Social Game Design
An Eightfold Path for Social Game Development
Someone asked about what it takes to create a social game. This is incredibly stripped down, but here is my basic formula I use with my clients:
1) Figure out what your fundamental gameplay dynamic is going to be as early as possible. IE, what is it the fundamental unit of play that the user is [...]
“The Future of Games” is featured on SlideShare
The slides from my presentation at PAX are being featured on the front page of Slideshare today.
If you haven’t checked them out, go take a look.
Streaming Social Games?
Has it dawned on anyone else that the real game changer for social and portable media is going to be remote computing delivery systems like OnLive? Seems like it has…
“Through the VolleeX engine, we can take full PC games, MMOs or even virtual worlds and stream them to any 3G enabled handsets, “says Vollee’s head [...]
Casual Gaming Metrics Applied to Social Gaming
This is a talk I gave at the Facebook Developer’s Garage back in March.
ISG Column: Good ain’t always better
My latest column for ISG is up
Every time a new market opens up the first games to appear are built on traditional, time-tested play patterns. From the DS to the iPhone, from XBLA to browser games, it’s always rock-solid gameplay that shows up first, with the fancy stuff pulling up in a later bus. And [...]
Latest post on ISG: Social Optimism
I’m still writing pieces for Inside Social Games, although you might not know it from reading this site…
My latest piece is on the bright future for Social Games. I’m currently working on something a little less optimistic.
Here’s the excerpt to whet your appetite:
I’m actually beginning to wonder if the future for social platform gaming may [...]
Giving Players a Chance to Socialize
Raph Koster is a designer who’s blog posts are always worth reading. His thoughts on the future of single-player were a big inspiration on my decision to focus on Social Games.
He’s just dropped a big post on ways to make virtual spaces more social, and there’s plenty of good stuff in there to mull over, [...]
Video Game Violence Has a Purpose
There’s a recent study that that points out that it isn’t the violence in video games that motivate players to continue playing. That’s something that casual games have already proven pretty effectively. But there’s an inherent attitude of disdain and superiority in the tone of the report that seems to dismisses violence without recognizing that [...]
You’re Still Inside a Web Browser
One major aspect of Social Platform Games that people tend to ignore is that they are all still played in a web browser.
Successful Social Games are all about Status
Traditional games are primarily focused on the experience of play. It’s the old “gameplay is everything” model, and while that’s still important, the equation has changed a bit. What a social player is most concerned about is status.