A scanning game input mechanism that includes a light-emitting mechanism that defines multiple input regions for a game in which there are multiple players. Each of the input regions is a portion of the playing surface in which a corresponding player subset is to provide physical input (such as rolling dice, playing cards, or placing game pieces, and so forth) to affect game state. A scanning mechanism scans objects placed within the input regions, while a communication mechanism communicates information regarding the scanned object. The information might, for example, be communicated to affect an electronic game state maintained in another device or distributed across multiple devices.