The document outlines the game design and product management practices at Mind Candy, emphasizing the importance of discovery in creating engaging games for kids. It discusses the evolution of the company from instinct-based decisions to implementing structured processes like OKRs and the double diamond model of design. The author highlights the significance of understanding user needs, rapid prototyping, and validation to ensure that the fun element is effectively integrated into game development.

3. I have been making games and eLearning products for kids for 13
years. Been at Mind Candy for 4 years as Game Design & Product
Manager.
Going to run through the Discovery Process of Game Design as I see
at Mind Candy and how I think it relates to Product Management.
Personally I have the found the tenants of Product Management
(making relevant; valuable; feasible stuff) to be very useful when ap-
proaching Game Design.
Introduction

4. - Mind Candy from Hunches to Heuristics
- Company & Product Discovery
- Finding Fun is an Adventure
- Seek Mastery: Types of User & Fun
- Lightweight Toolbox
- Discovery Part I: Ideation
- Discovery Part II: Validation
- Iterate
- Summary
Agenda

6. Mind Candy from Hunches to Heuristics
Mind Candy has achieved success in multiple industries with a rela-
tively small team
- No. 1 Kids Print Mag
- No. 1 Toy Brand in UK
- No.1 Kids web game in UK and strong in ROW
Agile & Product Management allows us to be very effective with small
teams.
Very fortunate now to have a good Product Management function
(including 1 week Marty Cagan master class which helped to educate
the whole company)

7. Mind Candy from Hunches to Heuristics
Didn't always used to be like this:
Started with a skilled core team who ran on gut instinct and hunches.
Made awkward design decisions and couldn't always maintain integ-
rity of design across our whole product (as I'm sure any Agile Game
Designer has unfortunately experienced)
However, we executed a lot faster than our competition and got to
the fabled tipping point.
When we had a winner on our hands, we started to double down on
the science of success as we obviously wanted to repeat this fre-
quently as possible.

9. As we grew, two things happened simultaneously:
Company-wide Discovery & Product/ Feature Discovery
Company Discovery:
Business wanted to know where we would be in 3, 6, 12 months from
now.
We introduced OKRs to chart our direction and to align all depart-
ments.
The 3 month heartbeat of OKRs work well for a modern fast moving
company.
Company & Product Discovery

11. OKRs also imposed some necessary deadlines for features and whole
products.
Whilst it's tempting to say that the product will ready when its ready,
it is necessary to impose some constraints on resource and time.
It was time for the product teams to work out how to reliably deliver
value within certain timeframes
Company & Product Discovery

13. Product teams reacted by improving our Discovery process.
(i.e. Finding something valuable to do and validating it before you
start formal implementation)
The diamond represent the standard‘Double Diamond’of the design
and discovery process.
The yellow diamond represents that you have to do enough Discov-
ery and start out informed before you can entertain the idea of dead-
lines.
Company & Product Discovery

15. Discovery for games is all about finding fun.
Finding Fun is NOT a journey that can be easily planned upfront. Es-
pecially for games. Especially for kid's games.
Its an inexact science. Party unknowable because you discover Fun as
you create.
Can we always Find Fun?
ANS: Yes, if we look hard enough. BUT, time is of the essence!
Discovery for Games

17. Understanding and respecting your environment gives you a head
start and saves time (doesn’t have to cost lots of money).
Understand and study other games:
- Nintendo games are a good place to start
- Loads of great physical & board games out there too
Understand your user:
- Kids on Chris Evans Breakfast Show; Diary of a Wimpy Kid
- Read psychology papers, books and blogs
- Run focus groups & surveys
Mastery You Shall Seek

19. Example of what can go on inside a kid’s head.
Letter from boy to a weatherman who visited his school.
The more glimpses we collect of our users, the better we can under-
stand and serve them.
Mastery You Shall Seek

