LUTE: A Hypertextual Mixed Reality Game Engine

Hypertext and games research have long been intertwined; both as understanding games as a form of hypertext, and also through identifying ludic interactions and patterns in hypermedia. While this research often seeks to understand theoretical and structural connections, in this paper we seek to go beyond these to build an explicitly hypertextual game engine. We target Mixed Reality (MR) and locative games for our engine as media that have been previously identified as well-suited to sculptural hypertext, and demonstrate the value of hypertextual patterns and structures as part of a game creation toolkit. In this paper we present LUTE ([Identifiable acronym specifics anonymized for peer review]), a technology framework built on top of the Unity 3D game engine for the creation of MR games and locative experiences. LUTE builds on the established state of the art in both MR games and Creativity Support Tools (CSTs) with a modular design that uses hypertextual structures to handle the flow of content nodes in the game, and a declarative order system to specify gameplay in those nodes.