Goals & Reward != Game
One of the better decks I’ve seen in a while.
How Simple Game Mechanics Can Impassion People To Do More Business With You – with Amy Jo Kim
Interesting interview with Amy Jo Kim from Shufflebrain on the overlap between traditional web design/dev (specifically in web apps) and game mechanics.
(Among other things, like community, fundamental game mechanics, etc.)
I found this really, really interesting. Coming into game design from the web design/web app world it’s been pretty eye opening to see the relationships and how I’d been using game mechanics in my designs for years. Chances are if you’re designing web apps you’ve been doing that as well.
I’d even take it a step further and say that if you’ve been doing UI/UX/IA etc. work for web apps you’d probably do well to read up on game mechanics as it could help add some context to much of what you use to drive behavior. Much of it what you discover will be things you already know, or close to know, but the language and formal structure you’ll learn could really help you. I know it’s been helpful to me, and I think it’s made me a better overall designer.
With 97bottles.com, we designed in a bunch of game mechanics (many of which never made it into the app) but didn’t really consciously recognize them as game mechanics. Learning the language and beginning to consciously understand those mechanics has been really helpful in many ways.
As well, I think making the jump from web app designer to game designer is a do-able one and in many ways, especially when we’re talking about social web-based games, your skills are a great match and perfect place to start.
