Game Design Handbook for Gamification Interaction

Game Design
INTERACTION DESIGN
A referential book such as a handbook or manual.

Interaction Design: Gamiﬁcation
INDEX
Starting Process
Game Mechanisms
Game Models
Victory Condition Mechanism
Characters
Gameplay & Environmental Design
Art, Sound & Music
Game Control & Immersive Companion
Store, Points, Monetization, Multi-user & Social

Starting Process

1.0 
Define the Game though the definition of the Concept.
World Design 
World design is the creation of a backstory, setting, and theme for the
game; often done by a lead designer.
System Design 
System design is the creation of game rules and underlying
mathematical patterns.
Content Design 
Content design is the creation of characters, items, puzzles, and
missions.
Game Writing 
Game writing involves writing dialogue, text, and story.
Level Design 
Level design is the construction of world levels and its features.
User Interface Design 
User interface designer constructs the user interactions and feedback
interface, like menus or heads-up displays.
2.0 
Narrative and Gameplay definition.
Narrative 
Numerous games have narrative elements which give a context to an
event in a game, make the activity of playing it less abstract and
enhance its entertainment value, although narrative elements are not
always clearly present or present at all. The original version of Tetris is
an example of a game appar- ently without narrative. It should be noted
that some[who?] narratologists claim that all games have a narrative
element. Some go further and claim that games are essentially a form of
narrative. Narrative in practice can be the starting point for the
development of a game, or alternatively can be add- ed to a design that
started as a set of game mechanics
Gameplay 
Gameplay is the interactive aspects of video game design.
• Gameplay involves player interaction with the game, usually for the
purpose of entertainment, education or training.
• The Gameplay need to be based to a simple Idea able to summarize
the entire game in a concept.
STARTING PROCESS

3.0 
Design Process & Document Design Producing.
Design Process
The design process varies from designer to designer and companies
have different for- mal procedures and philosophies. 
The typical “textbook” approach is to start with a concept or a
previously completed game and from there create a game design
document.[citation needed] This document is intended to map out the
complete game design and acts as a central resource for the
development team. This document should ideally be updated as the
game evolves throughout the production process.
Game Design Document 
A game design document (often abbreviated GDD) is a highly
descriptive living design document of the game design for a video
game. 
The purpose of a game design document is to unambiguously describe
the game’s selling points, target audience, gameplay, art, level design,
story, characters, UI, assets, etc. In short, every game part requiring
development should be included by the developer.
The majority of video games should require an inclusion or variation of
the following sections:
• Game Deﬁnition
• Story
• Gameplay
• Points, User Levels, Extra
• Characters
• Environment design
• Art, Sound and Music
• User Interface, Game Controls
• Immersive Companion
• Store
• Monetization & Social Sharing
STARTING PROCESS

Game Mechanisms

1.0 
Discovery
Games and web interfaces have one thing in common: they are virtual
environments where real-world elements, mental maps and scenarios
are used help the users ﬁnd their ways around - everything else is
creatively re-imagined and displayed. Games like Dune, inspired by the
Dune chroni- cles, challenge users to deal with the laws and elements
of a totally different world. Discovery is a fundamental element of game
experiences that only a few websites would make use of effectively.
Most content-heavy websites encourage users to provide feedback,
submit comments or share information with friends, thus increasing the
chances of converting ﬁrst-time visitors into participants. In some cases
though,
 
the content is made available through play and discovery, on websites
that “respond” to the user’s choices and preferences. TED uses
descriptive terms (jaw-dropping, inspiring, courageous), duration-
related data (15 mins, 20 mins), as well as categories (technology,
science, art) to help the user discover a lecture she will most likely
enjoy, based on her choices.
A recently popular music-discovery website - Hitlantis - uses a visually
compelling interface and a simple menu to create the perfect
environment for music discovery. There are a couple of other websites
and apps that
 
use principles of discovery to keep users happy and immersed in a
carefully crafted music experience. Stereomood uses moods to bring
up new songs, Discovr uses a complex algorithm to categorize and
suggest bands based on a variety of factors, and Songza uses other
people’s suggestions and channels to help them discover songs similar
to the one they search for.
GAME MECHANISMS

