Gravity Kitchen
"A MR game designed for families to balance emotions and expectations among members and enhance communication."
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problem
Family emotional well-being is often shaped by complex and unspoken dynamics rather than explicit conflict. Differences in parenting values, generational expectations, and communication styles—especially in multi-generational and dual-working families. Without shared language or frameworks to understand emotions and roles, family members struggle to express needs, build mutual understanding, and feel supported in their emotional lives.
solution
We designed an MR collaborative game that helps family members express emotions and understand each other’s expectations through shared play rather than direct confrontation. By translating communication patterns into game mechanics—such as passing, grabbing, and delivering ingredients—the system allows players to reveal roles, habits, and emotional tendencies in a natural and low-pressure environment. The game introduces progressively increasing challenges, including multitasking, time pressure, and communication constraints, mirroring real family dynamics. As players collaborate under these conditions, differences in expectations and communication styles become visible and discussable without assigning blame. The game creates a shared space for reflection, mutual understanding, and more confident emotional communication within families.
Through interviews and diary studies, we studied two families—one from New York, USA, and one from Chongqing, China. Despite their very different cultural backgrounds and family structures, we found a shared pattern: expectations between mothers and children were often unequal on both sides. In everyday interactions, neither family had effective opportunities to express their inner thoughts or emotional needs.
We aim to lower the learning curve and create a playful space where family members can better understand and balance each other’s expectations. We envision this as a long-term, repeatable experience that supports communication while creating meaningful and enjoyable family memories.
Deployment
We work with procession
Procession is a natural language programming environment for creating interactive, real-world experiences with mixed reality, voice, gesture, and physical objects.
see also
