A Preamble

It’s been a day, huh?

Let’s take a cute break?

I’m Adam

• Your Englishman today

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• Colour
• Favour
• Honour
• …flour…

I’m Adam

• Your Englishman today

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• Colour
• Favour
• Honour
• …flour…

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• Accessorise
• Authorise – I wanted to spell it authourise just for the laugh but didn’t want to look illiterate…
• Compromise

Before we start

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• Can we talk about

Games

Because… GAMES

• Because this games, right?

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• Men. Guns.

Or…Because GAMES!

• Casual Match 3, Farming, social play

Or

But games do some things that are great

• Intrinsic Motivation
• We play because we want to.

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• Agency
• If you don’t play, there is no game. You have to do something.

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• Self-Efficacy
• Your plan works. It’s all you, and your progression

Also this

• Increases the likelihood of skill transfer by demonstrating that there are a multiple ways of solving the same problem.
• Excites and motivates students by providing gratifying stimulation.
• Rewards achievement by presenting difficult challenges that require building on skills previously developed.
• Allows achievement to be recognized by peers.
• Is accessible to everyone regardless of previous experience.

Jane says

• This is Jane McGonigal

She’s American game designer, specializing in pervasive gaming and alternate reality games

She speaks in a number of places , the TED conference being one of them.

She wrote “Reality Is Broken” and “Superbetter”

“Reality is Broken” states that games and games design can change the world.

In this book she defines games.

4 Traits

She says that the Four Defining Traits of a Game are:

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• A Goal Specific outcome that the players can work to achieve
• Rules Limitations on how they reach that goal
• A Feedback System Showing how close that goal is
• Voluntary Participation Willingly accepting Goal, Rules and Feedback

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Let’s look at Coffee Reward Cards

• Goal – to get a free coffee
• Rules – you have to buy an amount of coffee before you can get your free one
• Feedback – generally a card with a number of stamps
• Voluntary acceptance – if you’re getting the stamps, you’re playing the game.

The Point

• This is how I want you to think about your solutions:
• What is your goal?
• How is your audience going to get there?
• How are you going to let them know how far it is?
• And – a new one
• What happens if they fail?

Failing

• Because this is another important aspect with games:

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• Players plan, attempt that plan – knowing that plan might fail but also knowing that failure isn’t an end state.

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• And what happens if we fail?

This session we’ll build as a game

• Your goal is to come out with a concrete solution that you can continue working with
• Your rules are to work together with whatever design thinking methods you have to get there
• We will walk around tables to give you feedback, and ask you questions and keep you working towards that goal
• And – while you’re here, you’ll be playing the game.

What happens when you fail?

• We’ll be like a game
• We’ll work through and give feedback and new ideas and you’ll do what you do when you play a game.

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You’ll try again

And again

And again

We’ll do our best

• I’ll refer to friends as Players – because I’ll think about them in terms of people who act to reach an outcome.
• And I’ll talk about audience – when I mean those closest to people who are suffering.

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Because these are terms I am used to.

Let’s get to work

How to help a friend through game design

That seems like a lot of work

• And it probably is.
• While McDowell says you can do a lot of this “as you go,” there is always the temptation to just stop and never commit.

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• So, while not leaving world building completely, let’s look at the fictive solution we’re starting with tonight.

Design Fiction

• Bruce Sterling – cyberpunk author, thinker, futurist, discussed the term in 2005, in the book Shaping Things.
• He later provides a definition in a 2012 interview with Slate magazine as “the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change.”
• The diegetic prototype in the context of design fiction can understood as a piece of design/object that seemingly exists within the fictional world the audience is viewing.

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Enough Talking. Let’s try some Design Fiction

• Thinking about the problem you have chosen to address:
• I’d like you to work with the people on your table.
• It’s 50 years in the future
• Helping friends is now commonplace
• I want you to think about something that concretely changed
• Maybe it’s a service, or an item, that changed how we did things.
• Describe the life of someone – in first person – whose life has changed.
• Tell us how.

Now let’s talk

• Read your stories to each other.
• Take Notes.
• Do you have a common theme/item/notion?
• If so – pick one and write a second story, about the common theme/item/notion.
• How does it work?
• How did it come about?
• Read your stories again, taking notes.
• Design your item

• What if you don’t have a common theme.
• Discuss, for 10 minutes, why you don’t.
• What were your start points?
• What did you think. Individually, was important enough to write?
• Explain your understanding of the problem

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• Swap Stories and try again
• Use an aspect of the story you have received and write about something from there.
• Do you have something common this time?
• Can you see a shared world?
• Continue as on the slide before.

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Let’s take 2

Welcome Back

Game Design

So you have an idea

• Maybe?

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• If not, don’t worry. It’s design.
• You’re probably going to break this as you work.

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• Let’s look at how we can build this using game design as a design method.

MDAO – a Game Design Framework

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• Framework for game design with measurable outcomes.
• Stands for Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics and Outcomes.
• Designed for Behaviour Change Interventions

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Components

Mechanics: The goals, rule sets, and other components of the game.

Dynamics: The emergent player behaviours that come out of the player’s interaction with the game’s mechanics.

Aesthetics: The emergent emotional responses that arise out of the player’s experience.

Outcomes: Behavioural or intellectual consequences of the player’s interaction with the game.

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Mechanics

• Mechanics are the elements that the game gives players to interact with directly.
• This includes controls, tools, obstacles and rules that define, create, and limit the ways the game can be played.
• Any changes to any mechanic has an impact on how the game is played.

