Exploring the Design Space of Analogue-Digital Hybrid Boardgames Using a Player-Centric Approach

This thesis contributes to the growing literature of boardgames research through an exploration of analogue, and analogue-digital hybrid, boardgame play. Despite increasing interest and research into analogue games, there is still a considerable gap in the understanding of boardgame players and their experiences of play. Research presented throughout this thesis first provides an understanding of boardgame immersion—a trait of player experience which could potentially benefit from technology—both detailing the experience itself, and factors which contribute to it. Second, there is a narrower focus on a sensory element—a soundtrack—found in many hybrid boardgames, and its positive effects to boardgame play. And finally, a taxonomy for future analogue-digital hybrid boardgame design and research is constructed from a study of how boardgame players envision their ideal hybrid boardgaming experiences. All of these studies explore, and widen, the design space of fully analogue, but especially hybrid, boardgames through providing a deeper understanding of facets of player experience which could potentially benefit from the inclusion of technology in a boardgame.