3.0 
Motivation
In 2005, Steven Levitt made an interesting point about motivation and
incentives in Freakonomics and that is people respond to incentives,
but also learn how to use gratification mechanisms to get what they
want. Games are purposely designed so that users can increase or
decrease the level of difficulty for a certain game and experience the
joy of winning differently. Also, there are multiple rewards and incentives
throughout the game, to keep them focused, motivated and excited
about the final outcome. In UX design incentives take the form of
badges (Foursquare), scores (Klout), numbers reflecting popularity
(Facebook, Twitter) and usage (Digg), memberships and experience
related symbols or tags (pro, new user).
To some extent users want to become more involved with using a
website because all these incentives make sense to them and make
them feel good. As a designer, you can create a more compelling
experience by using simple incentives or game-like scenarios.
Self actualization needs are also intricately connected to game
mechanics and user experience. There is a broad spectrum of feelings
one can experience by collecting all these badges, reaching a certain
position or rank, seeing their profile stats go up and sharing their scores
with everybody.
At a very basic level, the feeling of progress and achievement is
extremely relevant in the way user scenarios contribute to improving the
overall user experience. In most strategy games, players need to
manage their resources by avoiding loss, fighting for territory and
replenishing their resources. Resource management involves multiple
game mechanics, but creates a powerful game-mind connection and
an immersing experience. At the intersection of strategy games and UX
design there are web apps designed for project man- agreement or,
more recently - online banking. Bank Simple did a really good job at
stimulating people’s desire to achieve their goals by designing a simple
and rewarding mobile/web app which will be launched this year.
GAME MECHANISMS

3.0 
Collaboration & Challenging
Since prehistoric time, man has always clustered in tribes since relation-
ships with other individuals and active participation in the groups
produces a high degree of satisfaction the human nature.
The active participation of the user in the collaboration process is
engaging and viral.
Challenges are set of tasks or accomplishments to ingrain behavior and
provide feedback. Challenges create engagement, but need to be
specific to the audience and to induce them to progress along the
process life cycle. For example, progressing through peer review
participant to peer review leader and finally to peer review master. The
challenges should help encourage the player to progress.
Leaderboards show players where they rank amongst their peers (those
people participating in the game). The leaderboard puts a spotlight on
those at or near the top of the list, which generates competition among
the players. Leaderboards can be categorized based on role or teams,
depending on the goals of the process improvement and the
gamification.
GAME MECHANISMS

Game Models

1.0 
Turns
A game turn is an important fundamental concept to almost all non-
computer games, and many video games as well (although in video
games, various real-time genres have become much more popular). In
general, a turn is a segment of the game set aside for certain actions to
happen before moving on to the next turn, where the sequence of
events can largely repeat.
In a truly abstract game (backgammon) turns are nothing more than a
means to regulate play. In less abstract games (Risk), turns obviously
denote the pas- sage of time, but the amount of time is not clear, nor
important. In simulation games, time is generally more concrete. War-
games usually specify the amount of time each turn represents, and in
sports games a turn is usually distinctly one ‘play’, although the amount
of time a play takes can vary.
2.0 
Actions Points
These control what players may do on their turns in the game by
allocating each player a budget of “action points” each turn.
These points may be spent on various actions according to the game
rules, such as moving pieces, drawing cards, collecting money, etc.
This type of mechanism is common in many “German-style board
games”.
3.0 
Auction or Bidding 
Some games use an auction or bidding system in which the players
make competitive bids to determine which player gets the right to
perform particular actions. Such an auction can be based on different
forms of “payment”:
• The winning bidder must pay for the won privilege with some form of
game resource (game money, points, etc.).
• The winning bidder does not pay upon winning the auction, but the
auction is a form of promise that the winner will achieve some
outcome in the near future. If this outcome is not achieved, the bidder
pays some form of penalty. Such a system is used in many trick-
taking games, such as contract bridge.
GAME MECHANISMS

4.0 
Cards
These involve the use of cards similar to playing cards to act as a
randomizer and/or to act as tokens to keep track of states in the game. 
A common use is for a deck of cards to be shuffled and placed face
down on or near the game playing area. When a random result is called
for, a player draws a card and what is printed on the card determines
the outcome of the result.
Another use of cards occurs when players draw cards and retain them
for later use in the game, without revealing them to other players. When
used in this fashion, cards form a game resource.
5.0
Capture / Eliminate 
In some games, the number of tokens a player has on the playing
surface is related to his current strength in the game. In such games, it
can be an important goal to capture opponent’s tokens, meaning to
remove them from the playing surface.
Captures can be achieved in a number of ways:
• Moving one of one’s own tokens into a space occupied by an
opposing token (e.g. chess, pachisi).
• Jumping a token over the space occupied by an opposing token
(e.g. draughts).
• Declaring an “attack” on an opposing token, and then determin- ing
the outcome of the attack, either in a deterministic way by the game
rules (e.g. Stratego, Illuminati), or by using a ran- demising method
(e.g. Illuminati: New World Order). 
• Surrounding a token or region with one’s own tokens in some manner
(e.g. go).
• Playing cards or other resources that the game allows to be used to
capture tokens.
6.0  
Catch-up
Some games include a mechanism designed to make progress towards
victory more difficult the closer a player gets to it. The idea behind this
is to allow trailing players a chance to catch up and potentially still win
the game, rather than suffer an inevitable loss once they fall behind.
This may be desirable in games such as racing games that have a fixed
finish line.
GAME MECHANISMS

