How to create gamified tools

by | Feb 15, 2018 | Gamification, Gamification Europe

How to create Gamified Tools

Workshop Outline

I was just asked to design a Workshop for the upcoming Gamification Europe Master Class.

Here are the details of the workshop I will be teaching 🙂

Part 1 (30 minutes)

#Gamification Basics: Getting a sense of direction

  • Motivation
  • RAMP
  • Flow State
  • Game Anatomy

Part 2 (45 minutes)

Foundation: Making sure you have a clear idea of what must be done

  • The Point: What is the problem to solve?
  • The Players: Who is playing and how do they play?
  • The Goal: When do you know the players have achieved the point?

Part 3 (45 minutes)

Dynamics, Mechanics and Aesethics

  • Using the Game Master Framework to setup The Foundation of the tool
  • Learning how to test your system is really working

Part 4 (4~5 hours of practical working)

Making it happen, Developing your first tool

  • Step by step guide to develop a gamified system with evaluation and feedback
  • Deliverable: Wireframe and Instruction booklet of tool.

Part 5 (1 hour)

Breaking the system

  • Evaluation, redirection, misinterpretation and iteration.

 

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote Speaker & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

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8 + 12 =

Updating Docs

by | Jan 4, 2018 | Gamification

Updating Docs

A lot harder than it seems
OMG! Updating the docs is a lot harder than I thought.

So far you can check the documentation for the following sections:

Now, the LEVELS part of it is HARD, so if you have questions or suggestions let me know. PLEASE.

Anyhow, #gamificaition systems aren’t easy to build if you really want successful environments. Check the table for progression following the LINEAR INCREMENT model from Michael Wu. I will publish a new post exclusively explaining this in the “Teachings from Gamification Europe” series.

 

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote Speaker & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

<a class="twitter-timeline" data-height="400" href="https://twitter.com/bletayf">Tweets by Bernardo Letayf</a> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

2 + 15 =

How not to gamify a classroom – Explained

How not to gamify a classroom – Explained

by | Dec 30, 2017 | Education, Gamification

How not to gamify a classroom

First 10 tips on what NOT to do. It's a long journey, you might need some help.
Before anything, here are all the slides. I’ll try to explain one by one as a lot of people have told me they need the video and/or context to understand them =P
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If you want to see the video, please click here

Slide 19

Before you move forward: Make sure you understand what RAMP is. That is your compass and it will be the best guide for any decision you make in the future. That is what Slide 19 refers to.

Slide 20

Active cancels are when you are choosing a game-mechanic that ACTIVELY cancels one of the four RAMP elements. You choose to negate autonomy in the classroom, for example.

Passive omissions (left outs) are when you aren’t using them all and forget to include one of the elements. Really easy to forget about RELATEDNESS in the classroom since it’s all designed to negate it.

Slide 21

Rewarding with grades is the first mistake I made. A grade is NOT one thing players should care for. They should be in the class for the learning.

Every class is different, every player is different, so we should reward them differently.

Slide 22

One of the best things you’ll ever do. You need to become an NPC (non-player character) for the players. You are recognized as one who know the way but don’t have the answers to the questions players MUST be asking themselves.

Ever heard of “No one likes a know-it-all”. It applies perfectly to a traditional class and teacher. You are the lore keeper.

Slide 23

Learning only happens when you get a question answered.

Slide 24

Content must be out there for players to find it. Don’t expect them to be active if you are keeping it all for yourself. Lose control already. Thinking that as a teacher you can control the rhythm of players’ learning is how you kill creativity. Let them BE curious. You can always add more content to anything and THAT should be a happy problem.

Slide 25

Players stay together! This concept goes both ways. For those who are willing to do EVERY quest and for those who won’t do any.

If you balance your system correctly, you’ll make sure RELATEDNESS becomes the glue that put players in the same ship. Some may be at the front of it and some in the back but, still, on the same journey and all working together.

Slide 26

Reward players the right way. SAPS comes in handy. Ask @Gabe Zichermann about it or read it here.

Rewarding with grades, is the worst, however, having players that only care for the rewards is the absolute worst. They should be in your class for the learning, the growth. Rewards WILL be there but, they MUST be extra. Make the class experience so rewarding they forget about those candies in the end. Grades will turn out perfect, I guarantee that.

