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So excellent idea. Consider that the players are in different rooms/places potentially thousands of miles apart. You look down at a patch of ocean with your shi

So excellent idea. Consider that the players are in different rooms/places potentially thousands of miles apart. You look down at a patch of ocean with your ships arrayed and floating as if at anchor. Using the wand, you move over the game board and a light grid it superimposed on the surface of the ocean. As you reach a grid you suspect might have a ship or boat you click the wand trigger. A projectile come in from off screen and either you see a splash in the ocean or an explosion. With some debris around it. You repeat with the grid square next to it and another explosion and then a flaming patrol boat visualizes and sinks before your eyes. Meanwhile when your opponent moves, in your array of ships you see the ocean splash as they take shots that don't hit your ships, and when they do, your ship begins to burn and flame. Eventually they get enough hits that the ship will sink. At that point both you and you opponent get to watch it sink. You cannot see your opponent or their hands so that state is always hidden.

treis 5y ago
How is that better than playing on a tablet?
- pavon 5y ago
  The same reasons that playing in VR is better than on a monitor. But then one would question why this is better than VR. If all the players are physically separate and movement of physical pieces is limited (because all the opponent pieces are now virtual) you lose much of the benefit of AR. This device is really best suited for people playing together in person (with online play a nice alternative, but not a primary target). As such I think a better example of the sort of hidden state it would work well with is Stratego. In that game the full board is visible to everyone but the identity of the individual playing pieces are not. There are many other things you could do with hidden state, like show the stats of all your pieces floating above them, but not those of the opponents. Or show terrain of the board where your pieces have visited to you, but not to your opponents (who have to guess by your motions). It doesn't need to be completely hidden - partial knowledge or fog-of-war can make for interesting game dynamics as well.
jacobolus 5y ago
If closely mimicking physical Battleship (or similar games that hide state by physical occlusion) is important, you could add a 2-retroreflective-sided board vertically in the middle to block each player’s view of the other’s hands. But a software game has many other possible mechanics that don’t work with a physical plastic board and pegs, so more likely people will just modify the game so that seeing someone’s hand motions doesn’t reveal hidden state.

treis 5y ago

How is that better than playing on a tablet?

pavon 5y ago
The same reasons that playing in VR is better than on a monitor. But then one would question why this is better than VR. If all the players are physically separate and movement of physical pieces is limited (because all the opponent pieces are now virtual) you lose much of the benefit of AR. This device is really best suited for people playing together in person (with online play a nice alternative, but not a primary target). As such I think a better example of the sort of hidden state it would work well with is Stratego. In that game the full board is visible to everyone but the identity of the individual playing pieces are not. There are many other things you could do with hidden state, like show the stats of all your pieces floating above them, but not those of the opponents. Or show terrain of the board where your pieces have visited to you, but not to your opponents (who have to guess by your motions). It doesn't need to be completely hidden - partial knowledge or fog-of-war can make for interesting game dynamics as well.

jacobolus 5y ago

If closely mimicking physical Battleship (or similar games that hide state by physical occlusion) is important, you could add a 2-retroreflective-sided board vertically in the middle to block each player’s view of the other’s hands. But a software game has many other possible mechanics that don’t work with a physical plastic board and pegs, so more likely people will just modify the game so that seeing someone’s hand motions doesn’t reveal hidden state.