Comicubes - A playful tool to stimulate (design) creativity

This paper investigates the play potential of an open-ended and hybrid play concept: Comicubes – a platform for play, play- testing and simultaneously tool to stimulate (design) creativity. We propose a hybrid concept that interweaves the ideas of comics and three-dimensional toys together. The concept challenges the traditional idea of comics as images that are read one after another by suggesting a more open reading paralleling the interpretation and use of and a physically manipulable toy object. The concept introduced in the paper, combines the two-dimensional serial image with a three-dimensional and therefore more open-ended toy medium – the cube. Moreover, the concept invites integration of digital enhancements in the physical plaything and thus enables potential AGE (Augmented Game Experience) elements