This is a short workshop about how to turn your startup service into a playful and fun experience. It was set up in a few minutes to be hold at the Startupcamp.ch 2013 in Basel, Switzerland. Gbanga creates mixed-reality games to entertain players in a new and fun way.

1. Playful
Design, Fun
Products &
Gamification for
Matthias Sala
Startups Gbanga
matthias@gbanga.com
StartupCamp.ch, Basel
February 23, 2013

2. «I've played
many video
games, but never
thought that I
would run around
in heavy rain just
for a mobile
game…»

3. «Gamification» Trend
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=Gamification&cmpt=q

4. Convergence to mobile and social
~ 1880 1968 1977 1991 2005 2005
1989 2006 2007
History of Games

5. Media Consumption
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704590704576092460302990884.html

6. Definition
Psychology
Product
Behaviour
design
Advertising Gamification Edutainment
Entertainment
Retention (frustration
management)
Loyalty
programmes Motivation
Serious Health
Games Games

7. Gamification Criticism
«excluding elements like storytelling and
experiences and using simple reward systems in
place of true game mechanics»
«not being fun and creating an artificial sense of
achievement»
«"exploitationware" as a more suitable name for the
games used in marketing»
 «Gamification is to games as jingles are to music.»
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification#Criticism, http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/06/gamification-
criticism-overjustification-ownership-addiction.html

8. Focus today
Psychology
Product
Behaviour
design
Advertising Gamification Edutainment
Entertainment
Retention (frustration
management)
Loyalty
programmes Motivation
Serious Health
Games Games

9. http://mashable.com/2010/07/13/game-mechanics-business/

10. The «Compulsion Loop»
For instance in a simulation game like «Sim City»
Challenges:
Create Environmental changes
buildings Wait for outcome, i.e.: (population growth),
Population growth incidents and
Decide what to build, what to
replace, … Side-effects: pollution, taxes catastrophes
Present
Adapt
effects
strategy Happen randomly or triggered through
Analyze effect in world
tendentious /extreme user activity
Rewards:
Player decisions and actions
Unlock new plants and
Visual feedback (visualization) Happen based on research technologies, happy
activity and on time (historic/ citizens
Parts of the simulation system
chronological unlocks)
Computer-controlled “hidden” game rules (black box)

11. Self-
actuali-
sation Fun
Esteem
Usability
Love/belonging
Reliability
Safety
Functionality
Physiological
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

12. Intrinsic motivations (psychology)
• Acceptance, the need for approval
• Curiosity, the need to learn
• Eating, the need for food
• Family, the need to raise children
• Honor, the need to be loyal to the traditional values of one's clan/ethnic group
• Idealism, the need for social justice
• Independence, the need for individuality
• Order, the need for organized, stable, predictable environments
• Physical activity, the need for exercise
• Power, the need for influence of will
• Romance, the need for sex and for beauty
• Saving, the need to collect
• Social contact, the need for friends (peer relationships)
• Social status, the need for social standing/importance
• Tranquility, the need to be safe
• Vengeance, the need to strike back and to compete
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation#Intrinsic_motivation_and_the_16_basic_desires_theory

13. Game mechanics card game
Buy the PlayGen cards here: http://gamification.playgen.com/