7.0 
Dice
These involve the use of dice, usually as randomizers. Most dice used
in games are the standard cubical dice numbered from 1 to 6, though
games with polyhedral dice or dice marked with symbols other than
numbers exist.
The most common use of dice is to randomly determine the outcome
of an interaction in a game. An example is a player rolling dice to
determine how many board spaces to move a game token. 
Dice often determine the outcomes of in-game conflict between players,
with different outcomes of the dice roll of different benefit (or adverse
effect) to each player involved. This is useful in games that simulate
direct conflicts of interest.
8.0  
Movement 
Many board games involve the movement of playing tokens. How these
tokens are allowed to move, and when, is governed by movement
mechanics. 
Some game boards are divided into more or less equally-sized areas,
each of which can be occupied by one or more game tokens. (Often
such areas are called squares, even if not strictly square in shape.)
Movement rules will specify how and when a token can be moved to
another area. For example, a player may be allowed to move a token to
an adjacent area, but not one further away. Dice are sometimes used to
randomize the allowable movements.
Other games, particularly miniatures games are played on surfaces with
no marked areas. A common movement mechanism in this case is to
measure the distance which the miniatures are allowed to move with a
ruler. Sometimes, generally in naval war-games, the direction of
movement is restricted by use of a turning key.
GAME MECHANISMS

Victory Condition &
Mechanisms

1.0 
Goal
This is the most general sort of victory condition, which can be broad
enough to encompass any method of winning, but here refers to game-
specific goals that are usually not duplicated in other games. An
example is the checkmate of a king in chess.
2.0 
Lose Avoidance
Some games feature a losing condition, such as being checkmated
(chess), running out of cards first (War), running out of hitpoints
(Quake), or being tagged (tag). In such a game, the winner is the only
remaining player to have avoided loss.
3.0 
Piece Elimination
Some games with capture mechanics are won by the player who
removes all, or a given number of, the opponents’ playing pieces.
4.0 
Puzzle Guessing
Some games end when a player guesses (or solves by logic) the
answer to a puzzle or riddle posed by the game. The player who
guesses successfully wins. Examples include hangman and zendo.
5.0 
Race
Many simple games (and some complex ones) are effectively races.
The first player to advance one or more tokens to or beyond a certain
point on the board wins. Examples: backgammon, ludo.
VICTORY CONDITIONS & MECHANISM

6.0 
Structure Building
The goal of a structure building game is to acquire and assemble a set
of game resources into either a defined winning structure, or into a
structure that is somehow better than those of other players. In some
games, the acquisition is of primary importance (e.g. concen- tration),
while in others the resources are readily available and the interactions
between them form more or less useful structures (e.g. poker).
7.0 
Territory Control
A winner may be decided by which player controls the most “territory”
on the playing surface, or a specific piece of territory. This is common in
wargames, but is also used in more abstract games such as go.
8.0 
Victory Points
A player’s progress is often measured by an abstract quantity of vic-
tory points, which accumulate as the game develops.
Victory points or similar quantities need not be restricted to
development games, but are most common in that type as they ensure
sufficient reward for all aspects of development.
For example, in a game involving the development of civilizations, there
is usually no need to reward investments such as trade and military
expenditures, which yield their own strategic benefits. However, a
victory point system may be used to reward more subjective aspects of
civilization-building, such as the arts.
 
The winner can be decided either by:
• The first player to reach a set number of points.
• The player with the most points at a predetermined finishing time or
state of the game.
This mechanism is often used explicitly in German-style board games,
but many other games are played for points that form a winning
condition. The electoral college of the United States political system is
also a well-publicized example of this type of victory condition. Victory
points may be partially disguised in the role of game resources, with
play money being a common example.

9.0 
Combination & Conditions
Some games have multiple victory or loss conditions. For example, a
round of Pokémon Trading Card Game can end in three ways:
• When one player has Knocked Out enough of the other’s Pokémon to
draw all his Prize Cards
• When one player is unable to play a Pokémon from his Bench to
replace his Active Pokémon
• When one player has run out of cards in his Deck and is unable to
draw at the beginning of his turn.
The ﬁrst condition is a goal measured by victory points, while the other
two are loss conditions.

