The document discusses Autography, a playful persuasive mobile application that allows people to draw digital graffiti at locations in Florence, Italy. It aims to influence behavior and encourage participation in a positive way. There was initially an idea for an app to remove real graffiti, but the creators realized graffiti can be a form of positive expression. So they developed Autography to make creating graffiti easier digitally. It has been successful, with about 100 drawings made per day. The document then discusses principles of applied games and the process for creating them to address complex topics.
45. Ian Bogost writes:
Gamification, I suggested, is primarily a practice
of marketers and consultants who seek to
construct and then exploit an opportunity for
benefit. …
As I’ve previously argued,“-ifying” things
“makes applying that medium to any given
purpose seem facile and automatic”
(From Why Gamification is Bullshit)
45
50. Develop from scratch a
custom built game or more
simply interactive
application that will
progressively familiarize
the player about a non
trivial topic.
50
51. Progression is built in the
application mechanic /
game loop, using an
analogy represented in the
graph below:
51
64. 64
Knowledge Base
The very first step is transforming the
available knowledge in a form that is
atomic, so that gameplay episodes can
express such parts.
Such atoms can make sense only in a flow,
or in a flow tree.
They can be in narrative form, as
dialogues, as questions / answers, any
form actually.
67. 67
Game mechanic:
an interaction of whole game
elements that can be described
by a very short algorithm
expressible in a short natural
language paragraph
71. “Let’s just clone that great
success and change the
words.”: the worst possible
smart idea.
Creating applied games by cloning existing
games is a very bad idea for a host of reasons
71
72. -You will end up creating a uglier version
of an existing game, the latter acting as a
quality reference for the players who will
expect your applied game to be at least of
the same quality as the cloned one.
-The topic you want to lead the player too
is an obstacle to game play instead of
being built inside the mechanics.
- There will be a dis-alignment between
the game topic and the topic you care
about.
72
73. “We just need a
playable prototype, not a
complete game!”
A playable prototype of
the Space Shuttle is very
close to being the
finished Space Shuttle.
73
74. Lets do some minigames!
≈
Lets do some ugly games!
Lets hint to a mechanics
without developing it!
74
75. “We need the game’s
total cost upfront!”
Just pay me for the (first)
game design and
concept. Minimize risk,
we both win!
#noestimates
75
76. “I am an art expert, hence I have
such cool ideas for the game
design.”
You didn’t consider:
inclusiveness, this game your
very kids are playing, NP-hard
combinatorics, that this and that
will cost immensely…
76
77. “We have to change this simple
thing and you ask for more
money?”
What kind of change is it?
Mutual understanding about the
difference say between change
of data and change of behaviour.
77
78. “The game is not teaching what I
wanted it to.”
“I am scared that they will accuse
the game of teaching the
opposite”
Pair with the designer. Connect
knowledge, learning and the
specific core mechanic and
narrative.
78