Three Design Themes for Collaborative Alternative Controllers

Alternative game controllers - physical input mechanisms for interactive media that are distinct from traditional handheld controllers or computer inputs - are a continuing presence in commercial and academic games fields. Many of these works, presented at conferences, festivals, and public art outlets, forefront social interaction as a key component of the play they afford, supporting a variety of designs specifically aimed at collaborative play. However, despite a substantial body of work in this field, there is as of yet no unified framework for designing or conceptualizing collaborative games that use alternative controllers. This paper proposes three nested themes for describing collaborative controllers: safety, social spaces, and interreliance. These themes have been drawn from literature in tangible interaction design, games studies, practice-focused game design works, and existing alternative-control games. They can be used to support the classification of alternative controllers for collaboration based upon their physical affordances. Furthermore, they can be used to provide designers of collaborative alternative-control games with strategies for approaching design decisions. This paper presents each theme in detail and covers examples of the three themes in the design and analysis of alternative controllers for collaboration.