This was the response : The industry is changing as fast the as the technology it relies on changes. The days of tester/QAs belong to an era of console games and big studios – which whilst still going has been in decline year after year. Today there’s less than 20% of games studios working in this way 10 years ago are still open. The 80%+ the got laid off have found new ways of working, small teams, working on mobile/ipad games or using engines like STEAM with disperate teams. Much of the work has moved to the far east and eastern europe where studios of 500 cost the same as those 100 man studios in the UK.

The games industry (the one that sells games in the shop) shrank by 20% in 2012 in the UK – and its looks to shrink again. This is on a background of more people playing more games and buying more games than ever before – but those games are facebook/mobile games.

Often seen as an ‘easy career’ – getting into the games business is far harder than making it in the music or acting business. There’s a million wannabes to every person who is actually doing it and the wannabes lack tenacity and passion (or stupidity, because the games business is one of the lowest paid job for the sheer intellectual prowess it requires) – people do it because they love it not because they want to own a house anytime soon!

And for every story of people who made their game on kickstarter or on the iphone there are literally thousands who have failed (much like trying to emulate Madonna or Bruce Willis – you are going to fail – so best to do it because you love it)

So against this stark reality – the question is how to get into it – well the only way is to have a portfolio – education is irrelevant (unless it helps you put together a killer portfolio), in this business its what you can do that will get you places – not too dissimilar to music – put your feet in the shoes of someone who is hiring for a band – are they going to ask you if you have a degree or a phd in music?? no ofcourse not, they’re going to want to listen to your demo tape and watch you play. – And no one learns to be a musician by making tea! You learn it by practicing night and day and then some more, everyday, until you’re half decent and you start by making demo tapes.

Decide whether its code or design that’s the most interesting (code is a lot harder and a lot more rewarding and there’s always a need for coders) – then use the internet (got knows its so full of development tutorials, free software and thousands of people only too eager to help you) – to start making some little games.

What a studio manager wants to see in someone eager to join the industry – it’s that they are already making games – okay perhaps a bit crap, but at least you’re playing the guitar, not like you’re standing there saying that one day you will pick up the guitar… no-one is going to hire a guitarist who can’t play.

That’s it, that’s the magic ingredient – around 70 hours a week spent on making demos, mini games, trying things out for some 6-12 months – if at the end of that you’re still doing it, then you’re guaranteed to have a place in the industry, if you gave up after 2 weeks, good luck – this is not your industry.

At PlayGen we only take on new recruits if they have a portfolio – we’ve hired staff straight out of school at 18 or at PhD level – but all of them have had something to show us that they’re serious about this and they understand what it takes to put something together.

Join our digital team, work on some amazing projects for a range of clients and our own ideas & platforms.

We are looking for a Technical Designer who is interested in a challenging R&D environment with input demanded throughout the UI architecture, design and development process. The right person will be able to demonstrate competencies across multiple platforms and will find satisfaction in creating clean, simple and intuitive interfaces. It is expected that the individual will be able to support their design and technical skills with the ability to communicate their decisions on both design and technology use.

Essential

• Excellent knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite
• Good understanding of UI/UX and the user journey highly desirable
• Great with web. i.e. Javascript / HTML/ CSS
• Excellent HTML, XHTML, CSS programming skills
• Developing cross-browser and cross-platform compatible solutions
• Exceptional JavaScript programming skills
• Strong experience with JQuery
• Knowledge of working with JavaScript frameworks to create rich interactive content
• Excitement about emerging web technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3
• Good understanding of Web Accessibility
• Strong experience in AJAX techniques

Highly desirable

• Mobile experience inc frameworks: Sencha Touch, JQuery Mobile, Zepto
• Commercial experience with games and game design
• Experience integrating with server-side code to produce dynamic pages
• HTML5, Canvas
• Deep knowledge of WordPress/ CMS Frameworks
• Action Script 3 experience
• iOS / Android development
• Any understanding of 3D packages would be a bonus

The role requires someone who has a serious passion for design and front end development.

