Location-based game to enhance player’s experience in survival horror game

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the possibility of implementing location-based game using the smartphone’s GPS to enhance the player’s experience. With the GPS technology, the player can play in a real world as well as in the virtual game world. We postulate this thus will enhance the player’s experience. To test the hypothesis, a horror game genre with location-based features was developed. The game was evaluated to thirty participants. The results demonstrate the game allowed the participants to explore a new place with fun. In addition, the participants claimed that the game allow them to enjoy a new experience in playing horror game. The participants described that playing the game was giving them more tension compare to playing a conventional horror game. Moreover, the participants claimed that they feel more familiar with the place they’ve explored during the game. Finally, some improvements could be done to improve the experience enhancement to the game. First, more variation in the storyline, quests and the enemy. As the game evaluated in this paper is served only as a prototype, the variation of the storyline, quests and the enemy (i.e. the ghost) is limited.