Gamification Revisited

Gamification is a way of adding game-type elements into things and places that normally may not be seen as game-like in nature. I've touched on it a little bit before (here).

One area that has the potential to benefit quite a bit from gamification is business. Game-type elements added to your business have the potential to engage customers and keep them coming back and using your products and services.

The following gives an example of how a few well known companies (I guess the Army can be considered a company) have been able to take advantage of gamification with their products and services:

Please include attribution to OnlineBusinessDegree.org with this graphic


It's interesting how many different ways gamification can be used to help your company progress and succeed. As the graphic displays, Nike has used it to enhance community among it's consumers; Starbucks to increase loyalty; and the Army to increase recruiting and training.

Now, the big question is, how, as game designers, could this influence your game designs? Has anyone worked on a "gamification" project like any of these? Anyone out there have a business that would like to add some gamification type elements? I would love to work on a project like this, designing new elements to engage people more.

Print-n-Play Game #2

Well, February turned into March, and March is pretty much gone. But I've finally got the second game ready to post.

It's called Build Upon the Rock. It's a fairly simple game, aimed at young kids. It's a bit of a variant of matching or memory type games.

Just be sure to work hard to build your foundation upon the Rock, or you'll be built upon the sand, and we all know what happens then, the rains came down and the floods came up, and the house on the sand...

Grab the game here and give it a try. As always, let me know what you think.

 

Print-n-Play Games

Games from the 2013 Monthly Design Challenge will be listed and available from this page:

Moroni's Stealthy Spies (here)

Build Upon the Rock (here)

Whole Armor of God Game Review

Here is a guest post from Dane Trimble where he reviews the Whole Armor of God.

Whole Armor of God

Covenant Communications

Designed by Mike Drysdale

Art by Steven and Kevin Keele

2 to 4 players

Ages 5 and up

Plays 10 to 20 minutes

In Whole Armor of God players are trying to be the first to “put on” the Whole Armor of God. This is done by playing Faith in Action cards from your hand on different pieces of armor to eventually total the required number for that particular piece of armor. For example, the Helmet of Salvation requires a point value of 6 to collect, so a player would then play enough Faith in Action cards out of their hand in subsequent turns to total 6. Once this is achieved the player takes that piece of armor and plays it in front of them. The first player to collect all six pieces of armor wins.

To set up, each player is dealt 4 cards. The remainder of the cards are placed face down in the center of play. Players then choose a set of armor cards by color (red, yellow, green, and blue) and lay these out in front of them.

Play begins with the first player playing a card from their hand. This can either be a Faith in Action card being played to one of the pieces of armor, or a fiery dart card on an opposing player which causes that player to lose Faith in Action card(s) already played on a piece or pieces of armor played. The player then draws a card to end their turn and the next player goes.

If a player is able to play enough Faith in Action cards on a piece of armor so that the total equals the number on the piece of armor then that player takes that piece and plays it in front of them. One of the cool things about this game is that the pieces of armor all fit together – like a puzzle – to form a fully armed person. The first player to get all six pieces wins.

This is a great family game that works for young and old kids alike. It was easy to learn and is very quick to play. There are a lot of great lessons being taught throughout the game like what we can do to put on the whole armor of God (through the Faith in Action cards) to basic math skills. The game also works great as a Family Home Evening activity for a variety of messages.

Thanks Dane for reviewing the game.
Check out Dane's LDS Game site:

LDSBoardGames

February Challenge

Well, I'm 10 days late, but I guess it's better late than never. So it's time for he February game design challenge. The restrictions/guidelines for this challenge will be...

Drum roll!

The print-n-play game for February will be based on the Primary Children's song: The Wise Man and The Foolish Man. (It can be heard and lyrics can be read here)

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I'm thinking that I haven't left myself much time, so it will end up to be a simpler game, probably for younger kids.

Let me know if you have any themes or ideas that you'd like to see turned into a game.

January Print-n-Play Game

Well, I'm only 1 week late on this first month's game design challenge. It took a lot more than I thought to get a decent game together in one month (yeah, a little more than one month), but hopefully it's enjoyable. Please let me know what you think and any questions you might have. Here's a little about the game:

Moroni's Stealthy Spies (pdf here)
For 2-4 players, age 6 and up, plays in 10-15 minutes

Alma 43:23: But it came to pass, as soon as they had departed into the wilderness Moroni sent spies into the wilderness to watch their camp;

Players take on the role of Nephite spies sent by Captain Moroni to find Lamanite camps and discover their plans.


You will need to provide your own "spies." I use small wooden cubes, but you could use anything that is about the size of a penny or so. You'll need 10 per person playing.

Enjoy!!

Game Challenge for 2013

Happy new year everyone!!!

I'm looking forward to a great year of game design and development. I love the creative process. It's awesome to see ideas from my mind turn into something tangible and playable. I want to do that more, and, sticking with my overarching goal of providing information about LDS games and helping get more LDS-themed games out there for people to play, I have come up with a little challenge for myself.

I am going to develop 12 games during the course of 2013 (one per month). The major constraint on these games will be that I have to be able to provide everyone out there with a PDF, print-n-play game. This will be a way of achieving my goal. It will also be a way of motivating myself to actual finish a design I start.

Also, each month will have it's own specific constraints. I don't know what these will be for every month of 2013, but for January it will include the following: a game composed of only cards and small wooden cubes that is Book of Mormon themed.

I hope to document the process as much as I can here on the blog. I am also completely open to any and all suggestions that anyone has. If you want to give me the constraints for a particular month, that would be fantastic as well.