This book talks about the importance of social mechanics in games and how these mechanics evolved over time to accommodate new technologies and new social contexts. It looks at the innovation happening in the field of new-age social games, discussing in detail what has been learnt from designing for the younger generation, how these findings can inform game design philosophy and how this can be applied to game development more broadly.
Part 1 of this book provides a brief history of games as social interaction and discusses the differences between online and offline social gaming. Part 2 covers Facebook social gaming and design lessons from first-generation social games. Part 3 introduces design philosophies for the hyper-social genre and includes an important chapter on design ethics. Finally, Part 4 looks ahead to the future of social games and how game designers can incorporate learnings from this book in their own work.
This book will appeal to game designers and students of game design looking to learn how to apply learnings from social game design in their own games.
Chapter 1 A history of games as social interaction
Chapter 2 The person, the group and the game
Chapter 3 Games as a piece of the social puzzle
Part 2: The beginnings of social gaming
Chapter 4 The birth of social media gaming
Chapter 5 The fall of Facebook social games
Part 3: Social game design for a modern audience
Chapter 6 Experimenting with social mechanics
Chapter 7 The hyper-social audience
Chapter 8 Designing for a social-centric audience
Chapter 9 The ethics of social game design
Part 4: Innovative game design
Chapter 10 From observation to innovation
Biography
Ioana-Iulia Cazacu is a Game Designer at Mojiworks Limited.
