Quantity is not quality. Pick only the game elements that you need.

Points, Rewards, Achievements, Leaderboard, Teams.
Each has its own perks, yet implementing all of them does not mean that your game is the best.

Focusing too much on the rewards may demotivate your players towards learning, while team based games will not be effective when the targeted behaviour are focusing on the individuals.

How should you then decide which game elements are suitable for your game? You can look at it from 2 perspectives:

1. Choosing the respective elements based on the target player type

In Step 3 of our Game Development Guide, we introduced the 4 different player types based on the Bartle taxonomy of player types. Each player type has their own prefered game elements. It is advisable to customize your game based on your target audience to provide the greatest amount of satisfaction for them.

See below for the game elements that would attract each player type and how best to use them:

♠ Explorers:

Explorers (as its name suggests) loves to explore the game world. Give your game an unfolding narrative to immerse the explorers.

Autonomy is of great priority to explorers, so let them choose what they want to do in your game. Cut down on topic/challenge locking to let the explorers choose which topic or challenge they wish to attempt first.

Explorers are not here to finish the game but more so to discover hidden easter eggs. Also, you can try adding an extra ‘easter egg’ topic. This serves as an additional plot just for pleasure. It may not go in line with the objectives of your game but would do well to capture the hearts of the explorers!

♥ Socializers

Socializers enjoy the company of others while they play their games.
Create team-based games such that they can interact with others while enjoying the game.

Also, create opportunities for commenting and voting. At the same time, reward them for their behaviour by crediting them with bonus points.

♣ Killers:

Yes, Killers aim to be the best at what they do, beating all other competition. Competition is a must have for killers and adding a leaderboard will be the first step to retaining these players.

Award killers for staying on the leaderboard with additional points or simply publicizing it to give them the fame and glory they deserve.

♦ Achievers:

Points, Achievements, Rewards. Any tangible or intangible rewards will be adored by the achievers.

Add 100% Completion Badges and other in-game achievements that adds on to the wall of achievements of the achievers.

Some achievers may even enjoy seeing their name on top of the leaderboard, giving them the sense of accomplishment.

2. Choosing based on your objectives

Other than knowing your target audience intimately based on their player types, you might also want to consider your own business/project objectives before crafting out the game experience for your target audience.

Here at Gametize, most of our existing clients and partners fall under a few general categories: HR, Marketing and Learning/Development, and Training. Although we wouldn’t assume that everyone will fall under these categories, we have picked out some key objectives from each industry, which can easily be applied to your own games:

Objective #1: To recruit new employees (HR – Recruitment)

Looking to hire some fresh blood? Why not gamify the whole recruitment process? 🙂

With the objective of recruiting highly-qualified professionals, it would be good to first consider one very important factor – the age of the potential applicants that you would expect to play the recruitment game. If you are looking to recruit senior professionals who aren’t on Facebook and still read hardcopy newspapers, the way you craft your recruitment game would likely differ from a game that you would craft for the millennial generation who bust their data plan every month and cannot survive without WiFi.

Other factors to consider when crafting a recruitment game would be the duration of the recruitment campaign, how long an applicant should spend playing the game, and what information is required from the applicant for you to decide who to hire. This will determine the type and number of questions that you will need to create to meet your objective of hiring the right candidates.

For a quick example, take a look at our template recruitment game!

Objective #2: To get new employees on-boarded (HR – Onboarding)

So now that you have some fresh faces around, time to get them on-boarded and all prepped to start work! 🙂

With this objective in mind, it’s good to start planning out the various bits of knowledge and content that a new employee is required to know (e.g. from knowing where the toilets are located… to how to file claims). You can also incorporate company values into the mix and structure the whole game with a theme that relates well with your company’s products/services or values.

It would also be good to have rewards for the employees to achieve, so as to reward them with some useful and relevant incentives that could help ease their transition into the company and make their early days more enjoyable.

To view a sample of the on-boarding game, click here to check it out!

