TL:TR NOW!
A question I am often asked is “I am making a new product, when should I start looking at gamification?”
That is usually combined with “How much will it cost?”
The answer to the second is linked to the first, but the first is much easier to answer! Essentially, if you are considering gamification as part of your engagement strategy – build it into your plans at the very very start! As I have stated many times, adding gamification to a product when it is already built – ie patching an engagement issue – is never going to be effective. If you build it into the product and make it core, then it has a much higher chance of actually working. That doesn’t mean it is easier to do at this stage or that it will work – that leads us on to the second question. Will it be expensive?