Ayogo is a Vancouver based studio that creates social games for social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, etc.), and mobile platforms (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, etc.). Our games and gaming experiences help content creators and rights holders build new revenue streams and engage new audiences.
Want more insight into social game design? Check out our CEO's social game design blog or visit our technology blog.
Time is a critical component in many games. How long until your health returns? How long until your crops are ready to be harvested? How long until the next player’s turn in a turn-based game?
There are two main ways to do timers, depending on what you are trying to represent. If you are just trying [...]
In my last post, I discussed the significance of combining in-game rewards with certain game mechanics–like achievement loops–and how this game design combination might have the ability to increase the motivation of players to do more things during gameplay. Based on our experiences with some of our previous games, especially Healthseeker, we think another way [...]
As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have many exciting news to tell you about. The first bit of news had to do with us going (hopefully) to SXSW. Our panel topic was selected for the community voting process and the voting opens tomorrow! Make sure to visit the SXSW Panelpicker to sign up so you can vote. In other news…
Michael just returned from San Antonio, Texas, where he was a guest speaker to a large number of mostly medical professionals at the annual conference for the American Association of Diabetes Educators. He spoke to a large audience about how social games can be used to help people habituate new healthy behaviours through gameplay. In particular, he spoke about Healthseeker, a game designed for people living with diabetes, and some of its key design features, such as how the game creates compulsion loops around reciprocal social obligation, gifting, collection, and achievement to motivate action. The idea that a game could shift a player’s concerns from big commitments over long periods of time for greatly deferred rewards to small actions in short periods of time for instant rewards was very appealing to those in the healthcare industry. We certainly think it’s a feature of social game design that could be much better understood.
Lastly, you can now find Michael’s social game design posts re-published on Gamasutra, our industry’s “go-to” site about the art of designing games. We are also beginning work on a feature article exclusively for the site that should be published later this month. As always, you can always email me at victoria [at] ayogo dot com if you have any questions or just leave a comment.
Courtesy of Flickr's Theresa Thompson
Like us, you’re probably having a busy summer. Still, we really appreciate the fact that some of you have found time to leave comments, RT our tweets and suggest future blog post ideas for Michael’s social game design blog. Thanks for that! We’ve been working on a number of exciting new publishing and speaking projects, and we’re also working on developing new games, so I thought I would give you a little update.
We’ve received some great news from one of our favourite interactive and creative conferences, South By Southwest. They really liked our idea for a panel discussion we suggested on the topic of understanding how social games motivate behaviour, and how that power can be used for good. We’d love to have Michael speak on this topic with a number of other experts to add their insight, and we need your help to get the spot. SXSW uses a community voting system to select the participants, so the more votes we get the more likely the chances are of us presenting next March. The SXSW Panelpicker is officially open as of Wednesday, August 11th. (That’s tomorrow!) All you have to do is visit the Web site, http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/, sign in and vote.
From my previous posts, you know my enthusiasm for using social games to motivate activity and even teach new skills. In my last few posts, I discussed the idea of gamification and how we’re observing a trend that increasingly sees game elements deployed in the service of practical activity. Case in point: I wanted to [...]
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