Movement Empowerment in a Multiplayer Mixed-Reality Trampoline Game

Insuffcient physical activity motivation is a major public health problem. Exergames—games requiring physical exertion—can be designed to support motivation. For example, granting superhuman movement abilities to players has
been shown to support one’s feeling of competence, an innate human need and a core intrinsic motivation factor posited by self-determination theory. In this paper, we present Super Stomp, a multiplayer mixed-reality trampoline game that empowers movement by exaggerating jump height both in the real world and in the game. We contribute a novel dual-trampoline game system and game mechanics for implementing engaging multiplayer gameplay. This provides an exemplar of satisfying the challenging constraints that real-world movement empowerment technology can impose on exergame movement safety and feasibility. We further contribute insights into the effect of empowering movement on need satisfaction through an in-the-wild study involving 26 participants who played Super Stomp at an indoor activity park.