In this session, you’ll learn about game design: the art and science of constructing enjoyable, engaging games. We aren’t doing any coding, and we’re not talking game engine development – instead, we’ll be taking a deep dive into game design theory, using it to understand how people interact with rules, and how to use it to improve your community, your company, your project, and your software.
Video games are the most glamorous of the electronic arts, but splashy graphics and amazing sound aren’t the defining feature of games. Games are the world’s only interactive artistic medium, and good interaction needs to be designed. Today’s master crafters of interaction design are game designers.
In this session, you’ll get a fresh perspective on user experience design and community engagement by understanding how people are interacting with the fastest-growing form of entertainment in the world.
Topics covered in this session include:
We’ll take this knowledge and apply it to real world examples in the realms of UX and UI design, community management, project management, and company building, as well as a few examples from the actual game development industry.
This isn’t gamification, and this isn’t building video games, but it will equip you with a better understanding of how and why games work, and discuss how you can apply that to better product design, better UX, and better, more engaging, more accessible user experiences.
Jon Manning is also co-founder of Secret Lab, and also writes technical books for O’Reilly Media. Jon has a PhD in Computing, and can be found on Twitter @desplesda.
