mygamestudies.com

Book Project on Social Games

Aki Järvinen — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:19:19 +0000

I'm glad to announce that I will start a book project for Carnegie Mellon University's ETC Press. The book will expand the work started with my recent blog posts, and in practice, the book will be written here. Starting in September, I hope to post a draft of a section every couple of weeks. You are very welcome to influence the final manuscript with your feedback. To start with, you'll be able to check out the book structure and content outline after the break.

Twitter Game Design: Observations & Principles

Aki Järvinen — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:59:26 +0000

Besides simple trivia or math quizzes, attempts at RPGish exploration of the Twitterverse, or word puzzle based movie-tie-in campaigns like the Terminator Salvation game, and the Spymaster flooding issues, we are starting to see game designs that are less obvious or inaccessible in their complexity. SNODS - 'Social Networks Online Defense Squad' - is a case in point: the game displays clever solutions in how it takes advantage of Twitter's social dynamics and how it builds a certain kind of social graph around you. Here's my analysis of the game, and some observations of how these solutions can be carried into social network games in general.

Workshop: Game Design for Social Networks

Aki Järvinen — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:27:21 +0000

Game Design for Social Networks is a one-day workshop where the participants will learn about creating and designing game concepts for online social networking platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. The workshop is built around my work on researching social game design drivers and frameworks, and putting them into practice.

Workshop: Game Design for Social Networks

Aki Järvinen — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:04:43 +0000

Lately I have been giving a couple of workshops for business clients on how to introduce elements familiar from games, such as quest-like motivational structures, into their online services and applications. At the same time, I have been pursuing my research and development on social games. These two strands unite in a one-day workshop package which focuses on creating and designing game and 'funware' concepts for online social networking platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Game Design for Social Networks: Part 2 - A Design Framework

Aki Järvinen — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:20:47 +0000

In the first part of the article, I argued that designing games for online social networks, such as Facebook, can benefit from mixing methods of game design with interaction and service design approaches. I also identified symbolic physicality, inherent sociability, spontaneity, and asynchronicity as aspects of social network games that can be set as design drivers in a project. However, they are high level concepts - in this, part two, I begin to elaborate a number of them into an evolving framework that helps in thinking about design decisions.

Game Design for Social Networks: Part 1

Aki Järvinen — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:08:04 +0000

How can interaction design inform game design practices in the context of designing games for social networks? How can understanding of user motivations be formalized into design principles that would solve and inspire new design solutions in this particular design space? In the first of two parts, I explore specific issues that game designers will have to face when designing games for social networks.

Coming up - Game Design for Social Networks

Aki Järvinen — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:34:14 +0000

Micro-blogging via Twitter has turned into my main channel for noting and voicing observations about game design topics. Nevertheless, I'm working on a conference paper on game design principles for social networks, and will post a draft of it here in a few days. Stay tuned!

The Anatomy of a Head Shot: A Reading

Aki Järvinen — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:18:58 +0000

A while ago i Sniper Lite was the most popular free game in the iPhone app store. It reminded me of a subject that has puzzled my mind for a long time. I like a good FPS - check out the post about Far Cry 2 - yet I have always been amazed at the fascination of this genre, and its players, with 'head shots', i.e. representations of exploding (human) heads. From the perspective of designing player experiences, there is undoubtedly an emotional trigger there. But why is this imagery so powerful?

The emotional game design space of address book contacts: Case Dr. Awesome

Aki Järvinen — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:39:23 +0000

Dr Awesome is an iPhone game where the players are put to treat virus outbreak patients in a series of mini-games that resemble Qix. Besides the fact that I've always regarded Qix as an ingenious game design, it is interesting how Dr Awesome taps into the emotional potential of one's address book. This gives me a chance to explore another concept from emotion theory, namely the variables that affect the intensities of emotions.

Psychology of Achievements & Trophies

Aki Järvinen — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:52:51 +0000

The guys at the Finnish gaming magazine Pelaaja are writing a feature about Xbox Live Achievements, PSN Trophies, badges, and such. They asked me to comment about the matter, and my notes grew into this post. Let's look at the motivations behind amassing all that cultural capital of gamerpoints and completion percentages.