21. Knowing your user will help you meet their needs and expectations
which saves you time.
So much variation with gender and age.
There are as many different play styles as there are different models to
describe personas.
Find models that work for you
Previous slide is based on research by Lizzie Jackson and David
Gauntlett:
http://home.wmin.ac.uk/docs/MAD/AM/S02_SP03-LizzieJackson.pdf
Master Types of User

23. Knowing about different types of fun will help you engage kids on
different levels in the short, medium and long-term.
Nicole Lazzaro's 4 types of Fun:
- Hard Fun: Goals, Obstacles, Strategies
- People Fun: Communicate, Cooperate, Compete
- Easy Fun: Exploration; Fantasy; Creativity
- Serious Fun: Repetition, Rhythm; Collection
http://www.nicolelazzaro.com/the4-keys-to-fun/
Easy Fun is really important for kids.
Especially silly, whimsy, slapstick - crude humour
Find models that work for you
Master Types of Fun

25. Set yourself up to move quickly.
Must move quickly because the more ideas we play with, the more
fun we will find.
Quick: Paper & pencil; post-its and sharpies - Paper app
Precise: Omnigraffle, Google Docs
Low-Fidelity: Flash; Construct; Stencyl, HTML + jquery
Clearly communicate that you're prototyping; use rough visuals while
prototyping behaviour - otherwise you will become frustrated when
people start trying to ship your un-validated work!
Toolbox

27. Discovery is a 2 step process. First start with Ideation .
(This is where we open up the Discovery Diamond)
Collect & welcome ideas from everywhere.
Don't kill ideas too early; don’t edit yourself.
Be concerned if you don't end up with several alternative ideas.
Use your Toolbox to Prototype and test quickly by any means.
Discovery Part I: Ideation

29. This was an example of using lightweight tools to prototype and ex-
plore ideas quickly.
I wanted a persistent cumulative highscore, but didn't have time to
program it, so we just recorded kid's score on the wall using post-it
notes.
When they hit milestones we gave them some Moshi Cards.
Discovery Part I: Ideation

31. The second step in Discovery is Validation.
(This is where we begin filtering ideas and close the Discovery Dia-
mond)
Check if you've found the fun.
Use Mastery, Prototyping and Tests to reduce options.
Know when something's wrong - sometimes we become too at-
tached, but Validation should show us what’s simply not working.
We are NOT children.
You won't really know if you're Found some Fun until you put it in
front of kids.
Discovery Part II: Validation

33. This picture is obviously wrong!
Sometimes we invest in products too emotionally and we can’t see
that what we’re building is wrong.
Discovery Part II: Validation

35. I wanted to add a puzzle game to Moshi and started to research and
play all the puzzle games we could.
We soon found and fell in love with Puzzli and started prototyping
something similar. We then fell in love with the prototype.
In truth, we prototyped too long without validating with users.
We had to go through a couple of rounds of play testing and major
tweaks before we held our hands up and said it wasn’t working.
However, we learnt a lot about NodeJS (and have adopted it) and
learnt a lot about of users and went on to build something more rel-
evant and valuable.
Moshi Example

37. Iterate on Ideation and Validation.
(This is essentially the Double Diamond approach to design)
We don't do big design upfront (we might spend too much effort
going in the wrong direction).
We do quick slices because it helps us validate if we've found the fun
more quickly.
After you have proved your core idea, do some more discovery.
(but know when something's wrong)
Iterate

38. "Startups that don't have a
product/ market fit don't need
growth hackers."
Andrew Chen, Sep 2012

39. "Games that haven't found
fun, don't need optimisation."
Martyn Jones, just now

41. When trying to Find the Fun for a kid's game, it is extremely risky to
execute a single idea.
To mitigate risk, start out informed, spread your bets, then build and
validate your ideas as frequently as possible.
Decent games need a decent discovery process - and I think a chunk
of that needs to be done before anyone commits to any deadlines.
If Product Management is about knowing the user and the market
and discovering the most relevant, valuable and feasible thing to do,
then a Product Manager's best friend is the Product Designer.
For games, that's the Game Designer.
Summary