Technology-sustained pervasive games, contrary to technology-supported pervasive games, can be understood as computer games interfacing with the physical world. Pervasive games are known to make use of ‘non-standard input devices’ and with the rise of the Internet of Things, pervasive applications can be expected to move beyond games. This dissertation is a requirements analysis for technology-sustained pervasive applications, incorporating knowledge from the domains of Distributed Computing, Mixed Reality, Context-Aware Computing, Geographical Information Systems and Internet of Things.
Computer video games have existed for decades, with a reusable game engine to drive them. If pervasive games can be understood as computer games interfacing with the physical world, can computer game engines be used to stage a pervasive game? If the scope of pervasive games is broadened to support the rise of Internet of Things, then how will this affect the architecture supporting pervasive applications? This dissertation uses multiple iterations of the method framework for Design Science to obtain the needed requirements analysis. The requirements can be used to determine if, the architecture for pervasive games is a new breed of technologies, or if an architecture from the domain of computer games can be found, that is in the same product line.
Three architectures have been built as a case study to verify the requirements; definitions have been sought verifying the overlap between pervasive games and video games. This dissertation aligns the pervasive games with virtual worlds, so that advances in virtual world architecture can be applied to pervasive games. In the face of Internet of Things, the problem for broader pervasive applications is explicated future research e.g., the rethinking of game engine technologies. The implication of this dissertation is to ensure that pervasive games are not left to reinventing existing technologies.