Game Design for Social Networks

Game Design for Social Networks Aki Järvinen Ph.D., Assistant Professor in Game Design aki.jarvinen@itu.dk www.itu.dk

BACKGROUND Aki has a ten‐year experience from both academic game studies + both experimental & commercial game design across various media Ph.D. from 2008 on game studies, psychology, and design methods Teaching game design classes at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and operaOng a game design consultancy Lately focusing on social games

DESIGN RESEARCH INTO ‘SOCIAL GAMES’ Game applicaOons played in Facebook, Myspace, Hi5, Bebo, etc. How do these games ﬁt into the ‘ecosystem’ of game design? Do the virtues of game design as we know it sOll hold? What kind of design pracOce is this? Game design < InteracOon design < Service design

STUDYING PLAYFUL ONLINE INTERACTIONS Method: Reviewing ﬁndings about general user mo,va,ons regarding online social networks and forms of play in Facebook ...and translaOng them into design drivers for social games

CASE STUDIES FOR DESIGN In addiOon, conducOng ‘research into designs’ = an analyOcal, systemaOc look into a sample of games as design objects that consist of parOcular design choices A mix of the most popular games (Maﬁa Wars) and ones with the most interesOng design soluOons (Parking Wars)

RESULTS: DESIGN DRIVERS Spontaneity Symbolic Physicality Inherent Sociability Narra,vity Asynchronicity TranslaOng the idenOﬁed qualiOes of playful interacOon into a model that can be used for game design purposes that look beyond game design, and to the interacOon & service design aspects of the game applicaOon

RESULTS: DESIGN METHODS & MODELS SOll, there needs to be a core gameplay mechanic embedded into the network Another model to facilitate designing and specifying game mechanics for social play Mechanics/network‐driven approach vs. theme‐driven approach

DESIGN FRAMEWORK: TOWARDS PATTERNS ParOcular, idenOﬁed design soluOons from exisOng games that can help in invenOng new features or solving design problems =

WORK IN PROGRESS Taking the design models into pracOce through prototypes EvaluaOng and validaOng Expanding the design research into other social networks, such as Twiher: ‘Twiher Game Design’ blog arOcle Book project

WORKSHOP & TEACHING ‘Game Design for Social Networks’ – 1 or 2 day workshop with design exercises, debuOng at the MindTrek conference, Finland ‘Games and Social Media’ – class at ITU, starOng spring 2010

CONTACT Academic: aki.jarvinen@itu.dk Commercial: aki@mygamestudies.com Website: hhp://www.mygamestudies.com Twiher: @aquito

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Game Design for Social Networks

by Aki Järvinen on Aug 12, 2009

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Game Design for Social Networks — Presentation Transcript