Integral in the quest for IP development in the Facebook gaming niche is understanding that social game design is going to take much more than mere software engineering skills. This is more of an artform than a technical skill. What follows is a set of guidelines a software engineer can utilize in the bid to become a social game designer:

1) Creative use of the Facebook API: Knowing the Facebook API’s technical usage, and knowing how to utilize its viral potential through creative wizardry are two completely different things. That is to say, internet documentation of the APIs features can only take you so far – to really understand the possibilities you will need to see the API in action. And how does one do that? Research as many games on Facebook as you can – that entails playing through their different levels and understanding how the various API calls are used for maximal viral effect. Remember, good game design always starts from good research. Some of the best gamedesigners out there are avid game players too.

2) Game play that engages social graph of the user creatively: Tapping into a user’s social graph is different from multiplayer mechanics – the former is all about interacting with friends and acquaintances – the latter’s about playing with strangers. What’s the difference then? Human psychology plays out differently when interacting with friends and strangers. Peer pressure, honor and revenge are mechanics one can more readily engender among groups offriends than strangers – so social game developers have to understand these nuances before they get into designing games that tap into users’ social graphs.

3) Identifying popular genres: Social networks are not gaming portals. They never will be. Why? Users on social networks do not primarily log in to play games – no, the prime directive is to network with friends and gaming is the secondary reason. The kind of genres hot in socialnetworking can more easily be understood if seen within the context of this fact. So for instance, games with hardcore mechanics are not suitable for these distribution platforms whereas games with casual, ‘soft’ mechanics which enable users to engage their socialgraphs in fun ways are the right fit.

4) Know thy target demographic: The target audience in social gaming is not males between the ages of 16-24. Far from it. So therefore, game content is going to be very specialized. A starting point to find out what your target demographic is can be found here. Caveat: This is not to say that there’s no room for niches to exist.

5) How to enhance stickiness: Social gaming content is usually very shallow – for example, atypical social game may be a farm world where users increase the size of their farms and decorate it through various means. And that’s it. So how does such a game’s designer ensure that the users keep coming back? By fragmenting their experience into appointments. Appointment-gaming is a delayed gratification mechanic where users accomplish a task in thepresent but get a delayed reward in the future. This ensures that users would have an incentive to return to the game – thus enhancing stickiness. There are other ways to achieve this effect too – minigames, novelty gameplay, social hooks etc. Usually they’re mixed in with appointment gaming for maximal effect.

6) Effectively monetizing: Just setting up a virtual cash shop won’t guarantee big ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) numbers. Instead, effective monetization is a product ofunderstanding user psychology and their emotional needs. No monetization strategy is complete without additive hooks which take advantage of peer pressure, revenge, lottery andthe desire to show off. So for example, users will not pay much for mere convenience items – on the other hand things which improve their image in front of their friends will sell much better. A good starting point to understand the psychology of effective monetization can be found here.

7) How to incentivize users to invite more friends: The game designer needs to engender ‘positive network effects‘ in their game for users to invite more of their kind. Just like the real-life invention of the telephone – where the utility of the device was directly correlated to the numberof people using it – the game mechanics should be such that users’ experience becomes richer if more of their friends are playing the game. For instance, one can have a game about a virtual hotel where each user earns more cash the more people from their social graph visit the hotel. This example illustrates a very natural, very organic way of engendering positive network effects. Game designers should pay particular attention to this mechanic in the bid to enhance their games’ virality.

We are looking to contractually hire a Flash developer with rarefied skills in Flash, a passion for game development and the ability to work like there’s no tomorrow. See below for detailed requirements.

Requirements
• 2+ years of consumer-facing, interactive Flash experience
• Must be able to work in Adobe Flash and Illustrator
• Strong foundation in visual/interface design, motion graphics and UX design.
• Good expertise in Flash animation techniques using both timeline and AS3
• A graphic design degree is a plus, but not required
• A portfolio that can display your skills with Flash is required.
• Experience working with Games is definitely a plus but not required.
• Strong graphical and conceptual skills, and is highly self motivated
• The desire to learn and grow
• Unwavering and contagious positive attitude

Responsibilities
• Ability to take creative direction and work in a team
• Effective collaboration with assigned project team to deliver finished work within designated time constraints
• Working with the art director to take initial concepts to production assets.
• Ability to work in a fast paced, demanding, challenging and multi-tasking environment

Original posted on Green & White on May 21, 2010

When Facebook was banned my first thoughts moved to the apps we covered recently Feline Frenzy, Carom Challenge and Fly By, what effects does this have on them the development efforts and traffic etc.

