Playing Pong without a TV Screen: an Alternative controller game

This work addresses a practice-based research method for game development, that resulted from an intervention challenge on the iconic Pong (Atari, 1972). As a critical and tangible path centered on Player-Game interaction, a new game experience was developed - HexPong (2022) - through an alternative controller and playful game design approach to strengthen the emotional experience of fun.The playtesting phase was operationalized in two specific moments. During a period of 5 days, a group of 32 adult-aged stakeholders (N=31, 96.8%) - of which 50.3% were students (N=11) or working-students (N=8) - played the game. Through directed observation and survey by SAM questionnaire after the game's testing session, the results obtained frame the discussion around the relevance of game design practice-based research for learning game development in university context.