This book talks about the importance of social mechanics in games and how these mechanics evolved across 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.
The first part of the book provides a brief history of games as social interaction and discusses the differences between online and offline social gaming. Part two covers Facebook social gaming and design lessons from first generation social games. Part three introduces design philosophies for the hyper-social genre and includes an important chapter on design ethics. Finally, part four looks ahead to the future of social games and how game designers can incorporate learnings from the 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.