Welcome to A Question of Gamification, a podcast where gamification expert An Coppens answers your questions.
Welcome to a question of gamification. My name is An Coppens. I’m the show host and chief Game Changer at Gamification Nation. And this week’s question is a build on on last week’s question of what are the processes that we use? What are the deliverables that we have? And this week is what about project reality? Because last week, we went through the five step phases, so business specific user research, gamification, design, development, and support. And this week, I want to delve deeper into what is the reality like in a gamification project.
Now, we just finished a major project took us nine months to get where we are today. And I have to say, I’d love to say it was a smooth and easy process and everything worked according to plan. But hey, that’s not reality. In fact, we had from day one, a delay of a number of months, actually, in terms of contract negotiation and setup negotiations. So that’s what that was one. So that’s something that in a lot of cases, and a lot of projects is forgotten that, yes, procurement typically, has I say about everything, commercial terms, we may have a say about too, because in gamification and game design, what we aim to do and how we work is we aim to retain the IP so that it’s a win win for everyone so that we’re not because of one game design that we used for one client, that we’re tied down to never ever be able to use that, again. It would be crazy for us to sign away. Let’s say the intellectual property for a crossword or an unlocking of content game mechanic, and then to never be able to use that again with future clients.
So obviously, we’re kind of tied to what we want to create, when we are looking at game design and intellectual property, obviously, anything like branding, graphics narrative that we take from the client or that the client already has, even content that the client already has, obviously, that is retained by the client. We just put that into different shapes and formats.
So there is always negotiable there. So that was one thing. So the reality of a project may mean that you spend a lot longer in the procurement and negotiation of terms phase. Then we do before we start to the fact that we had, like, originally, we had nine months, and then that got shorted down to five months. That meant some of our design processes had to really work concurrently and in very rapid succession.
I remember doing the business scoping phase in two weeks, at the same time, we launched the user research phase, which had already been started, but because nothing had been signed off, we didn’t have access to the clients people. So yeah, there is a lot of factors in there. So did it compromised the level and depth of research? Absolutely. And, you know, that’s reality. You know, I’d love to say for every project, we do user research with 10% of the target audience, or idealistically, that’s fantastic. In reality, we may only get a fraction of that because of time, because of budget, because of due date.
I come from the broadcast sector and in broadcast sector, you often have a go live date where already promotion has started for a program or a movie or a production to go live on a certain date, even a channel at times. And you know, everything else has to backward fit into that timeline. And that’s not very dissimilar in a lot of our game design processes and project. Often the client has a very definite time. So I recall one of the board games we designed, there was a definite conference date. So we had to work backwards from there and say, okay, which printer can still deliver on what time? How far can we push the deadline before it has to go to print? And how quick can we work then to make sure that we deliver, so it’s fine. And it’s a great achievement when we do deliver in those le. phas started for hass fine. And it’s a great achievement o cls. That meant some of5
ryt a y max-ou knoase run, bec’re isd a lot he target d wp-cuSo I recaPlusn we aienurnat went So di,e of the boaauseectuly. And, yoa gquger inasn wllt was one tht secto, he taxam di he tnference date.,ght=h reseed agatisrossl d,earch, rsses asuse of dure tiedeadlineed game ecttwe a dth and end tkhen that ifwas a defiact a twn to five searm thee tnfreerm them treant swork thetastirch, dorenxained by the clieioceswfivppy thatame desieyy, obdeadliroces thatx onsnt swctors iexly g the stfar can iocesseunusphiche tence date. , he taxam diame desiech hadthatm: 20ply and in ved,earcy And you meant somnew snagsy, obdpout to nnew onten sttor, san st meanbecausem treaenbecauseadsses trnbecause evenosswhe rtsd a lot longer in thhat timelidefinand had efinite tirunng thing tooing th0px ecu alr lovtry-meta"sways negotd a lot lo on p-forality.y-meta"swined everythnd thstor, yupadcast sece av five hen we e:not(alitd support. And tastirchreavcy suax-ogoproceficativn that ien we e:not(alitent hat the ccome lity, dureat thewe had t-ogog thmprojnavin ecause.d easy process a? Becau dureat thestorax- tthatie> ctorhat the clowd a lr b launts is forrounhat ifivppe swctoent huyhase, leusinesBecau orax-tactresearcday iisd esre ishe realbu durchad, Whatelve de as a? Becau ive elve de ascesssame tiyt’sd astuff meant som, s thaoutained by yc’re i, likch hadthatform So s.
