CustomConsole: A Framework for Supporting Cross-device Videogames

Abstract

Nowadays it is increasingly common to own multiple devices such as laptops, smartphones or tablets. Distributed User Interfaces (DUS) leverage the simultaneous use of various devices to interact with different applications. However, no previous work has studied the use of DUS for videogames. Videogames are one of the largest industry but have requirements different from those of regular applications. CustomConsole is a framework to interconnect multiple devices and create custom gaming systems. CustomConsole games define different roles; each role has associated inputs and outputs: pointing or buttons are inputs whereas views or listeners are outputs. Players can select their role and distribute the associated inputs and outputs across the available devices. We present an initial design of the framework and a use case of a CustomConsole game.