Salary : up-to £60K + benefits + opportunity for equity + 
Based in Shoreditch, London, Permanent

Apply by filing in the form below. Alternatively you can send your CV and Examples URL links of your work to hr@playgen.com

STRICTLY NO RECRUITMENT AGENCIES.
IF YOU ARE A RECRUITMENT AGENCY DO NOT CALL OR SEND EMAILS. 

You’ll be working on both PlayGen and Digital Shoreditch projects, from our offices in Shoreditch, London.

I’m a Developer

I’m a Designer

If you’re a recruitment consultant, close this window. We don’t work with recruiters as a matter of company policy and there are no exceptions under any circumstance.

We are looking for a talented developer to join our digital team, working on some amazing projects for a range of clients and our own ideas & platforms.

The role requires someone who has a serious passion for programming and developing. Someone who can be flexible and work well with others in a team. Someone who likes working on multiple projects on a variety of platforms.

You would certainly know your OO & Datastructure like PHP and Mysql with well formed responsive websites with good knowledge of multibrowser stuff. You know Javascript and can plan and design software architecture.

You know your Design Patterns from your Tartan Patterns and building a big system or working with a huge cloud based gaming system shouldn’t scare you.

You have views and want to be heard and listened to when it comes to interaction design, and you like to lead on technical development.

Essential :

• Commercial experience of backend language like php, ruby, c#
• Fully versed in OO and software architecture
• Good knowledge of Databases (including Cloud)
• Great with web. i.e. Javascript / HTML/ XSLT/ CSS

A desire to create the next Facebook! or at least make some awesome interactivity happen.

Highly desirable :

• Deep knowledge of WordPress/ CMS Frameworks
• Facebook application development
• Youtube application development
• Cloud based application development
• iOS / Android development
• Action Script 3 experience

Salary : £27 to £60K + benefits + opportunity for equity + 
Based in Shoreditch, London, Permanent

Apply by filing in the form below. Alternatively you can send your CV and Examples URL links of your work to hr@playgen.com

STRICTLY NO RECRUITMENT AGENCIES.
IF YOU ARE A RECRUITMENT AGENCY DO NOT CALL OR SEND EMAILS. 

1. The platform must target a specific group.

First off there are a few concepts you need to know from neuroscience to get you started. The first is the reticular activating system (RAS). The RAS is one of the compound structures in the brain responsible for attention and orientation. The RAS is associated with most commonly the concept of selective attention, which means we as humans naturally orient to information that we are invested in.

An example of the RAS would be in a big crowd of people, let’s say walking down the high street where you can’t hear much of anything, but you suddenly look towards someone who has just shouted your name in a conversation. As our names are one of the many “buzz words” which are programmed directly into us from a very early age, we naturally focus on someone when someone mentions us.

Our key strategy when working with clients is to identify relevant and meaningful content that captures the audience, but the trick is that all our content when building influence platforms needs to be relevant, usable and meaningful.

2. The platform must assist users to interact with content in multiple ways, using modes of engagement.

The second theory related to neuroscience is the idea of motivating people to interact with your content in multiple ways. The concept of “multimodal learning” explains that people are more likely to learn and retain information if multiple sensory stimulation takes place.

We are more likely to engage and recall things that appeal to multiple senses, through modalities such as written (visual) and aural (auditory) at the same time. The content appeals more to the user if it’s offering multiple ways by which it can be consumed.

For example in our game Choices and Voices, we had multiple versions for different parts of the UK. Each version would have different voice acting accents, environments and story language to convey a sense of relevance to the user.

Prevent Project – Choices and Voices, Game Series

C&V – West Midlands

C&V – Southwest

C&V – Primary

3. Bring content in front of the audience.

We now turn to human psychology where we can identify a few concepts that are useful in terms of content authoring. We must remember that people tend to respond more strongly to meaningful stories within narratives. By which they go far as engaging with your content if it is logically presented, sequential and easy to understand. Also you may wish to include emotional components which will grab your audience’s attention. Use stories to communicate content, which makes it more personal to your audience.

