In our last blog about Social Game Design, we discussed some principles that are prevalent across good proper Social Game Design. Today we will continue defining design drivers, elaborating on each, as devised by Aki Järvinen of mygamestudies.com

Symbolic Physicality Adds Depth to Interactions

Poking, drinking beer in apps such as “Pass a Drink’, Hi-Fiving, and other forms of online interactions that can be carried out via application(s) on Facebook essentially add depth and texture and allow for interactions that otherwise are not possible online.

Poking is a playful interaction where you poke someone, just as if you would pinch someone or flirt with someone or get someones attention without feeling compelled to say something. This creates a ‘human’ factor, imbuing a simple interaction with something in depth.

The same way, gifts act as physical symbols of human warmth because of their visual appeal. Research is emerging that shows the psychological effects of gifting. Gifting is especially great for monetization, a topic we will discuss in a later blog.

Spontaneity is the best form of online social expression

The next design driver Aki discusses is spontaneity. Creating a simple user experience is Facebook´s responsibility. Developers can take advantage of this seamless interface by allowing users to gotot he application and quickly interact with a friend, whether it be a poke, sending a gift, or some other form of interaction such as a challenge.

Game Developers should also take advantage of the ability to execute the function of an application from someone´s wall, by clicking the drop down arrow, the same way they can attach a link etc.

When users login, you can also ask them to bookmark the application and confirm this by asking them to click “I did it or remind me later”. This is a common practice among popular application(s). But only do this once.

Inherent sociability increases playfulness

Social situations are foundations for playful behavior to take place. Aki quotes Rao discussing fast rewards for player actions, plenty of positive feedback (such as progress and reinforcing that progress), no negative consequences for exploration (trying random things such as clicking around) etc. Networked game play in Facebook with players playing with other players or the illusion they are playing with others in a particular game context can provide a framework for fun.

An example of this is in Restaurant City. In Restaurant City, you can hire your friends as servers. You can give them interesting jobs yet it is not really them playing it. They are NPCs (non player characters) named after your friends. Look for incorporation of ‘friends’ as objects and commodities to increase in social game play.

People play and behave asynchronously online

Multiplayer game play in sequence, and not in real time, defines asynchronicity. Aki describes this as ‘designing for inherently casual yet highly engaged disposition to play around in the social network, with the general means afforded by the platform and the ‘extended’ affordances for play that applications, such as games, bring with them.

This can be 2 people playing a long game of scrabble, or doing a time challenge in a flash-based drag racing game. This kind of asynchronous gameplay is centered around breaks in play in social networks.

Games such as Fish Wrangler play to this by allowing users to fish casually every 15 minutes. Fishing is actually an act of pressing a button, but you can only do so once every 15 minutes. The result is a chance of getting an item or not. It is like playing slot machines however the more you play, the more you upgrade and the better you can fish.. hence the motivation to always improve mixed with the conditioning addiction of slot machines makes for addictive gameplay.

Focus on Emotional Engagement

The focus of the design should be emotions and expression with spontaneous game play (game play that isn´t too complex and can be carried out easily while involving friends), rather than intricate game play.

In the next part of the series, we will discuss different types of game genres such as puzzle, rpg´s, casual mmo’s so you can get a better feel for the types of games that are out there and becoming popular

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