Designing social games for children and older adults : two related case studies

Augmented games, aim at promoting social interaction between participating players, as this is considered a major characteristic of any good multi-player game. In this paper, we discuss two related case studies where we investigated various options for enhancing the gaming experience through augmented tabletop games for children and older adults. Later on we also executed an intergenerational case study to inform intergenerational game design where children and elderly played together. Our findings indicate that the use of tangible play in combination with a guessing element in a tabletop game does indeed facilitate social interaction and adds to the aspect of fun. Our results also indicate that senior citizens found the electronic tabletop version of the game to be more immersive and absorbing, as compared to a static paper version. Analyzing the non-verbal behavior of both older adults and children, it was concluded that players were socially more engaged with their opponents than with their team members. This effect was more pronounced in the case of children. We also discuss some implications for social game design that can be deduced from the qualitative feedback provided by our participants.