Characters

1.0 
Recognizable
PropertyEach Character need to be designed a to be an individual
property. The character required to be:
• Easy and simple on the style
• Have a unique and recognizable style elements
• Have a unique and recognizable movement
• Have a unique and recognizable attach or defense action - Have a
unique and recognizable sound
 
2.0 
Customizable and aspirational.
Each character need to be customizable based the player
characteristic and game credits earned. 
The customization could be apply though:
• Different base characters.
• Difference Accessories or weapons
• Different colors and recognizable elements.Different capabilities
based on the current customization.
Also this customization need to be aspirational and represent different
expertise and credits of the user player.
For this reason any new customization available require to be celebrate.
CHARACTERS

Gameplay & Environmental
Design

1.0 
Define Worlds.
Build one or more Worlds into the game with different characteristic,
look&Feel, goals and enemies.
Additional world could be:
• Unlock based user performance and credits.
• Unlock based new game development phases. - Unlock though an
In-App purchase.
Each world is composed by levels and each level is composed by
stages.
2.0 
Levels/Mission & Stages.
Each world is composed by one or more levels and:
• The levels are composed by a set of Stages.
• Each levels are available based the user performing and credits
earned.
• Some extra levels could be unlock based special user performing or
though an in-App purchase.
• Each Stage to be consider complete require specific performance
and credits earn by the user player.
• Create Hidden and secret stage accessible though special and
specific user player actions or performing.
• Each levels require a recognizable Look & Feel & sound/music.
3.0 
Check-ins and Personal and Friends Positions.
Compare the user performance with his friend and display an info-
graphic leaderboard to compare the performance and the world
position of the player with his friends or other game users.
GAMEPLAY & ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

4.0 
Dynamic game difficulty balancing
Dynamic game difficulty balancing, also known as dynamic difficulty
adjustment (DDA) or dynamic game balancing (DGB), is the process of
automatically changing parameters, scenarios, and behaviors in a
video game in real-time, based on the player’s ability, in order to avoid
them becoming bored (if the game is too easy) or frustrated (if it is too
hard). The goal of dynamic difficulty balancing is to keep the user
interested from the beginning to the end and to provide a good level of
challenge for the user.
Traditionally, game difficulty increases steadily along the course of the
game (either in a smooth linear fashion, or through steps represented
by the levels). The parameters of this increase (rate, frequency, starting
levels) can only be modulated at the beginning of the experience by
selecting a difficulty level. Still, this can lead to a frustrating experience
for both experienced and inexperienced gamers, as they attempt to
follow a preselected learning or difficulty curve.
Dynamic difficulty balancing attempts to remedy this issue by creating a
tailor-made experience for each gamer.
As the users’ skills improve through time (as they make progress via
learning), the level of the challenges should also continually increase.
However, implementing such elements poses many challenges to
game developers; as a result, this method of gameplay is not
widespread.
5.0 
Dynamic game elements
Some elements of a game that might be changed via dynamic difficulty
balancing include:
• Speed of enemies
• Health of enemies
• Frequency of enemies
• Frequency of powerups
• Power of player
• Power of enemies
• Duration of gameplay experience

6.0 
Approaches
Different approaches are found in the literature to address dynamic
game difficulty balancing. In all cases, it is necessary to measure,
implicitly or explicitly, the difficulty the user is facing at a given moment.
This measure can be performed by a heuristic function, which some
authors call “challenge function”.
This function maps a given game state into a value that specifies how
easy or difficult the game feels to the user at a specific moment.
Examples of heuristics used are:
• The rate of successful shots or hits
• The numbers of won and lost pieces
• Life points
• Evolution
• Time to complete some task
... or any metric used to calculate a game score.

Art, Sound & Music

1.0 
Art & Sound Theme/Ambient
Art and Sound theme/Ambient are respect 50% and 50% of the
fundamental Game Experience for the user player prospect.
Sound theme/Ambient need to be always appropriate and related to
any change of Art style and element displayed and change in
symbiosis.
2.0 
Sound FX
During the entire game experience the sound FX need to emphasize:
• Each user actions
• Each Screen change
• Each automatic element event on the screen.
3.0 
Sound/Music Storytelling
Music and Sound FX are part the audio storytelling of the game. Since
the beginning of the ﬁrst sound until the closing of the game, the player
need to be accompanied into the experience though a never ending
music/sound dialog.
A particular consideration need to be attribute to the auto-volume
management for an other time again, emphasize Game section though
setting and game management section.
ART, SOUND & MUSIC

