ESPN on XBOX... another project I'm working on at Microsoft

Booyah Society... a project we worked on at X-Ray Kid

Lively environments

some textured environments from the Lively project that I was a Creative/Art Director on

Monkey

Google Lively Model

old Z-Brush Doodle etc

haven't posted in awhile, can't really show any of the work I've been doing so I'll show this old Z-Brush sketch and other old doodles

keepin my skills honed :)

anatomy of a social game

been doing some research on what makes a social game social, the following is some initial thoughts gleaned from various sources:

Anatomy of a Social Game:

What makes a game a social game? Is it just the fact that more than one person is playing, or that the players can communicate? Or is it much more than that? Many games have social components, but a truly social game is one where other players are an in-game resource for the user.

To be a true social game it needs to be more than just a way to connect people, there has to be a way to use them in your gaming experience so that you’ll actively go out and recruit other people to play with you. It’s viral because if it isn’t the game wouldn’t be as good.

Giving players a chance to socialize

The ability to have an in-game way to reflect on your experiences (virtual and otherwise) is a key part of the socialization process. You need to actively incentivize players in order to get them to engage in activities that create social opportunities. There’s a subtle difference between that and just giving them straight rewards for being social, that means giving the user the opportunity and the ability to share elements of their current status with other players and rewarding them for that activity (fam,. clout etc). Communication about status is a key social activity. In the end it’s the primary thing you do on Facebook.

Compulsion Loops and Micro Transactions

Games have core compulsions or “things that a player must do” in order to achieve something. Usually, a player will be motivated to achieve something to yield rewards (story advancement or being able to access limited virtual goods). But that’s not all. Achievements offer a way for players to communicate with one another about their accomplishments. It serves an evidential function, since it gives players a way of verifying their in-game acts during social encounters. When achievements are dosed out incrementally (players get little rewards every time they do something), they’re continually motivated to act. Therefore they not only engage more with a game–they barter, exchange and discuss “strategy,” but the same actions can also be used to monetize a game. This cycle is called the compulsion loop: it will drive a player to continue playing, continually seeking achievements and therefore completing repeated micro-transactions in a game.

For businesses and game designers, understanding this game mechanic is beneficial to understanding micro-transactions, awarding the player with granular achievements when they do something fairly low-risk or for small amounts of investment (time or money) and get them hooked into the loop, so they can do it repeatedly. Also, since it is difficult for game designers to determine accurately “what will sell” in a game, a compulsion loop is a much better way to approach understanding purchase motivation. (It’s easier for game designers and businesses to try to determine “what people love to do”.) For example, it could be filling out a survey, downloading an application or buying more in-game currency to save time and level up faster. This game mechanic works, because ultimately, all games resolve themselves down to the compulsion loop.

Eightfold path for social game development:

1. Figure out what your fundamental gameplay dynamic is going to be as early as possible. IE, what is it the fundamental unit of play that the user is actually going to be doing including the physical button/key presses.

2. Define and integrate your social model and your monetization model

3. Express your concept in wireframes

4. Determine the minimum viable level of product you will need for launch

5. Determine the size of your post-launch including your development window, goals, and top priorities

6. Execute on development

7. Launch the product

8. Begin to execute on your post-launch goals. These will change based on metrics and user requests

Tactics for making a game social/viral:

1. Player self expression: Social gamers want to show off their achievements to friends and the (relevant) world. Facilitate your players ability to display and show off their “nest”

2. Accessible to all: Sounds very left leaning I know, but a social game that is not accessible to all will be immediately crippled and it will be difficult to build a strong community and viral growth. There are exceptions where you can build an exclusive experience that makes users feel special and the viral growth happens within a certain niche group, you then duplicate the success by re-skinning the concept to another niche group, but this is the exception to the rule

3. Reward exploration: Use this tool to guide users toward social destinations, art and design in these locations can prompt hanging out and social interaction

4. Design spaces for public and private events: Don’t put any gameplay activities in this area, use cues that this area is intended for public or private events

5. Allow users to mark off areas as theirs: Groups like to have places to meet that are theirs. This sense of privacy and belonging underlies even the notion of private group chat

