevent players from “tapping” the screen in between games.

Findings

• Over 1000 games and 600+ minutes playtime
• Extremely accurate when running properly (seems device/setup dependent)
• Hands consistently resulted with higher scores.
• Different devices (chipsets, video cards), screen resolutions, and windowed vs full screen seemed to have variations in experiences.
• Not all players experienced very smooth controls. (lower end devices, possible other apps running at play time)
• A lot of room for player to increase their skill and “learn” the game.
• Auto-replay was self reported as helpful in sustaining engagement and increasing number of games played each session

Mixpanel
https://mixpanel.com/project/2371805/view/2916553/app/dashboards#id=2775765&focused-bookmark-id=27978463

Play test results
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1UnqLbWNpQwwzYi-EZWEZ-IwcAxqb3wBAFWGVgd10lXA/edit?usp=sharing