Increase physical activity and immersion in VR games

Master's degree project at KTH in collaboration with Resolution Games - MSc Interactive Media Technology

Title: Making virtual reality game players more physically active and immersed in the gameplay by involving their physical activity data

In my master’s thesis, I explored the possibility of increasing VR players’ physical activity levels, beneficial movements, and immersion, by involving their physical activity data in the form of physical activity bar in the gameplay, with a reward being granted upon completion. I developed a visual physical activity tracker with beneficial movement detection (squats, jumping jacks, and side jacks) and integrated it into the VR game Blaston by Resolution Games. To evaluate the solution, a user study was conducted with 20 participants where they first played the game without the activity bar and then again with it. The results indicated an increase in all activity levels and immersion with the involvement of the activity bar. However, came to the conclusion that players are more likely to perform beneficial movements that align with the gameplay.

The idea is that the solution could easily be added to more VR games to encourage increased activity levels. A public GitHub repository is available with the implementation, as well as a demo video showcasing it in action with the game Blaston.