Slide 27

For those who would like to use a Virtual Currency, you need to know this:

Make your players WASTE money. Teach them the value of their effort the hard way. Offer really stupid rewards after a couple of valuable expenses have been bought. Then, right when they feel that earning money is easy, make it harder to get. Not too much, just enough so they learn the lesson.

Use Core Drive 6 Scarcity and Impatience.

Slide 28

Defeat your fears by facing them. Make your players fail so much they won’t think it’s a bad thing anymore. The fear of failure is the reason there are so few entrepreneurs out there.

Let them try a challenge that is a bit too high for their current level without worry. They must learn on every attempt WHY they weren’t able to overcome it and THAT is the idea.

Slide 29

Failure isn’t a bad thing. It’s the best teacher.

It’s not that we aim too high and fail but the opposite. We aim to low and succeed – Michelangelo

Slide 30

This is the reason the #education system is broken. One of our most powerful tools in #gamification is #narrative. An easy way to hold this together is with a theme. That way you’ll connect all content together. Remember this can be the best reward of the class, ironically, even content is the most boring part, it is the most important.

Slide 31

The content is KING.

Design, colors, production level, magic powder. All means nothing if the content isn’t relevant to your players.

Slide 32

My favorite technique.

Treat your players as professionals. They will behave professionally.

Treat them like Pros. Level 1 Pros.

Slide 33

The most important slide on my keynote. This is the reason we are gamifying a class. In life, we can grow all the way to infinity. Why will a school, the industry of “releasing student potential” would limit the players?

Allow ALWAYS place to grow. Make players pull each other to greater heights. Remember the principles of the collective journey.

No one wakes up wanting to learn LESS than the day before. No one wants to feel stupid. Everyone wants to become better. The difference is HOW much better you want to be today than that you of yesterday.

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote Speaker & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

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6 + 6 =

Teachings from Gamification Europe – Part 3 – Day 1

Teachings from Gamification Europe – Part 3 – Day 1

by | Dec 30, 2017 | Gamification, Gamification Europe

Day 1 - after 11am

Part 3 of many

One hour into the conference and we got a well deserved networking coffee break.

I finally had the chance to talk with Dr. Marigo Raftopoulos. I had one of the most rewarding 20 minutes of the event by talking to her about the experience she had with a teacher of her son around 15 years ago.

In Australia, one of the most “progressive” countries in the planet, a teacher, told Marigo: “Not every kid lives up to their potential”.

For me, a #gamification expert specialized in #education this was one thing I hadn’t heard before.

A professional in the field of bringing up the potential of people, was telling me this.

Fortunately, this is the kind of thoughts that drive us forward. This is the kind of world we as #gamification experts are trying to fix.

11:30 am.

Right after our coffee break was over, Joris Beerda presented his keynote on How the Octalysis group empowered the sales team of Procter & Gamble showing outstanding results. As a case study, not much we could’ve drawn out as new techniques, however the results of the project were absolutely outstanding as all Octalysis projects.

11:50

Melinda Jacobs’ flight was cancelled as she was flying from New York and we were unfortunately unable  to see her keynote that day. Thanks to that we had extra minutes with all the speakers from that block, so:

12:10

Toby Beresford came up with a keynote that left most of us breathless when learning how much impact a leaderboard that started with a list of experts from his own perspective in 2012.

For a full list of my insights, check this link 🙂

Fast forward, he became a UN consultant and is active in SKY News as a social media expert. Skills he has transferred into Rise.Global a Social media success tracking platform that serves today as the host of the Gamification Gurus Power Top 100. Yes, it’s the same list from 5 years ago, just that now it works on itself and measures our participation on the #gamification industry through social media.

12: 30

Jan Storgards from REACTOR started his keynote on the struggles from a #gamification solution provider on how to tackle an emerging market of startups that most of the time are focused on deploying their software and leave key features out of the scope where #gamification could actually be well exploited.

One of my favorite takes from the keynote came up as a beautiful phrase that sums up what REACTOR will do for your company and simply put, a phrase we all should use to deploy great solutions and avoid bad clients:

We will add cinnamon to your coffee but we won’t make coffee for you.

