In the Same Boat

Social closeness is important for health and well-being, but is difficult to maintain over a distance. Games can help connect people by strengthening existing relationships or creating new ones through shared playful experiences. The name of this project/game is, 'In the Same Boat' (ITSB), which is a two-player infinite runner designed to foster social closeness in distributed dyads. ITSB leverages the synchronization of both players' input to steer a canoe down a river and avoid obstacles. We created two versions: embodied controls, which use players' physiological signals (breath rate, facial expressions), and standard keyboard controls. This was was a collaboration between UCSC and the University of Saskatchewan. Elizabeth Reid implemented the game, James Fey built the hardware, and Ansgar Depping provided design consultation.