[purchase_link id=”6616″ style=”plain” color=”” text=”Buy the Bundle” direct=”true”]A question that is often asked, is “How do I get into Gamification?”
First off, don’t go my route – it was long and painful!
However, there are things I did that will help you to get into it all and get a great understanding of what gamification is all about.
- Get a book on gamification. I, of course, recommend my one,
- Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play, but there are others you should check out.
- For the Win by Kevin Werbach. This book accompanies his online course, which I will mention in a bit, but it is one of the most practical approaches to gamification design I have seen.
- eXPlore Like A Pirate. If you are in education, I recommend Michael Matera’s great practical book.
- On the Education note, I also recommend everything by Karl Kapp
- Take Kevin Werbach’s Gamification MOOC over at Coursera. It is old now but will give you a great foundation.
- Read a few game design books, my personal recommendations are
- The Art of Game Design by Jessie Schell
- Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster (My personal favourite)
- Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals by Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen
- Check out a few gamification and game design related blogs
- Gamasutra for everything game design
- Amy Jo Kim for some fantastic stuff on game design and game thinking
- eLearning Industry for content on gamification in education
- Gamified UK (of course!!!)
- One or two other books / things to read
- Hooked by Nir Eyal is a great introduction to some of the psychology you may need to understand in gamification.
- Nudge from Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein is another great look at the psychology we use.
- Self Determination Theory by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan is also extremely important to know about.
- Search ReasearchGate for new research on gamification
- Listen to the Professor Game podcast for great insights from experts.
- Do a search on Twitter for gamification related posts and ideas of who to follow.
- Talk to any experts you find. Many are more than happy to offer advice.
- Try things, take your time and experiment as much as you can, then tell people about it. It’s no good being an expert and just expecting people to know about it through osmosis.
I hope this helps a little.
Also, I have a special offer bundle of my Gamification Design Toolkit and printable Gamification Inspiration Cards at the moment, £15 for both (rather than £9.99 each). Get it now!