Lessons from Homebrewed Hybridity: Designing Hybrid Digital Boardgames for Distanced Play

Abstract

In 2020–2021, under the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, boardgame players around the world sought out ways to play physical boardgames with each other despite being physically apart. Their creative appropriations of digital technologies and physical tools to allow for hybrid distanced play demonstrate not only the resilience of boardgaming as a hobby, but also provide important insights into the design of novel distanced hybrid digital boardgames (DHDBs). Through a survey of over 1300 respondents, this paper explores the ways distanced players engaged in homebrew practices to make physical boardgame play possible. Through reflexive thematic analysis, we identify three themes that reflect the practical issues players grappled with, including game choice, game mode or setup, and technical implementation. Reflecting on the challenges and opportunities associated with these issues, we consider their implications for DHDB design more generally. In doing so, we present the DHYE (Distanced Hybrid plaY Experience) framework, a practical set of design considerations that emphasises an understanding of distance not simply as an obstacle to enjoyable boardgame play but as an inspiration for novel and meaningful design.

DungeonMaker: Embedding Tangible Creation and Destruction in Hybrid Board Games through Personal Fabrication Technology

“…Such approaches were also used by other board game players. In their study on homebrewed hybridity during COVID-19 times, Sparrow and Rogerson [85] found that distanced boardgame players used at-home fabrication devices such as printers and 3D printers.…”

“…This enables digital game logic to have effects on tangible components (digital −→ physical), but also allows the game to enact players' motion commands (as done in DungeonMaker), or acquire and react to player-initiated state changes on the board (physical −→ digital). In turn, this may enable tangible remote play [56][57][58]85], as demonstrated by commercial projects like Phantom Chess 13 . Creation + Destruction.…”