Assignment: Game Research

Part 1

Watch Raph Koster’s talk Social Mechanics for Social Games.

  • Individually: Find 10 examples of these social mechanics in existing games (no more than one example for each mechanic).
  • Post a one-sentence explanation and a screenshot (if useful) for each of them.
  • Get back to your team and discuss if any of the mechanics can be meaningfully integrated in your game. It’s just as a thought experiment, no pressure to actually do it.

Part 2

  • In teams: List the core multiplayer mechanics in your game.
  • Individually: for each of them, find a couple of examples of existing games that employ similar mechanics. Find videos that exemplify them.
  • In teams: discuss your findings and determine the game/mechanic that is the most relevant for your project, or the one worth researching. Play the game together as a team. Also, try to play “subversively”, attempting to break or spoil the game.