Block-based programming puzzle games are popular as engaging, visual tools for introducing novice learners to programming. Many incorporate 3D environments, where players navigate and solve spatial challenges. However, little research has examined how spatial reasoning skills interact with game features to shape player experience. This study investigates the interplay between game features, spatial ability, in-game performance, and perceived difficulty within BOTs: 3D programming game where players plan spatial movements to solve puzzles. In an online study with 60 players, we examined how feature changes affected performance and perceived difficulty. Spatial skills strongly predicted performance but did not predict perceived difficulty. Larger or more complex layouts increased performance costs, with backward-facing player characters producing the largest spike in performance demands. Loops reliably increased perceived difficulty. Our findings highlight concrete needs for early spatial scaffolds, clearer support for mental-model shifts, and better cues for recognizing repetition and abstraction.
Escape rooms are traditionally in-person activities that foster collaboration. Augmented reality (AR) enables these experiences to extend into distributed (all participants separated) and hybrid settings (both co-located and remote) while retaining embodied, physically grounded play. This study examines how players communicate and collaborate in an AR escape room across different spatial configurations, and how design choices affect situation awareness, engagement, and social connection. We developed an AR application for distributed escape room play and evaluated it with 19 participants in eight groups. Findings show how participants dynamically appropriated multimodal communication channels and leveraged embodied interactions for coordination. However, they also faced challenges with maintaining situation awareness across spaces, balancing enforced collaboration with individual engagement, and ensuring equitable participation, particularly for remote or information-giving players. With these insights, we discuss design implications for creating more engaging and socially connected distributed and hybrid AR experiences through multimodal communication support, flexible embodied interaction, and equitable collaborative mechanisms.
Disorientation in first-person, screen-based 3D games breaks flow, yet most evidence comes from head-mounted display Virtual Reality or abstract tasks. We ask what minimal in-world information stabilizes orientation in visually repetitive worlds. In a within-participant mixed-methods study (N=20), a symmetrical game environment orthogonally varied landmark geometry and featural polarity, plus a no-landmark baseline. In-situ pointing and orientation ratings during learning and subsequent relocation, together with trajectory analytics and interviews, show that coupling geometric structure with strong featural polarity is decisive: relative to baseline, localization error drops (approx. 79%) and pointing accuracy rises (approx. 64%), whereas geometry alone helps less and smooth, featureless forms least. Players anchor on discontinuities (edges/corners; black--white boundary) and triangulate with distances and angles; without an anchor they revert to ground/light patterns and report symmetry-induced confusion. We establish a minimal-cue testbed for desktop play and derive actionable guidance: break rotational symmetry in a persistent landmark to enable legible, low head-up display environments.
Disengagement plays an important role in the overall game experience. However, extensive game research has focused on creating engaging experiences, whereas how players disengage remains insufficiently understood. Emerging studies have outlined characteristics of disengagement in screen-based video games. Little is known about how virtual reality (VR) shapes players’ disengagement process and what strategies might support positive disengagement experiences in VR games. Therefore, we conducted a co-design workshop (n = 18) and an online survey (n = 115) with VR game players. Our findings show that disengagement in VR games is often driven by factors such as physical discomfort and emotional overload. Participants adopt different disengagement strategies depending on the situation, such as restoring physical-world awareness to assist disengagement decisions. Then, we summarize three strategies for fostering positive disengagement experiences. Finally, we discuss these strategies, such as MR-based narrative space, extending the understanding of virtual-to-real transitions from a game experience perspective.
Location-based games (LBGs) merge digital play with physical environments, creating hybrid spaces that require players to navigate complex trust dynamics. Despite their global popularity, LBGs introduce unique challenges around fairness, safety, and privacy, spanning interactions among players, game systems, local communities, and non-players in shared public spaces. To examine how trust is perceived, built, and sustained in these environments, we conducted in-depth interviews with 26 players of four major LBGs: Pokémon GO, Monster Hunter Now, Ingress, and Pikmin Bloom. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identified dynamics of trust across four trustor–trustee relationships: player–system, player–player, player–community, and player–non-player in five key aspects: fair play, location privacy, online vetting, hybrid interaction, and public play. Drawing on our findings, we propose a trust model for analyzing and designing trust in LBGs as hybrid spaces, and we outline design implications aimed at strengthening trust building and sustaining trustworthy interactions across the LBG ecology.
Drinking is an inherently multisensory activity, yet the potential of immersive technology to dynamically shape flavor experiences remains underexplored in Human-Food Interaction (HFI) research. We introduce “XTea”, an adaptive beverage cup-based system that integrates large language models to translate natural language input into modifications of a parameterized immersive environment experienced through a headset when drinking bubble tea. Through a study with 12 bubble tea enthusiasts, we derived themes that demonstrate how “XTea” can enrich sensory engagement, support personalized and agentic experiences, and foster social qualities of drinking, pointing toward new explorations for multisensory HFI design. We also present four design strategies for multisensory beverage experiences. Ultimately, we aim to contribute to the advancement of HFI research on how multisensory interaction design can enrich flavor perception and engagement.
Haptic feedback has become a common feature in game experiences, yet little is known about how its effects differ between active players and passive spectators. This study investigated how haptic feedback influences user experience and technology acceptance in the context of first-person shooter (FPS) games, particularly by comparing its effects on active players and passive spectators. An experiment with 60 participants tested four conditions defined by two factors: haptic feedback (present vs. absent) and user role (player vs. spectator). The results showed that haptic feedback enhanced the intention to use games in both roles, with a stronger effect among spectators. Players’ intention was primarily driven by perceived enjoyment through a hedonic pathway, whereas spectators responded to both perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness through both hedonic and eudaimonic pathways. These findings highlight the need for role-sensitive haptic design and validate two pathways of the Haptic-Augmented Game Technology Acceptance Model (HAG-TAM) for gaming experiences.