Hassan Baig (White Rabbit) the creators of Feline Frenzy, has provided once again a very insightful view of things. Note to other young entrepreneurs this is the level of understanding of your target audience and market you should have to have a shot at success, you should be able to reorganize quickly in any circumstances. For me I am now a permanent fan of Hassan will try to pick his brain every now and then. Following is his un altered response. And once again thanks for him to take time out to share his thoughts for others to learn from.

This short-term hiccup is inconsequential to Facebook developers in Pakistan. For example, Facebook is completely banned in Iran and China but users who want to access it are still able to do so thanks to proxy servers and such. In other words, developers are still free to develop for the global market.

However, if a developer’s focusing on the local market as a target, they could find themselves in rough waters in case this ban extends beyond 31st of May.

So that’s the short term ripple.

Could there be a longer term consequence too? Yes there could. However, before we get to what the long term worst case looks like, I’d like to point out that Facebook’s facing a perfect storm right now in the shape of the confluence of the following occurrences:

• Public concern for Facebook’s abuse of privacy policy.
• Privacy concerns compounded by Zuckerberg’s recently revealed IM transcript. A PR nightmare, that.
• Farmville’s maker Zynga’s aggressive posturing against Facebook. And though their initial threat of completely boycotting Facebook may have subsided, enough feathers have been ruffled to hint at a mercurial future.
• And last but not least, the backlash against Facebook emanating from Muslim countries headed by Pakistan’s country-wide blackout.

Clearly, all of these grievances can be dealt with by an efficient, responsible management. However, Zuckerberg’s never been a smooth operator and there exist several question marksover his suitability as the company’s continued leader. So it’s conceivable that even as the social networking giant is getting ready to announce 500 million users, its future may not pan out to be what Zuckerberg dreamed of in his Harvard dorm.

So then, what’s the worst case scenario?

Facebook’s user growth first plateaus and then starts dwindling (much like what’s happeningto Myspace).

And this is how such an eventuality can be catalyzed: A simpler, more private social networking tool with strong VC funding comes to the fore. Or, other social networks jump at the opportunity and cannibalize Facebook’s popularity. Or both.

How can the Facebook development community deal with this? Well firstly by realizing that theworst case scenario described above may not happen, at least not in the short term. In the medium and long term, there are ways to diversify their product offering.

For instance, building social applications with the Open Social standard can open up your social application to hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace, Netlog, Ning, Orkut, and Yahoo. Out of all of these, the highest recommended is hi5 – which is turning out to be a very lucrative distribution platform with good leadership and business sense. And infact, hi5′s looking to sync itself with theFacebook API too, so one doesn’t necessarily have to endorse Open Social to deploy on it. Hi5′s worth a look for any social game development company out there.

Overall, social game developers have the luxury to keep their options open in the long term. The current Facebook fiasco though is a good wakeup call for those who haven’t thought about diversification yet. Never keep all eggs in one basket, and keep researching in this fast-paced, thoroughly dynamic industry. Those who anticipate and plan for future disruptions will truly go big.

Excerpt from original posting on Green & White – Apr 13, 2010

The iPhone is a powerful platform, it’s got a cult following, some of the apps developed for it have unique, unparalleled features.

But it’s not a good monetization platform.

First of all, the sheer volume of users Facebook has can trump iPhone users many times over. Second, virtual goods have not kicked off on iPhone the way they have on Facebook. Thirdly, piracy of iPhone apps is huge. Fourthly, Apple’s monopolistic practices are cost-ineffective; Steve Jobs wants 30% of your app revenue. Fifthly, social virality is not as lubricated on the iPhone platform as it is over Facebook’s stream – which means iPhone developers have to contend with higher advertising budgets.

The iPhone is a good way to increase your brand’s footprint. But it’s business-model credentials as a first foray are not superior to Facebook’s Open Platform.