LoRattle - An Exploratory Game with a Purpose Using LoRa and IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) is opening new possibilities for sensing, monitoring and actuating in urban environments. They support a shift to a hybrid network of humans and things collaborating in production, transmission and processing of data through low-cost and low power devices connected via long-range (LoRa) wide area networks (WAN). This paper describes a 2-player duel game based on IoT controllers and LoRa radio communication protocol. Here we report on the main evaluation dimensions of this new design space for games, namely: (i) game usability (SUS) leading to an above average score; (ii) affective states of the players (SAM) depicting pleasant and engaging gameplay, while players retain control; (iii) radio coverage perception (RCP) showing that most participants did not change their perception of the radio distance after playing. Finally, we discuss the findings and propose future interactive applications to take advantage of this design space.