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Balancing the Augmented Experience: Design Tensions in the Location-based Game Pikmin Bloom

Within the general development of games becoming more pervasive and daily life turning more gameful, various location- and movement-based games have become prominent in contemporary culture, and are increasingly used in augmenting the physical reality. This study investigates tensions that arise in augmenting the mundane experience of walking in both urban and nature environments with location-based games (LBGs). We conducted an 8-week autoethnographic study of a newly launched LBG, Pikmin Bloom, a game that can be characterised as gamified walking. We focused on the central design tension of “augmenting walking vs. avoiding disturbing players’ everyday life.” Connected to this, we discuss four other tensions: (1) promise of future vs. enjoyable present; (2) too abundant vs. too scarce rewards; (3) seeking symbiosis vs. manipulating the environment; and (4) player privacy vs. immersive gameplay. This work-in-progress suggests that failing to optimally balance these tensions can have detrimental effects on the playing experience.