We were there to talk as video game veterans who had entered the social game space. The idea of game design as a game in itself first occurred to me in an active, front-of-the-brain kind of way when I was on stage at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco with fellow game designers Steve Meretzky, VP of game design at Playdom, Brian Reynolds, chief game designer at Zynga, and Noah Falstein, president of The Inspiracy. The mass proliferation of games about farming, cooking, and running resorts serve as perfect examples. If one player makes a move, invents a particularly clever tactic or introduces a new mechanic or theme, the other “players” respond accordingly by trying out the move themselves, watching their ARPU or doing recon behind enemy lines. How many first-time players came back the next day after the latest tutorial tweaks? What’s our DAU? How is monetization changing since we adjusted item prices? Did the test players like the new gorilla suit costume? All of business is a game, but the social games business has 24-hour scoreboards on every corner.”Īs much as we respond to the player behavior in our games, game designers also must respond to the other “players” in the meta game of design, too. “Social game design is unique,” he says, “because you get a score for every facet of your performance every day. Indeed, our ability to respond to the current state of the game - both the actual game on Facebook and the larger meta game of game design - is critical.ĭon Daglow, another veteran game designer, watches the numbers like a general. Imbued by a deep love of game play, many designers view social game design, and the competition it creates with other designers, as a real-time strategy game, complete with in-depth stats and armies composed of coders, artists, animators and product managers. The site has become a de facto leaderboard for many developers, backed up by weekly top games lists. “Every night at midnight, I check AppData,” says John Romero, a veteran video game designer, consultant and lead designer of Ravenwood Fair. For designers in the space, particularly those from the traditional game industry, game design has become its own game, complete with a leaderboard. The most exclusive game on Facebook is also the most lucrative and intense: the game design of the games themselves.
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