For example within a community, be that in a game or on a social network create stories around your content, communicate to others through other users. Facebook is a primary example of this with their “User stories”, where advertising can be communicated through the user’s friends. Remember people can recall narratives better then a series of facts or statements.

Sites like Amazon have changed how we purchase goods and what we expect from an online shopping experience. Most notably Amazon’s recommendation engine that looks at what products the user browses and recommends others based on the products they are looking at and buying. However, there is a problem. The interaction is mostly between the system and the user.
What if there were a way to engage the user’s social graph in order get them to buy more?

It’s important to remember that we infer a higher value on information given to us by a friend or another trusted user rather than a system, even though we rely on Google to help us navigate the Internet.

Monetization methods are still a one to one affair, instead of a one to many.

• You see the product either from advertising or from searching.
• You make your purchase decision.
• You make the transaction.

Sometimes you may feel that advertising is misleading or in many cases just annoying. The most difficult step of the three-stage process is making the decision to purchase the goods.

We all like shopping, but separating with our hard-earned cash is a huge decision which frequently results in not purchasing due to risk factors and also down to issues such as price, availability, peer reviews and delivery times.

In the next section we are going to share two monetization mechanics in detail, which will show how you can leverage social mechanisms to help overcome the decision factors and motivate better user purchasing behaviours.

The Power of Gifting

It evokes the ancient anthropological need for reciprocity. It feels good to give and receive, and being able to gift a purchase is important. However, this only touches the first level of the gifting economy – it can go much deeper.

Encouraging a simple purchase decision would be as simple as adding in a trigger, a small piece of information placed in our regular daily routines in order to remind and motivate us to take action.

Here is a small example of a trigger:

Product A

• Buy for £100 – Trigger
• Gift for £90

Now what makes this unique is the ‘Buy for £100′ triggers a psychological component called Anchoring & Adjustment, which basically means that we rely too heavily (or anchor) on one trait or piece of information to make a decision.

There is a much higher chance most users will purchase the gift option, simply because it’s cheaper, nonetheless, what is important to note is that the intention of the seller is not to sell at the Buy price, but in fact to sell at the Gift price. The buy price is just there to gently nudge the user to go for the cheaper option.

Collaborative Buying

Sites like Groupon and Living Social know that group buying is powerful, but despite that, they miss out key components that complete the group buying experience.

The key success factor isn’t getting X amount of people to buy the product, which is a very simplistic way of explaining the current group buying model. It’s more important to generate a conversation around the product. We aren’t talking about community building, but simple friend-to-friend communication.

A buying mechanic we have used throughout our monetization processes is to introduce a product purchase requirement making the product only available, if its purchase requirement has been reached.

A simple example would be:

• Product B requires 3 people to purchase it in order to be delivered.
• Friend A wants to purchase Product B
• Friend A sends the link or request to their friends.
• Friend A writes, “I really want to get this, I think you should too”
• Friend B and C purchase.

Now looking in more detail – why did Friends B & C purchase the product? Essentially, this is initially down to a social imperative (the need to help a friend out), but that’s just the first part. What motivates the two friends to help is Friend A exerted a small amount of peer pressure, in which it wasn’t seen as a negative effect.

To motivate the user to ask for help with applying light pressure brings the introductory of an appointment dynamic, which can rapidly increase the chance of positive purchase behaviours. Appointment dynamics are seen most common in “limited offer” deals where it makes the user think “I must buy it now, otherwise I’ll never see it again”.

Interested in more?

To find out more on how to monetize your digital content contact us, or alternatively you can register register your interest in our new Adding Monetization toolkit, which will be available soon.

The biggest obstacle to gamification is the ability of the meta games to appeal to those who do not normally play meta games or associate themselves with video games. This has to be achieved by creating meta games which offer plenty of rewards and the opportunity of gaining social status. The prospect of competition as well as achievement are also important incentives in alluring non gamers via gamification. Finally the meta games must also be relatively simple and easily understandable and they must, most crucially, encourage consumers to come back as this is what creates success out of a gamification strategy and product.