Objective #3: To improve staff happiness and welfare (HR – Employee Happiness)

What about all the employees who have been around for ages? Employee engagement and staff welfare should be taken seriously in order to retain your top talents and keep them satisfied with their jobs. If this is something that you are keen to improve, consider implementing a gamified form of staff engagement.

Try including a series of fun and engaging challenges from photo challenges to QR code challenges to get them excited. You might even want to try hosting a treasure hunt (with a series of clues to uncover) just get the entire department moving and interacting with one another.

Don’t forget to include enticing rewards such as shopping vouchers or a free pass to work from home for a day, to get them motivated to earn those points!

Watch this space, we’ll be creating a sample HR (Employee Welfare) game soon!

Objective #4: To engage the general public (Marketing/Publicity)

With the whole world becoming more interactive and the millennials are increasingly becoming the main target consumers, it’s no surprise that the term “gamification” is catching on in recent times. If you’re a marketer with a mission, chances are that you are looking for a solution to spice up your integrated marketing campaign. This is where gamification can come in.

Create a game with simple and fun challenges for your players to complete, and be sure to include your product/service into the mix! With a combination of standard and photo challenges, and perhaps a poll or two, leverage on creative ways you can get players to interact with your product/service, and get them to share their experiences via the Gametize platform (shareable on social media too, of course!).

Tangible rewards can easily be managed and distributed if your marketing campaign is location-specific. Just make sure to include clear instructions on how to redeem them!

For an idea of what a marketing game would look like, take a look at this sample game!

Objective #5: To improve engagement among participants at an event (Event Management)

Got the crowd but no plans on how to best engage them? Do not fret, we’ve got just the thing!

With an easy-to-use Gametize app, participants would take almost no time at all to get themselves logged in and playing the game on the spot – in minutes! Since there’s a really good chance that your game will be accessed via mobile, be sure to take advantage of mobile-friendly challenges like the QR code challenge. Placing QR codes in strategic locations (e.g. on nametags, at event booths, hidden places, etc.) allows you to take your event to the next level by integrating digital and physical elements of your event, and combine it to create a rich interactive experience for your participants.

Keen to gamify your event? Check out our demo event game to help you get started!

Objective #6: To impart knowledge and ensure that it sticks (Learning)

There’s nothing quite like making a learning and development initiative more fun.  Many have treaded down this road and not many have succeeded. With low attention spans and the need for more visual cues, interactive learning games face a challenging task at getting their players to, well, play – and keep playing (for long periods of time, that is)!

With Gametize, learning can be made more fun, especially when you introduce a rewards system, a leaderboard, and a series of varied challenges, all working together to create a unique experience for each player, when they attempt the learning game. Each of them will find themselves motivated to complete the game (in various ways), and you can rest assured, that with the simple game interface, learning is bound to take place.

Click here if you’d like to have a go at one of our sample learning games!

Objective #7: To provide a more engaging customer experience (Customer Experience)

Providing a good, no, GREAT customer service experience involves implementing a working system that allows for customers to easily give their feedback – and feel good about it at the same time. You want them to feel comfortable enough that they will not only be honest with you, but also be your brand’s greatest advocate. Here’s where things get tricky – do you already such a system in place? No? Consider a gamified customer feedback form!

Using the Gametize platform, get ready to revolutionise the way customer feedback can be managed. Think loyalty programmes and a customer reward system. With each great feedback / testimonial challenge they complete (e.g. take a selfie of them using your product/service), they can stand to earn points which they can then redeem for rewards (which could consist of more products/services that you offer).

It would be a good way to interact with your customers, create a community among them, and retain them in the long-run. They might also be repeat customers, or if you are looking for new ones, use a referral challenge to encourage existing customers to refer their friends! They can score a discount from you in return.

Get a feel of what a customer service game is like by trying out this game!

__________

Phew! Looks like you’re all set to create your game! Just be sure to remember what your objectives are during the game creation process. This should guide the way in crafting out the overall player experience. Good luck!