6. Lay out traffic patterns with crossroads rather than one way flow: Socialization happens where crossroads intersect, not where traffic is moving in an orderly line

7. The game that never ends: A social game should never be “completed”, yet a player should feel like they are continuously winning and progressing, a sense of narrative can help. Create gameplay patters with loops built into them. Commonly used gameplay loops are reward loops (a reward for taking a risk that helps the player advance to the next risk/reward situation) compulsion loops (things to do that, in turn, inform the core game mechanics. Fulfilling these compulsions should yield incremental rewards, in the form of story advancement, new game elements, etc. These rewards should drive the player to continue playing and unlock further rewards, etc….see above for more info) , and travel loops (Instead of operating inside of a connected environment and then graduating a user out of it, bring the user back to the base of operations….this creates a natural social space because the loop will start and end in the same place)

8. Compete with strangers, co-operate with friends: Build social game mechanics where users do things to/with each other. Simple example is team based combat but shorter duration, less intense activities work even better for socialization such as social mini-games like trivia etc. Social games tend to have leader boards

9. Gifting: Few things build social bonds more strongly than gifting, gifting is a universally positive social act, it allows users to gain access to items that may be rare or expensive, draws new players in and keeps old players playing

10. Events: Celebrity talks, concerts, special competitions etc with the ability to respond serve as a draw and help to stimulate socializing and revitalize community growth while revitalizing old users

11. Game advancement for participation in social activities: Rewarding socialization not only encourages it but also negates the feeling of being penalized for socializing instead of advancing up the traditional gameplay ladder

12. Player-voted awards: Are powerful community bonding tools. There is some concern that this can lead to favoritism and politics but if your community is involved and passionate enough in your product for this to happen then this is a good problem to have, you can figure out the balance of it as the issues arise. Community validated social activity is much more powerful than from a mechanical game system

13. Live tutorial newbie helper, greeter, monitoring programs: Involving the community in the community is a powerful tool to weave someone new into the games society quickly while strengthening the ties for existing users

14. Permit both group identity and multiple group identity: People are more strongly webbed into a society when they are members of more than one cluster on the social graph

15. Quests as a means to an end: In traditional games resources are used as a means to an end, defeating the boss, and quests are in place to help you gather those resources. in a social game resources are the end (feathering your nest), and quests are the means to that end

16. Easy to learn, easy to progress: The core mechanic of the game should be something that players can “get” in a matter of minutes, or less. Reward players with progression simply for participating… players should even e rewarded simply for checking in

17. Intertwining currency and gameplay: The currency can be anything a game where currency is an in-game resource for the player.

podboy doodles...good to draw now and again

life drawing

I don't do this often enough and it shows, I still like some aspects about these figure sketches though

blast from the past

found these old comic book pages that I inked many years ago, thought I'd share

Creative Director/Executive Producer

Microsoft is keeping me pretty busy these days, as I said in my last post I'm consulting on various teams/projects in an EP/CD role with some Art Direction and User Experience Design thrown in for good measure.....it's interesting and challenging work. I tend to come in to a project in an early stage of pre-production and help define the product or experience; who is the user, why do they need this product, how will they use this product, what differentiates this product from other products in it's competition space, what are the hero moments of the experience, what is the basic design of the product, what resources will be needed to achieve the design, what must be shipped and what can we cut etc.... I answer these questions and many others with the help of internal and external resources that I direct to deliver design documentation, user experience models, product mock ups, usability tests, art and design bibles etc.
Fun Stuff!
As usual, I can't talk about the projects right now but believe me, I'm working on some pretty cool stuff!

What I've been up to

I started working with Microsoft on several NDA'd projects while at X-Ray Kid, early 2008 or so... in June of last year I struck out on my own and have mostly been working with Microsoft as an Executive Producer or Creative Director in a consultant capacity, it's been fun and rewarding work and I've been involved on the ground floor of several high profile projects that you all will no doubtedly be using in the years to come. I have several contracts lined up with MSFT at this point and will continue working with them, though I am also open to other interesting opportunities.
I'm looking forward to an interesting and enriching 2010!