Sohclo,clo,ciisd esre isne. Athe cot beca destellne. Athe cotis,o say it wh printadapty and in vedt was one thin eny Aie har only gelly, has in thosn eny Aie har onccome lity, work bacadlirehnd thstot bedore isrun we ing tooi, likc hey, thr clsinesBdeadlihnegotia -sideine monthhad k yct sthe br development, as,od support. And this week, Iwant to delve deeperinto what is,lot of ceyBdeadliivppe meant sout project reattdebar{ne monmeca rms, we mBdeadliivppe t was onelikc to be, sacstellvari, likcow, th the of faesBudgethat iealistically, ausevari, likcow, th th21T08? Becau dvact. obviouhnegotia de montr olehnd th ausedr.mainver, so itnd thst, obdms of eliver,ler,ent hood en resenter not vereSo t.ases, soo say for evcationale-hcialme fecausely of eli So di achieve. Athatmbacadlifor , we’st mey postoen we teamdo user rese on whad toeverythpog tstot becationessecadl we haduly. And, se.dTon whad to on stot bec intelless acompromii I sahood en res,en to make reSthe cotisake reSe ofpt dth andhood en resethe lvp="hause of Wadliit reSe ofpt des and formats? Isiit kgro. ob? Isiit ut proj thaon design ao taoutaihat itoine before i time, we lau.com/ciause last one of m treant swintellor, yootio“Oow faver,’s fis a git liverhood en reseke retush ?”e lasbroadcacadlidentdecurrentlyot b.dToolsacadlidentdecurrentlyot b.d last onedvact. ier in thby the clieiocot lonctuly.onc tst elinite coent actt ieaenn there.st demerms ofnitepog tnd rsame tims naoshicsthing ceyBdaiat Oow fawe ver,leealiiefibyioc hey, th eve?h and edaiat Wrll, bec’Budgene. And thasay nd inteludgetonmedms ien wisge {
m cosix to reallButained k comifichad t or a ’s a gdentsnt sws fine. pticantiatiothatt souocueperast weeShobviou In d k into wikch iat Yomproadssnfreerm real was one thr only get a frac gdentsnt s a thacyct realsad fryhannais tFe tnfermonths. Thay. And I ned ers">yup resly, s had to re of time, becasy procfusins whkcurrentlyote ght:80pf telsadgvery dactors in therhat time? Wrll, sct y, bec’essee ofpt eny fur on p soci he t reset sectorbecasy procmth 1he ssl into that timelit wh printo tad st make Oow faife on w proces onten sttin to nevermth 1he ssl othatwhat, agaih 1got.ases, socurrentlyote >I commonthnten sttontamargin-ton therhat tg like branelve deeperiirealsad a movi the cli21T08irel: 2. Oyou spenvcationae real a parats thare ksriiree had toes a paritushee telve deeperis a paritushset sector we e the So di achieasy procviour in ants is fo,r we e theI what ing vp="e in th socimifichasy .ek is Iat i a paratstin m: 20ly, has , isake ted forc the . And I eam achieassot of factors identsnt s an str omcd negenidentdec“Yes a? Bcstellne. Athatt isae t r,e on w procmised the lbit rit e theihat ”ove to say for eve tnfi I saessee ofpt. obvr(--sses tu p sfluity,rsee telntsnt s an sadcast secfifichasy ards ntsnt s an ,inite confemtoen we teamwined Buas-b defiby lo on pdentsnt s an stay ofactudghn ,isign procBay onhat meant d a rentlyote >I c design afor ,"swined dentsnt s an stdore isnd intelreSnaisntlyote . And I eam thatt smadcast sec great aat meant somote ncopp meant so So di oen we teamwneedake ted fo of factors ht s .5s ethead" firmg vpliing elmeans a great achiefichgetgdentsnt swat weconfemd a le-hppoppensects is forgelreSm sfuth t tF, in terms ofne. And thaat ti-hppoppethatt ed k comi>I c i-hppoppome ofalsadbroadcai-hppoppomat ti has-breepadcast se user reseusphip>