Harnessing Player Creativity to Broaden the Appeal of Location Based Games

Despite being the subject of considerable research effort location based games in general have failed to attain the popularity and longevity of similar activities such as geo-caching or orienteering. This leads us to the question are the games designed thus far taking too much inspiration in their design from console and pc games leading to games that are too inflexible and failing to support the types of player behaviour that have emerged in geocaching? Using a design inspired by the player engagement evident in geocaching we present the empirical study of the design and user experience from creating the Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) game Free All Monsters. The results highlight that enabling user creativity and accommodating the varied motivations for playing such games can successfully be incorporated into the design and operation of location based game design and in particular provide a fun outdoor family activity.