For the best examples of gamification in today’s economy, one should look first at social networking websites like Facebook, auction sites like eBay, and other innovative online service providers like the DevHub Website Builder site, as well as games like Farmville, Tencent and MeTyoon. Using these sites and games as a blueprint to success in gamification efforts, getting the benefits of game design and customer loyalty could be a snap for any company with a creative approach.

Facebook

Facebook is one of the leading models for successful gamification. As a social networking site its presentation is one centered around a world of online applications and services. Facebook is able to ‘synch up’ a user and their list of online friends so they can interact in various virtual game spaces. Facebook’s various applications facilitate pay per click marketing, direct marketing (from ads on the sidebars), and word-of-mouth marketing (from business owners who create their own Facebook page or Facebook game to interact with existing users). Evidently, there are limitless opportunities for companies intrigued by gamification to look at a Facebook application for guidance and replicate it within their own business structure.

At its inception, Facebook bore great resemblance with MySpace, which has since seen a demise in its popularity in comparison to Facebooks rise over the last few years. This is partly due to the old restriction that kept non-college and University students from becoming Facebook members as well as MySpace being at the forefront of media and customisation options for social networking. The moment that Facebook began letting users create their own applications for Facebook, and implemented an ad-based revenue system for the best applications proved to be decisive, as it became clear that Facebook was the only competitive site with regards to the social media and gamified marketing efforts.

With the various games that are available in application form, people are encouraged to invite their friends in order to earn more points whilst simultaneously allowing advertisers more exposure to key demographics.

FarmVille

Without a doubt the most successful and awe inspiring example of gamification is Farmville. Farmville is a game played online via the use of the social networking site Facebook and has arguably set the standard for all other meta games. Farmville achieves all of the gamification points mentioned in the above paragraph and more. At the peak of its powers, Farmville is able to attract over 30 million users every day, illustrating it is a reliable blueprint for companies that wish to follow in their footsteps. The company that created Farmville, Zynga, which is based in California, is now estimated to be worth nearly $4 billion due to the success of the game and other meta games like it which have also reached vast audiences via Facebook.

The premise of Farmville is very simple. Players must run a virtual farm in which the usual farm activities must be completed such as growing crops and raising animals. However, Zynga have incorporated a number of particularly clever aspects which have enabled Farmville to boom in the extraordinary fashion it has done. One of these aspects is gifting in Farmville. Players are able to provide other Farmville players with gifts such as livestock or a tree. These gifts are free to give and the clever part is that they invite reciprocity from the receiver. This encourages users to invite as many people as possible to join the game so they can all start exchanging gifts and kitting out their farms with more desirable objects. This viral element helps spread the use of Farmville dramatically as people are actively encouraged to invite friends and provide gifts. Other than this method, items in the game can either be purchased through virtual cash or players can actually choose to use real money to then buy virtual cash. The most desirable items are usually only affordable with real money so this encourages players to spend on Farmville.

The other key element to the gamification of Farmville is the way it coaxes players . Meta games need to provide a reason for players to come back in order to promote long term business and Farmville does this by ensuring that if players do not actively return to their virtual farms frequently their crops will begin to die and their farm will fall apart. Therefore money, points and status are lost.

Ebay

One of the first successful gamification accounts comes from eBay, a highly effective method of selling and buying items that may either be specialist pieces or items no longer sold or advertised in a retail environment. The method for bidding on items is a game in itself, as the ‘best’ player will eventually win the prize by outbidding other challengers. In the end, the best player is determined by placing the highest accepted bid. It’s a competitive rush to constantly bet higher amounts of money on a desirable item against a huge number of anonymous opponents.

This competition is key in creating a social aspect that distinguishes eBay from regular classified ads created to sell an assortment of products, with the invention of the auction ‘game’ the unique selling point of the website. Admittedly , people can shop using other non digital media mediums to find the best deals and try to purchase them after negotiations, but eBay proves to be more convenient and efficient for a majority of people, with the eBay experience altogether more entertaining whilst inputting a added element of fun.

