fAR-PLAY: A framework to develop Augmented/Alternate Reality Games

Augmented/Alternate Reality Games are a relatively new, yet increasingly interesting, class of social applications. These games are fundamentally intertwined with the players' real life, in that the players' everyday activities generate events that advance the game logic. At the same time, they augment the players' “regular” activities with game-related tasks and challenges and with rich digital content that is communicated to the players through a variety of devices, usually augmenting their mobile-device views. In our work, we have been developing a software framework, fAR-Play, to support the development of educational AARG games, in the treasure-hunt style, using space as the context for communicating information. Our toolkit extends the stereotypical notion of AARGs to include a virtual world in which the players can also interact and play. Our toolkit has been evaluated through (and has evolved based on our experience with) the development of several specific games.