| Project Overview-

I developed KANDI.io for my master's thesis Building Virtual Friendships through Mirrored Gestures.

KANDI.io included an emoji-based and a gesture-based design that were used to compare and contrast the emotional experience of both designs.
This simulator was developed by myself and the art was obtained through a free online resource (opengameart.com).

| Comparing traditional communication systems with a gesture- based design-

My thesis compared the emotional responses to emoji communication systems and gesture-based communication system designs. To help minimize learning curves and visual changes for my participants I created two versions of the game rather than using two different games.

The consistency of both experiences helped to limit any emotional or psychological effects changing digital environments may have had on the data.

| Main inspirations for KANDI.io's design-

Sky: Children of the Light

The design of KANDI.io was inspired by the success of nonverbal social rituals in Sky: Children of the Light

PLUR Kandi Trading

The game system translates a gestural collaborative handshake traditionally done by the PLUR community into a social game mechanic.

Android Universal Gestures

To limit learning curves, KANDI.io incorporated the use of universal gestures.

Immersive game experience

Animations for the NPC were used to create a responsive game experience.

Avatars as extensions of self

individualized choices during gameplay were necessary for immersion.

| Emoji interaction design-

This version of KANDI.io was a representation of emoji-based social interaction systems found in games currently on the market. When players engage in a "trade" interaction a sequence of emojis are displayed by their avatars.

| Gesture interaction design-

The gesture design of KANDI.io was inspired by the 4-part KANDI trading handshake ritual in the PLUR community.The diagram below describes each interaction and the utilized universal gesture from this guide created by Carl Villamor. Click image to enlarge/shrink.

| Navigation and GUI visuals-

| As with any project, I did run into some obstacles-

Limitations with time constraints, outdated technology, and cybersecurity barriers caused some features to be compromised in this simulation.

Some of the limitations include:

Local server connections could not be made through the university's network. In a future version of this game, a web server would be used for multi-player play.
The devices the game was developed for and tested on were older generation android phones. This created issues with functions like haptic feedback.

| What I learned from this project -

During my time at the University of Maryland, I wanted to gain as much applied experience with game development as possible. I found this portion of my thesis to be a great opportunity to learn more about mobile game development since I could not find an existing game on the market that fit the needs for my project. Although I ran into some technical difficulties, I was able to create a minimum viable prototype that was able to effectively test my hypothesis for my thesis project.

Connected Project: Building Virtual Friendships Through Mirrored Gestures

KANDI.io: Social Game Simulator

Sky: Children of the Light

PLUR Kandi Trading