DevHub

This case study is one that is relatively low key, yet the DevHub Website Builder is a service that helps those seeking to build their own webpages find the motivation to continue through to the finish. Statistics support that most people rarely finish a website to the satisfaction of their initial specifications. Arguably the difficulty involved with creating elaborate web decorations, or learning how to code difficult flash elements into their site posed too much of a barrier, thus explaining the research evidence .

DevHub manages to make a game of accomplishments related to the completion of webpage creation, (i.e. adding an embedded html code for a video nets the ‘Video Award’) giving users awards for completing certain acts and allowing them to compete against other websites for regular prize giveaways. The methods used by DevHub are exactly the type of formulae a company seeking to ‘gamify’ should emulate for success, as giving people an entertaining incentive towards framing their purchase habits in a specific way is an unstoppable advantage for any company.

MeTycoon

In contrast, MeTycoon, developed by PlayGen, is a captivating and satisfying online experience that encourages young teenagers to proactively explore career opportunities; combining videos of real people doing real jobs within a game world based on skills, activities and money to determine happiness.

Tencent: Pet.qq.com

Another successful example of meta games is Tencent a game played over social networks in China. Users look after pets and pay to buy items for their pets such as medicine and toys. Tencent can manipulate the behavior of the pets and in essence encourage greater spending by the players if needs be.

MyCokeRewards

Another different gamification and meta games example is MyCokeRewards. This type of gamification works on the premise that those who buy Coca-Cola products can earn points which can then be used online to enter various sweepstakes to win prizes.

The use of meta games and gamification is becoming the most popular marketing tool available in the internet and application age and it is not hard to see why these case studies of meta games have proven to be effective and successful.

BigDoor Media is one of several internet-based companies that provide virtual economy models, and intuitive game-based design mechanics to websites or applications. For companies seeking to gamify their digital media or internet-based media, BigDoor provides a valuable service in developing their site into a bustling interactive game. BigDoor can offer your site high score leader boards, entertaining Flash/Java games that can earn users points, and rewards for participation/competition with other site users. All of this gamification is of course in direct support of the ultimate goal (providing the services or goods being sold to the end user). BigDoor Media’s methods can result in dramatically increased revenue and page traffic for companies who utilise their beta software suites and consultation services.

As their homepage states BigDoor media realises “the digital world has a tendency to be a bit boring,” creating a strong demand (by both end users and companies alike) for their gamification strategies. For anyone seeking assistance on taking that first step into gamification and increased profitability, BigDoor is an effective source for further information on the process.

According to their homepage, uBoost is designed to work “across all age groups, curricula, and achievement levels” and provide educational staff innovative options for motivating their students for improved long-term behavior. Students can earn badges, and rank up higher over the course of their education and are pitted against fellow students, so there is inherent competition to remain “better than the rest” spurring children to outperform each other in their schoolwork. uBoost’s educational aide can be implemented by school groups for free (up to 50 student accounts, and 1,000 points awarded per month) which gives the perfect incentive for kids to stay interested in extra-curricular activities rather than participate in irresponsible behavior after school.

With BigDoor Media, uBoost, and an increasingly larger number of companies that are turning towards gamification methods, eventually the gaming revolution will be one mapping the direction and success in commercial business. As the success with the Nintendo Wii console has proven, there is a wide spectrum of potential game loving consumers who simply cannot pass up the entertaining prospect of a joyous experience. As a result, the Nintendo Wii has been sold to traditional non-gamers (the elderly and middle-aged parents who aren’t exposed to playing video games, but recognise the family orientated elements involved with the Wii console; casual gamers who dislike playing games without a social or ‘party game’ aspect attached; and several other demographics that were never before interested in gaming until the Nintendo Wii was released). The lessons that were true with the Wii remain true for today’s marketplace–gamification strategies will work for any potential customer as long as they enjoy having fun!

What Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (WoW) does with great efficency is offer an almost intangible service that can best be described as ‘social competition’. For WoW players, they need to justify the cost of a monthly charge (that could add up to hundreds per year) for the rights to play the same game with their online friends. This justification comes through the unique rewards system that WoW features. Overall, players who ‘level up’ (or become stronger) in the game will be able to access more dangerous game areas, which can earn them the exclusivity of rare items in the gamified world.

These rare items are often capable of vastly improving the strength of your WoW character, making them formidable in defence and impossible to defeat by other players. This comes into play on WoW servers that feature a heavy amount of player-versus-player or PVP competition, as frequently defeating enemies will also open up chances for additional rare leaderboard-based items.

The camaraderie that is associated with WoW is another aspect of the design that is important for gamification strategy in general. The way WoW is set up (when playing the game in a way that avoids PVP conflicts) there is a requirement to attach yourself to a strong ‘Guild’.

Being a part of a Guild that travels through WoW dungeons on a set weekly schedule is one of the most effective ways to justify the monthly fee to play the game. Gamers are able to keep themselves and their armor/item collections optimized to enjoy the game to it’s fullest only by constantly participating with others over a long period of time.

The lessons from WoW and those before it (like the Pespi Challenge and the McDonald’s Monopoly promotion) have been analyzed and largely implemented in websites that feature gamification models. uBoost has a similar rewards system, set up to keep students loyal and socially competitive with other points earners via their auction system (a direct imitation of the eBay and WoW auction house systems).

Facebook understands the lure of social competition and uses the Facebook user’s own friends list to encourage them to have the best score out of their entire online social network. It’s a trend that now translates to mobile phone devices with them have applications with social competition in mind, encouraging users to share applications so that they will have more friends in competitive games (while giving the application creator more profits in sales). With Bunchball and BigDoor establishing themselves as two of the newest emerging companies, they are more than qualified experts in converting many struggling business strategies into profitable models based on gamification tenets. The future of commerce is here and it definitely seems like a fun one!

Essentially gamification is a study of the human psyche. In its essence, those, who intend for gamification to translate worldwide, aim to understand the relationship between the game mechanic and individual preferences of the gamer. To elaborate, each of us have different traits and motivations, so while some of us may be driven by achieving objectives, in contrast a healthy percentage are purely motivated by the socializing element. In an ideal world, marketing campaigns would be catered towards to all varied groups. As Sigmund Freud noted, subconscious desires are frequently suppressed and rarely ever given a voice in a rational-thinking, socially-acceptable individual. In most cases, these desires translate into game-based traits such as the overpowering need for winning’, recognition, receiving rewards for accomplishments, and other game-relatable fundamentals. Whilst gamer interaction has previously been a niche , these subconscious desires are relative to human attributes. Or listening to a co-worker express satisfaction at ‘their team,’ in regards to a professional sports team, advancing in the playoffs. It’s a given that everybody wants to ‘win’.

Nobody wants to be labeled with a losing reputation and to go to a sports pragramme with a negative branding makes efforts for gamification harder to find success if there is too much of an emphasis on winning or losing.

What a lot of advertisers do is research the McDonald’s Monopoly Sweepstakes model. With this recurring restaurant-based gamification effort, people have fun trying to win rather than get any significant progress done as far as collecting required winning game pieces. The thrill of victory is almost as powerful a motivation tool as actually winning a reward, but certainly if there were ‘failure’ pieces (instead of the random draw pieces that all may potentially add together as a win with repeated purchases) it could be less popular.

Many successful gamification efforts focus on the customer interaction. The most effective strategy with any advertising campaign involves a customer having a large participatory role with marketing.

Having customers come up to the Pepsi Challenge booth themselves to try the ‘game’ out for themselves was a revolutionary tactic that has gone on to inspire today’s modern gamification efforts. The Pepsi Legacy Book PDF has more information on the Pepsi Challenge, and other successful marketing strategies employed by Pepsi.