Game Controls & Immersive
Companion

1.0 
UI & Game Control.
UI, or User Interface, refers to the methods (keyboard control, mouse
control) and interfaces (inventory screen, map screen) through which a
user interacts with your game. UX, or User Experience, refers to how
intuitive and enjoyable those interactions are.
User Interface need to:
• Useful in providing relevant information to the player
• Occupy minimal screen real estate
• Designed to be unobtrusive
• Common elements include score, time, health, bullets
• Need not be permanently visible
• Can adapt / evolve
• Simplicity goes a long way
The Poetics of Space, remember:
• Non-Diegetic Representation  
Not exists within the game world and not visualized within the game
world
• Spatial Representation  
Not exists within the game world but is visualized within the game
world
• Non-Spatial Representation  
Exists within the game world but is not visualized within the game
world
• Diegetic Representation  
Exists within the game world and is visualized within the game world 
The Power of Touch, remember:
• Touch Based devices compound game interface integration
• The “Fouth Wall” is the main input
• Lack of Input precision and screen size require additional though
• Players thumbs, ﬁngers can easily obscure areas of the screen
• The device itself becomes an extension of the interface
GAME CONTROL & IMMERSIVE COMPANION

2.0 
Immersive Companion.
Second screen, sometimes also referred to as “companion device” (or
“companion apps” when referring to software applications), is a term
that refers to an additional electronic device (e.g. tablet, smartphone)
that allows a content consumer to interact with the content they are
consuming, such as TV shows, movies, music, or video games. Extra
data is displayed on a portable device synchronized with the content
being viewed on television.
Into the Mobile game development the ability to design game for use of
second screen represent an important feature.
Good practice are:
• Design game able to interact and use with other devices and
platform like as TV & Tablet.
• The second screens becomes an extension of the interface.
• Deliver different and custom information for each screens without
duplicate it based on the user experience and screen characteristic.
Use your device to enhance your entertainment experiences with rich,
immersive extensions of your media or games.
GAME CONTROL & IMMERSIVE COMPANION

Store, Points, Monetization,
Multi-user & Social.

1.0 
Store.
The value to have a store into a mobile game is a key of monetization
process and also of the customizable experience of the player.
Store fundamental:
• The Store trade extra content and features with earned points into the
game.
• Player can purchase customization character elements.
• Player can purchase energy and extra life.
• Store items could be unlock based on the game player performing
and  
level unlocked.
2.0 
Points, Points-pack, Levels & Badges.
The user player earn points based the his actions and performing
during the game play.
Elements fundamental:
• User based on specific actions or performing can earn Points-pack
represent buy a specific item.
• Based on the points earned at specific check points, the user grow
up into different levels named with number or with a custom name
based on the kind of game
• Based on specific actions or performing and current Level, the user
player can earn badges rewarding.
STORE, POINTS, MONETIZATION, MULTI-USER AND SOCIAL

3.0 
Monetization.
The monetization can approached though different ways:
• In-App Purchase
• Profiled user player profile data and Advertising.
In-App Purchase:
• User player can purchase Points and Points Pack
• User player can purchase (unlock) new Worlds.
• User can redeem his special and custom Physical reward with his
points though a custom loyalty program (ed: discount cards)
User Profile tracking and Advertising
The big Advertising business into games and Community is the user
profile data tracking for targets advertising. 
Much more and frequent is the user profile tracking and data
acquisition, much more the current user player acquire a advertising
value.
Normally advertising can be provided:
• Though the game app
• Though Email
4.0 
Multi-user and Social Sharing.
The Social Components is an other fundamental element on success
games.The ability to collaborate, Celebrate and challenging friends or
other user increase the time spend on the game and interaction
frequency.
In this way is suggested to:
• User Facebook for retrive the user player friends list and discover
which of these currently is already a player of the game or no.
• Suggest and provide solution all the time the user player unlock
World, levels, weapon or customize his character to Celebrate the
event though social media with an instant points reward.
• Track the influence his celebration generate on social media and
provide an additional instant-point reward based on the engagement
generated.
• Track the Friends, local user (based on user player location) or
community game performing and results and display it under an info-
graphic form.
• Create Leaderboard based on a short time performing (month or
week) to challenging the user player.
STORE, POINTS, MONETIZATION, MULTI-USER AND SOCIAL

Thank you.
Author: Mirco Pasqualini, April 2014

Game Design Handbook for Gamification Interaction

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