MoveTogether: Exploring Physical Co-op Gameplay in Mixed-Reality

MoveTogether explores physical co-op gameplay in mixed reality, where two co-located players jointly operate a single shared physical prop to collaborate on a common virtual task. Rather than coordinating through separate controllers and avatars, players are physically coupled through a tracked prop, introducing a shared haptic communication channel alongside visual and verbal cues. To explore this emerging design space, we conducted a formative design workshop with professional designers, mapping prop-level design dimensions and interaction primitives, and examining how physical properties such as scale, geometry, material, and embodiment shape affordances and cooperative dynamics. Guided by these insights, we developed an MR game prototype featuring a ring-shaped shared prop and conducted a within-subjects study comparing physical co-op with a virtual co-op baseline. Our results show that physical co-op fosters finer-grained moment-to-moment coordination, denser multimodal communication, fewer spatial collisions, and higher perceived collaboration, enjoyment, and sense of achievement. MoveTogether demonstrates how embedding cooperation directly into shared physical manipulation can reshape social interaction in mixed reality, offering design guidance for embodied co-located collaborative play.

Recommended citation: Wen-Fan Wang, et al. (2026). "MoveTogether: Exploring Physical Co-op Gameplay in Mixed-Reality." Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’26).
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