Our research on Hybrid Distanced Play examines how two or more people can play a physical boardgame together, even when they are not in the same place.

We developed the SMeFT Decks as a creativity support tool to support design of these games.

Game Projects

Thomas Bennett & Zikang Luo, 2022. Dynamic Maze.

Yu-Tien Huang, Simai Yu, Julia Yang, 2022.  The Magic Labyrinth.

Yifei Wang, 2022. Treasure Hunter.

Mingyue Gu, Yuxuan Sun, 2022. The Dark Forest.

Ben Evans, Shelly Zhang, 2023. Susa.

Yifei Wang, 2023. The Meow Jungle.

Research Outputs

Melissa J. Rogerson, Lucy A. Sparrow and Sophie O. Freeman. 2023. Escaping the Laboratorium of Dr Moustache: Learning About Distanced Play Through Game Design. DiGRA Australia 2023, Sydney, Australia.

Melissa J. Rogerson, Lucy A. Sparrow and Sophie O. Freeman. 2022. The SMeFT Decks: A Card-Based Ideation Tool for Designing Hybrid Digital Boardgames for Distanced Play. In Proceedings of the Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (OzCHI22), Canberra, Australia, ACM. Preprint paper available here.

Lucy A. Sparrow and Melissa J. Rogerson. 2022. Shoeboxes, chandeliers, and screenshares: How players appropriated material and digital technologies for distanced boardgame play during the COVID-19 pandemic. ANZCA 2022, Communicating through Chaos: Connection, Disruption, Community, The University of Wollongong, Australia.