Bits ‘n’ Bobs

Gmeme Bits 8216 n 8217 Bobs

A few side projects and stuff for you to enjoy.

Gamification Memes: A compilation of my memes over the last few years

Other “Wisdom” Memes…

Some music I’ve been recording for fun (updated often).

Videos with my kids (Challenges mostly)

And finally…. A game made in Construct2 (which doesn’t YET work on mobile…)

What Can My Shaving Routine Teach Us About Gamification?

SHDE89BL What Can My Shaving Routine Teach Us About Gamification

Yeah I know, a bizarre title for a blog. Anyone who follows me on twitter will know that I am a bit obsessed with finding a decent shave. I have always hated shaving with a passion. My skin always comes out in a rash, it is time-consuming and just a ball ache.

I have tried most types of the modern razor, from single blade Bic disposables to Mach 3 to Fusion. Every time a new razor came out with more blades and promises of the “closest shave since out last product”, I have bought it.

Then I decided to grow a bit of a beard, but also decided to keep it trimmed around the neckline. This was when I decided that a razor with a massive number of blades was impractical, it was impossible to get a decent line, so I decided to go old school and get an old fashioned double-edged “safety razor”. After an initial cost, the blades are infinitely cheaper to buy than the cartridge type, which is a bonus. Read More ...

5 tips for good Gamification I learned from designing games.

Magical Kingdom Cards 5 tips for good Gamification I learned from designing games

Gamification often takes and claims inspiration from game design. One of my side hobbies is making the occasional game, as well as spending the last seven years reviewing games for my site yars.co.uk. I thought I would just put a few gamification ideas into context based around my personal knowledge of games and game design. I am y no means an expert, but I hope you will find it interesting.

Tl;TR?

First up, points. I have made games with point systems and I have made games without. Generally I use the points as a way to represent progression and skill – ie, the higher the score, the further your skills have progressed. This is intrinsic on its own, it is a way for the individual player to see how they are doing and if they are improving. This only works if the points reset each time, that way the player can easily see that if they score higher next time – they have improved. Cumulative points don’t allow you to do this, they just show how many points you have collected over time, which is a little less useful. You could consider a personal leaderboard, that just shows the player their scores over time for an exercise- thus easily showing them their improvement. Read More ...

Challenge the Rut

Epic1 Challenge the Rut

So, two weeks and I have maintained a blog per working day. Yay me.

The question is, why? Why have I suddenly gone from one blog per week to one per day. I don’t need the coverage or the readers – they have all been more than happy with one per week. I certainly don’t need the extra work or hassle that comes with generating more interesting (ish) content.

The reason was to challenge myself and push myself out of a rut I was in with my blogging. For about 3 years I have posted one blog per week, usually on a Monday. This was normally a well thought out piece of writing that was either an expression of a new idea I had had or something that I felt would be of interest and use to my readers. However, the routine was beginning to kill the creativity. I was binning ideas because it was the wrong day for them or because new ones were taking their place too fast.I was too set on this idea of one per week. Read More ...

Flow, Player Journey and Employee Satisfaction

Slide3 Flow Player Journey and Employee Satisfaction

What follows is an exploration of what happens when you start to map player journeys in games onto Flow theory and then try to bring that into the workplace. Just for fun! It was inspired by Mr Scott Golas after seeing last weeks post on relatedness. It may or may not have any worth, but it has been fun to develop. Click images to see the bigger versions or you can see the presentation at SlideShare

What is Flow and what is the Player Journey?

Mihayi Csikszentmihalyi suggested the concept after seeing that under certain conditions people’s experiences became optimal. This is to say that everything around them was lost as they concentrated on the job at hand. This can be seen in many artists who just “get into the grove” as they work. Time stops, nothing else matters and when they finally come out of it, they have no concept of how long they have been working. Read More ...