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• Buy one coffee. Get One stamp.
• The Coffee Shop Game

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• Gotta Catch Em All
• Pokemon Go

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• All players on a team win.
• Basketball

Dynamics

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• These are the player behaviours that emerge from the constraints created by the mechanics.

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• Dynamics are created by the player but because they come from the player’s reaction to, and interaction with, the mechanics means we can weigh the dice.

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• Buying multiple coffees in one go
• A dynamic that comes from “Buy one coffee. Get one stamp.”

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• Walking around the world looking for a Pikachu
• A dynamic that comes from “Gotta catch em all”

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• Cooperation within a team
• A dynamic that comes from “All players on a team win”

Mechanics/Dynamics

• To teach a player something, they have to see a result of their action.
• If the result is good, they’ll keep doing that action.
• If it’s bad, they’ll either stop, or learn to improve it.

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• I learn to move in a game.
• I’ll keep doing it until I hit a closed door.
• Then I’ll have to learn how doors work.

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NOTE: FEEDBACK MATTERS

• Rule:
• Instead of eating a chocolate bar, try a carrot

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• Feedback
• None of the pleasurable sensations of chocolate are fired by carrots

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• Result
• *#!? Carrots. I want a chocolate bar

Aesthetics

• The emotional responses that arise in a player from participating in the dynamics of a game.

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• We don’t use the word “fun” because it’s imprecise.

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• Hang on

Fun

First:

• This is a useless word, and we’ll try not to use it in the future.
• At some point you’ll give your “game” to someone and ask what they think, and they’ll say:
• “I don’t know. It’s not that much fun?”
• And you’ll want to ask:
• “Well then. How much Fun do you think I should add until it is that much fun. Does it need 2 more Fun, or 3?”

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“Fun”

• What I find fun might not be what you find fun.
• My wife LOVES “The Battle of Polytopia.” She’ll play this for hours, trying to hit the 95% score for 3 stars.
• I love Monster Hunter. I’ll grind for hours getting body parts to improve my armour.
• These games do not have the same types of fun.

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Aesthetics

• The emotional responses that arise in a player from participating in the dynamics of a game.

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• We don’t use the word “fun” because it’s imprecise.

• Sensation: Game as sense-pleasure
• Fantasy: Game as make-believe
• Narrative: Game as drama
• Challenge: Game as obstacle course
• Fellowship: Game as social framework
• Discovery: Game as uncharted territory
• Expression: Game as self-discovery
• Submission: Game as pastime

Aesthetics

• The emotional responses that arise in a player from participating in the dynamics of a game.

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• We don’t use the word “fun” because it’s imprecise.

• Coffee Runs make people happy and you get to know your friends
• Is a Fellowship Aesthetic arising from “Buying multiple coffees in one go”

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• Learning more about where you live
• Is a Discovery Aesthetic arising from “Walking around the world looking for a Pikachu”

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• Camaraderie with your team mates
• An Fellowship aesthetic in basketball arising from “cooperation within a team”.

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Outcomes

• The outcome is the real world result of your game.
• Intentional or not, all games have outcomes.
• The Outcome stems from the dynamic – It comes from the gameplay.
• It is supported by your Aesthetic – the emotional response to your gameplay.

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• A better friendship circle
• An outcome of “Buying multiple coffees in one go” supported by “Coffee Runs make people happy and you get to know your friends”
• More Exercise
• An outcome of “Walking around the world looking for a Pikachu” supported by “Learning more about where you live”
• An increased social bond between the players
• An outcome of “cooperation within a team” supported by the aesthetic of “camaraderie”

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Do games have just one MDAO combination?

• No.
• Games can have several complementary targeted outcomes designed to strengthen the intervention.
• It is essential to be conscious of each of them, and how the mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics of the game support or detract from each outcome.

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• Pokemon Go
• The Mechanic: Player Teams can control game locations
• The Dynamic: Fighting for these locations
• The Aesthetic: Fellowship (PvP and Team identification)
• The Outcome: Social Contact to other Players.

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A Handy Diagram

• Your player will have outcomes and aesthetics that you want to achieve.
• These come from the dynamic – the behaviours they are now exhibiting
• Because you have given them a set of rules and constraints, and feedback that will encourage those behaviours.

Martine Pedersen

The External Third

• An action that takes the attention so that a conversation can happen
• A walk in the forest
• Conversation cards
• Playing with puppies etc

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• An external third allows deeper conversation because you’re not talking about something. You’re talking while doing something unrelated.

This evening

• You have an idea in front of you – through the design fiction.
• You probably won’t run with that, which is cool
• But you have are coming up with solutions tonight.
• For who?
• Different audiences have different needs at different times.
• Remember everything you have heard about today

This evening

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• Understanding what behaviour needs to change, and how, so that you can design the dynamics of your experience to deliver those behaviours.
• So that you can design the mechanics to cause the player behaviours that lead to the outcomes you need.
• AND that you can design the “fun” so that the players keep coming back to your experience

Going Forwards

• State your Outcomes. Out loud. To your teams.
• Come to them through your design thinking process.

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• Occam’s Razor
• Does this solution get us close to the goal?
• Build something – a walkthrough, a comic, a narrative
• Find an expert in the room and talk it through with them

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• Fail Fast, Fail Better. Fail your way to success
• And other bingo terms.
• Understand what doesn’t work and try again on your next iteration.

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Contact Details

• Mary@playablefiction.com
• adam@playablefiction.com