The Guts Game: Towards Designing Ingestible Games
Zhuying Li, Rakesh Patibanda, Felix Brandmueller, Wei Wang, Kyle Berean, Stefan Greuter, and Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller. 2018. The Guts Game: Towards Designing Ingestible Games. In Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY ’18). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 271–283. https://doi.org/10.1145/3242671.3242681
Abstract
Ingestible sensors, such as capsule endoscopy and medication monitoring pills, are becoming increasingly popular in the medical domain, yet few studies have considered what experiences may be designed around ingestible sensors. We believe such sensors may create novel bodily experiences for players when it comes to digital games. To explore the potential of ingestible sensors for game designers, we designed a two-player game – the “Guts Game” – where the players play against each other by completing a variety of tasks. Each task requires the players to change their own body temperature measured by an ingestible sensor. Through a study of the Guts Game (N=14) that interviewed players about their experience, we derived four design themes: 1) Bodily Awareness, 2) Human-Computer Integration, 3) Agency, and 4) Uncomfortableness. We used the four themes to articulate a set of design strategies that designers can consider when aiming to develop engaging ingestible games.
Press Coverage
A computer game’s edible controller lets you play it with your gut. New Scientist.
The Bizarre New Game You Play By Swallowing A Sensor. Forbes.
Forget joysticks — the Guts Game is controlled by a sensor that you swallow. Digital Trends.
An edible controller moves gaming from the screen to your gut. Futurism.
This New Game Has an Edible Controller. Bloomberg.
‘Guts Game’ makes play using ingestible sensors. Smart2Zero.
Extreme gaming – Guts Game. Global Property Scene.