If bolting wings onto a car wont make it fly don’t expect that tacking a Facebook Connect button into a game will make it viral
Having spent 10 of the last 20 days shivering, shaking, and wrapped up in bed with only Mr and Mrs Flu for company (the Chocolate Orange twins checked in occasionally) I’ve had a lot of time to think how viruses propagate.
Although I’m no Sherlock Holmes, or medical professional for that matter, it’s safe to assume my relationship with flu began in the back of a dimly lit karaoke bar the day before Christmas Eve.
At Dubit, karaoke is not something we take lightly. Not sure which pub to go to for lunch? Sing off. Air conditioning at 70 or 74? Sing off. Last Rolo? Sing off. Karaoke is a central pillar of our dispute resolution process – it’s in the employee handbook.
After months of practice and hours of painstaking choreography, the Dubit Christmas party is the highlight of our karaoke year. Only this year, the event was soured by an unwanted visitor. By Christmas day 10 of the 30 singers reported retiring to bed with aching bones and a raging fever – flu. If that were a virtual world or social game we’d call that a viral ratio of 0.3 and be pretty pleased with ourselves!
As I watched the Dubit flu pandemic unfold on Facebook I started to think about how our own social games can emulate that rapid viral growth – but without the nausea and unpleasantness.
Viral Growth
Like bolting wings onto a car wont make it fly, adding an ‘invite your friend form’ into a game doesn’t automatically make it viral! Flight and virality are two concepts that really ought to be designed in from the start. So where do we start?
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You’ve built a game. Now what?
I’ve written lots about the design of social games, explained the business model, and last week shared a free tool for designing virtual economies. This week I thought I’d write about what happens after the game has been built, how to figure out your marketing messages, and product testing on the cheap.
Having spent many of my teenager years playing Monkey Island I’ve become quite fond of pirates. So much so that when I’m designing a social game I like to imagine myself as a fearsome treasure hunting pirate. At this point you’re probably thinking I’ve been drinking too much grog – but bear with me while I stretch the pirate analogy thinner than Polly’s cracker.
Although I’ve never actually hunted for treasure, popular culture has taught me that treasure maps are not 100% accurate. It seems treasure maps indicate only approximately where the booty might be hidden, but through the collection of clues the resourceful pirate will find his prize.
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Game Design Part 2: Whatever happened to our sense of adventure?
A virtual world is a place to have fun with friends. Sounds so simple, but what makes a world fun? It’s certainly more than rooms and mini games; like bolting wings onto a car wont make it fly, adding mini games into a world doesn’t automatically make it fun! Flight and fun are two concepts that really ought to be designed in from the start.
So where do we start? Thankfully some very smart people have developed frameworks that we can use – these aren’t rules that guarantee success, human nature just isn’t as predictable as physics. As the second post in this series on game design we’re sharing one of our favourite frameworks: the three types of immersion. Lets begin.
Ernest Adams separated immersion into three categories: narrative, strategic, and tactical.
- Narrative immersion occurs when players become invested in a story, and is similar to what is experienced while reading a book or watching a movie.
- Strategic immersion is associated with a mental challenge, often choosing a solution among a broad array of challenges; these are the games like Fallout where the player is managing their avatar statistics and balancing their skills.
- Tactical immersion is experienced when playing games involve skill where players feel “in the zone”; these are games like Halo or FIFA where the player is absorbed in the moment.
The best worlds use all three types of immersion, but rarely in equal measures. A bit like mixing cocktails, we combine the types of immersion in varying strengths for different audiences. In this post I’m going to assume we’re designing for casual players – not the gamers.
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Game Design part 1: No hard choices, no losing, only false achievement
What makes a great virtual world? Why do some worlds keep players coming back time after time? And what can we learn from social games? This is the first in a series of blog posts answering those questions, and more, as we dig into, and dissect, the design of successful virtual worlds. In this first post we’re going to look at ‘False Achievement’. Check out the other posts in our lessons learned series.
Everyone wants to feel like a winner, a success, and a hero; you want to feel like you’re beating the game! Yet the overwhelming majority of your audience are never going to be talented enough to reach the top of your leader-boards. So they just don’t bother trying.
This is a real problem for virtual worlds. If you’re going to make interesting revenues you’ll need to reach the millions of players who will never be the talented few at the top of the ranks. So design your world for the majority, delight them, and make the many feel like heroes!
