Children's Media Conference 2016 Masterclass

1. HOWTO
DESIGNGAMES
CHILDRENWANT
Phil Stuart, Creative Director
@philstuart, @preloaded

5. 100m+gameplays
#1in over 14
App stores

6. HMM.GAMES

7. 22%
UK gamers
under 18
35Average age
of gamer
1.6bngamers worldwide
48%
gamers are
female
99%
of UK 8-15s
play games

8. GOODDESIGN
FOCUSSESON
THEAUDIENCE

9. Social
Communication
Physical
Cognitive
Credit
Digills Research & Consulting
& Fundamentally Children
Starting to follow simple instructions
Limited memory and concentration
Learning rules through play
Able to follow instructions
Increasing ability to focus on tasks
Learning rules through trial and error
Begin to predict, experiment
Start to recollect not just remember
Strategic and abstract thinking emerging
Learning to share / take turns
Begin to have interest in making friends
Starting to build strong friendship groups
Same gender play becoming more
common
Approaching puberty
Social and peer pressure becoming a thing.
Typically non-readers
Speech understood
Vocabulary growing
Moving from pre-reader to chapter books
Speech still primary communication tool
Can read and write
Fast growing vocabulary
Gross motor: moving from one (hopping)
to two (cycling) things at once.
Fine motor: Learning to hold a pen & make
some ‘marks’
Gross motor: Developing co-
ordination (e.g. skipping, dribbling)
Fine motor: Hand writing skills
developing
Gross motor: Sport
Fine motor: Many enjoy fine motor
challenges (small craft, construction)
3-4 5-7 8+
Children’s development

10. Social
Communication
Physical
Cognitive
Credit
Digills Research & Consulting
& Fundamentally Children
Starting to follow simple instructions
Limited memory and concentration
Learning rules through play
Able to follow instructions
Increasing ability to focus on tasks
Learning rules through trial and error
Begin to predict, experiment
Start to recollect not just remember
Strategic and abstract thinking emerging
Learning to share / take turns
Begin to have interest in making friends
Starting to build strong friendship groups
Same gender play becoming more
common
Approaching puberty
Social and peer pressure becoming a thing.
Typically non-readers
Speech understood
Vocabulary growing
Moving from pre-reader to chapter books
Speech still primary communication tool
Can read and write
Fast growing vocabulary
Gross motor: moving from one (hopping)
to two (cycling) things at once.
Fine motor: Learning to hold a pen & make
some ‘marks’
Gross motor: Developing co-
ordination (e.g. skipping, dribbling)
Fine motor: Hand writing skills
developing
Gross motor: Sport
Fine motor: Many enjoy fine motor
challenges (small craft, construction)
3-4 5-7 8+
Children’s development
Social &
economic
Location
Number of
siblings
External
influences

11. THEPROBLEM
__
How do you design for an
audience when their needs
and abilities can be so varied?

12. Happy Studio (McDonald’s)
Purposeful-play platform for 3-9 year olds, 42 countries.

13. OURAPPROACH
__
To create games kids want,
you need to create a good
experience for all players
regardless of abilities.

14. DESIGN
PRINCIPLES
TOCATERFOR
MIXEDABILITIES

15. 1.
LOW THRESHOLD

16. LOW THRESHOLD
Crafty Cut’s inline tutorial

17. LOW THRESHOLD
Pudding Monster’s inline tutorial

18. TOCA HAIR SALON (INTUITIVE UI)
LOW THRESHOLD
Toca Hair Salon’s diegetic interface

19. LOW THRESHOLD
Beasts of Balance’s fun failure

20. LOW THRESHOLD
Rugged Rover’s fun failure

21. 1.LOWTHRESHOLD
__
Inline tutorials
Intuitive UI
Make failure fun

22. 2.
HIGHCEILINGS

24. HIGH CEILINGS
Minecraft’s scope for mastery

25. HIGH CEILINGS
Minecraft’s scope for mastery

26. HIGH CEILINGS
Minecraft’s scope for mastery

27. HIGH CEILINGS
Story Card’s emergent complexity

28. HIGH CEILINGS
Cut the Rope’s reward system

29. 2.HIGHCEILINGS
__
Scope for mastery
Emergent complexity
Rewards for everyone

30. 3.WIDEWALLS

31. WIDE WALLS
Animal Crossing’s different play styles

32. WIDE WALLS
Happy Studio’s open-ended play

33. WIDE WALLS
Toca Band’s creative freedom

34. 3.WIDEWALLS
__
Different play styles
Open-ended play
Creative freedom

35. DESIGNPRINCIPLES
__
1.LOWTHRESHOLD
2.HIGHCEILINGS
3.WIDEWALLS

36. It’s better than
Minecraft”
__
7 year old boy
Happy Studio play testing
Fundamentally Children
“

37. QUESTIONS?
__

38. THANKYOU
__
@philstuart
@preloaded
preloaded.com