SAN FRANCISCO—”It surprised us how Pac-Man on Hololens created interaction between people who are complete strangers!”

Bandai Namco creative director Hirofumi Motoyama declared this while standing next to a photo of arguably the world’s largest Microsofot Hololens game experience to date. In it, two players sporting Microsoft’s “mixed reality” headgear are seen high-fiving—which is both a fun photo moment and a bit of a cheat.

Pac In Town, which premiered in January exclusively at one of Namco’s Japanese theme parks, actually requires players to high-five each other in order to beat its challenges. But as Motoyama’s presentation at the Game Developers Conference made clear, that action is but one way that Bandai Namco answered an important question: how do you make a full-room, multiplayer Hololens game that doesn’t suck?