Leading Edge Design Principles from Social Games

With social games seeing some incredible growth over the holidays, it seemed appropriate to start the New Year off with a post on the topic.

Today’s social games are transforming not only online gaming itself but consumer and enterprise services as well. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, there’s a lot to be learned from their powerful yet subtle principles.

Old: A progress bar that does nothing more than tell you the game is loading.
New: Graphics illustrating the growth of a city, which send the player a powerful aspirational message.

Old: Your score increases as you earn points.
New: Coins appear on screen and reinforce a reward dynamic by requiring you to click on them.

That’s just the beginning. Here are 28 design principles from social games:

Goals and work – Engagement:
1.       The story is the setup for the game. It tells you who you are and sets the stage for…
2.       The major goal is what players are trying to accomplish and creates a competitive dynamic.
3.       Minor goals + levels provide direction, a way to move up, and a sense of accomplishment.
4.       Work. Only 45% of Americans like their jobs, but in games work is fun and enables earning.
5.       Time. Work takes time, forcing the player to do other activities and return.
6.       Objects. Players prepare, build, or assemble, a form of work, in which nothing comes complete.
7.       Collections. People love to collect not just badges but stamps, art, photos, music, postcards…
8.       Simple animations represent complex actions yet are easy to understand and inexpensive to create.

Viral Growth – Adoption:
9.       Staffing requires other people.
10.   Socially locked items only unlock if you invite friends.
11.   Social goals require the involvement of friends or other players.
12.   Points can in some cases only be earned by involving others.
13.   Gifting items that you must give away or get points for giving away promotes reciprocity.
14.   Sharing photos (screenshots) of scenes/people/pets/ items provides a sense of pride.
15.   Wall posting is free marketing that leverages existing users.
16.   Suggestions to invite friends produce some number of conversions.

Game mechanics – User behavior and monetization:
17.   Sound effects lend authenticity to virtual objects and actions.
18.   Clickable coins, which users must click to get, create a subtle click/reward dynamic.
19.   On-screen goals + locked items constantly remind the user to invite friends + complete objectives.
20.   Success step by step, illustrated during game loading, sends a subtle aspirational message.
21.   Virtual guide makes the game personable and trusted and gives the player someone to impress.
22.   Visiting (virtual guides and real players) reminds users what they are striving for by example.
23.   Limited availability and expiring items create scarcity and a sense of urgency.
24.   Badges are a form of status.
25.   Repeat points reward players for returning multiple days in a row.
26.   Notifications with incentives such as free gifts give users a reason to open emails and click.
27.   Land and expand (not the enterprise sales kind!) causes players to buy items to build and fill space.
28.   In-game purchasing means players don’t need to leave to buy.

These are just a few of the design principles today’s social games are applying. Many have been used by more traditional games for years, but their leverage of widespread social graphs makes them much more widespread and impactful on a much larger user base than ever before. They’re no longer restricted to hard-core gamers. Soon enough, they’ll be everywhere, from the games themselves to just about every web site, service, and mobile offering available. Apply these principles to your service today!