New  Horizons    of  Game  Design  

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Aki  Järvinen  Crea8ve  Director,  Ph.D.  

Sociality  Rocks,  Kiev,  September  30,  2011  

‘Tradi'onal’  VS  ‘New’  Game  Design?  

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http://apps.facebook.com/armyattack http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Wars

The  context  for  social  game  design  

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Gameplay  

Game  designers:  Spot  the  differences  

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And  who’s  this  guy?  

5 Meet  The  Product  Manager  

From  Developers    to  Social  Game  Design...  

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Tradi8onal    VS    New  

Game  Design  

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Mul'player  VS  Parallel  Play  

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Asynchronous  context  =  Asynchronous  gameplay  

Levels  vs  Quests  

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Quest  design  is  the  new  level  design?  

Latest:  Level  design  is  prevailing  

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 Linear  Core  Mechanics  VS  Core  Loops  

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Buy  Plot  

Plant  Crop  Harvest  Crop  

Content  VS  Gameplay  

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The  ‘homestead’  creates  emo'onal  aNachment  but  easily  turns  into  a  content  treadmill  

Tutorials  VS  First-­‐'me  Flows  •     

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In  the  free  to  play  context,  onboarding  the  player  is  even  more  crucial  

Reviews  vs  Metrics  •  metacri'c  vs  hockey  s'cks  

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On  to  the  New  

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Free  to  Play  Service  

This  is  the  NEW  in  the  horizon  for  game  design  –  and  it’s  here  already!  

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F2P  Service  Deployment  

17 http://www.flickr.com/photos/21975505@N04/4146587193/sizes/l/in/photostream/

F2P:  New  standards  for    UI  accessibility  

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F2P  Design  PaNerns  

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•  Case  ‘Fog  of  War’    – a  tried  and  tested  strategy  game  mechanic  in  the  tradi'onal  space  

F2P  =  Unlearning  Design  PaNerns  

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•  In  Army  ANack,  removing  Fog  of  War  improved  ARPU  and  conversion  rate  significantly!  

F2P:  You  can  never  think  too  casual  

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F2P:  Reten'on  is  everything  

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The  short  and  long  term  ‘winters’  need  to  be  crystal  clear  in  your  players’  minds    

The  F2P  dice  

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D1,  D7,  D30  

The  Reten'on  Metrics  

 Reten'on  is  in  the  Core  Loops  

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F2P:  Virtual  Goods  

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Scarcity  via  func'onal  items  

F2P:  Social  Design  

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Request  sub-­‐economies  trump  social  game  mechanics  

F2P:    Flirt  to  engage,  persuade  to  buy  

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F2P:  Promiscuous  social  contexts  

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Gameplay  

F2P  Game  Design  

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Close  enough  to  F2P  is  not  enough  

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Intui'on  and  Metrics  

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F2P:  Time  is  money  

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F2P:  Appointment  mechanics  

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Moving  the  Needle  

DnRU  

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Profitable  Game  Design    

BoNom  Line:  Retaining  Fun  

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Compe''on  is  fun  

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Case:  Profitable  Game  Design  

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FB Credits Revenue Distribution

Fun  mone'zes  well!  

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Thank  You!  

ajarvinen@digitalchocolate.com  @aquito  on  TwiNer  

hNp://games4networks.posterous.com  

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