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No Black Friday Sale Here

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No sale No Black Friday Sale Here

Rather than try to coerce you to purchase my stuff by devaluing it, I thought I would just remind you of some of the cool stuff I have on sale around here!

Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play: Unicorn Edition

Here is a free chapter! “How to Use Narrative to Create
Deeper Experiences”

Gamification Inspiration Cards

You can get the gamification inspiration cards in two ways. You can buy them as a physical deck here – https://www.drivethrucards.com/product/130329/Gamification-Inspiration-Cards–Full-Colour

Or

You can download them directly from me, with a printable PDF (8 per page of A4) and all cards as PNG images. Read More ...

The Importance of Definitions (and Why They Don’t Matter)

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The Digger and the Sports Car The Importance of Definitions and Why They Don 8217 t Matter

Yep, paradoxical title alert!

Recently I got into a very interesting debate on LinkedIn about the definition of Gamification. Now, I have long had my definition of gamification, one that doesn’t stray too far from the closest thing we have to a “proper” definition.

  • Mine: The use of game design metaphors to create more game-like and engaging experiences.
  • Proper (From Deterding et al): The application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts

Whichever definition you follow or whomsoever you may ask in the industry, 9 times out of 10 you will get something along those lines. The core of most peoples definition revolves around the use of game “bits” to improve things that are not games. What they don’t often say is that it is creating a game. Read More ...

Getting Into Gamification

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Gamification bundle Getting Into Gamification

[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.

  1. 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
  2. Take Kevin Werbach’s Gamification MOOC over at Coursera. It is old now but will give you a great foundation.
  3. Read a few game design books, my personal recommendations are
  4. Check out a few gamification and game design related blogs
  5. 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.
  6. Search ReasearchGate for new research on gamification
  7. Listen to the Professor Game podcast for great insights from experts.
  8. Do a search on Twitter for gamification related posts and ideas of who to follow.
  9. Talk to any experts you find. Many are more than happy to offer advice.
  10. 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! Read More ...

Gamification Design Toolkit + Inspiration Card (Download) just £17

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Gamification bundle Gamification Design Toolkit Inspiration Card Download just 17

Hey there you lovely people.

The downloadable version of my cards has been very popular, so I am now officially bundling them in with the Gamification Tool Kit for £17 (rather than £20 for the two)

The downloadable version includes an 8 to an A4 page formatted set of the cards as well as all of the cards as individual PNG files (52 cards).

Now, as this essentially does me out of repeat purchases of lots of cards for people’s workshops, the price is a little higher than I would normally do, well I say high, the same as buying a single deck of the printed cards (without postage!!)) Read More ...

Learning From Games: Onboarding and Mario

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Mario 1 1 Learning From Games Onboarding and Mario

I’ve probably mentioned this in the past, but Super Mario (for me) has one of the best on-boarding experiences of any game I’ve ever played.

But let’s start at the beginning.

What’s On-boarding?

On-boarding, in this context, is the way the game introduces the player to the rules of play. It is how the game teaches you what to do, without having to rely on pages and pages of text in a manual.

Mario, designed by games design genius Shigeru Miyamoto, was one of the first games I played where the instructions consisted of only the most basic information (what button to press to do what). Read More ...