Time for lunch. Yep, still Tuesday guys… stay with me 😀

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote Speaker & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

<a class="twitter-timeline" data-height="400" href="https://twitter.com/bletayf">Tweets by Bernardo Letayf</a> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

7 + 1 =

Teachings from Gamification Europe – Part 3 – Day 1

Teachings from Gamification Europe – Part 2 – Day 1

by | Dec 30, 2017 | Gamification, Gamification Europe

Day 1

Part 2 of many

The conference gathering started around 9 am with many familiar faces all around the place. Glad to see Sylvester Arnab, An Coppens, Michael Wu (finally!) and Alex Chalkias (whom I had only met by facebook).

So after a late arrival we all got setup and receive a great welcome from our very own Pete Jenkins! After a couple of short explanations around where the bathrooms were and how to use the conference app Pete left the floor for someone who was, until then, a mystery to me.

It’s really awesome when you are met with ideas that have been around your head for some time. That’s how the #gamification community feels when we all meet up. At least those were the words from most of the experts in the conference.

Jeff Gomez

The opening keynote was one of the most amazing concepts we all have agreed on. Jeff Gomez presented us with an idea we all must work together to accomplish. The hero’s journey is no longer serving us. Opening concept for all. Great present for “The hero’s journey” theme of the conference.

The collective journey is what we must be working towards to. It’s not a matter of one person saving everybody else but, everyone working together to accomplish and overcome any challenge.

It matches with every problem the world is going through. We keep believing that one great person should come and save us all when in reality we must save ourselves.

You can follow my tweets on the talk in this link

I asked a question to Jeff: “What happens when everyone is special? Then no one is special?”

His answer was even better: We are all special but, it’s no longer about ONE individual but what we can accomplish all together.

My teachings from this talk is simple: The more people that work together, the greater and better the outcome will always be.

My thoughts on my own question are that when we are all special, unless we clear our idea of being the hero and the protagonist of the story, we will keep thinking that one person must be “better” than the rest and we must separate is from the crowd somehow, when, in reality, we should be working on making the WHOLE crowd special.

Oh… it’s not even 11 am at this point.

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote Speaker & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

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11 + 10 =

Teachings from Gamification Europe – Part 3 – Day 1

Teachings from Gamification Europe – Part 1 – Day 0

by | Dec 29, 2017 | Gamification Europe

Teachings from #Gamification Europe

Part 1 of many

During Gamification Europe many, MANY, things happened.

This series will try to sum up some of the highlights from the event in an attempt to do justice to all speakers, organizers and participants.

Where to start?

Day 0.

On Monday night, all gamification geeks went out to have dinner at an amazing place I can’t name since our guides got a bit lost on the way and we were jet lagged, tired and confused. However we had an amazing night, I was able to meet almost all #gamification experts I hadn’t already met in person (only missing Dr. Michael Wu) and was a truly inspiring evening.

Credits from the image go to @robalvarezb whose cellphone did all the hardwork 🙂

From left to right: Roberto Alvarez (professor game), Vasilis Gkogkidis (Gamification Plus), Me, Ahmed Hossam (GamFed Ambassador Egypt),  Pete Jenkins (Gamification Plus), Toby Beresford (Rise.Global), Jasmin Karatas (Accenture(, Jeroen van der Schenk(Performance Solutions), Michiel van Eunen (Escape Room Designer) & Aysu Erensoy (Gamification Turkey). Later that night we met with Sabrina Bruehwiler (Octalysis) and Jeff Gomez (Keynote speaker of the conference and founder of  Starlight Runner Entertainment)

Fantastic night that fortunately ended up early and gave us time to prepare for Day 1.

 

 

 

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote Speaker & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

<a class="twitter-timeline" data-height="400" href="https://twitter.com/bletayf">Tweets by Bernardo Letayf</a> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

3 + 7 =

The #gamification powerhouse – Part 2

The #gamification powerhouse – Part 2

by | Dec 7, 2017 | Education, Gamification

The #gamification powerhouse - Part 2

The dream team continues

Continuing from this post… so many to mention but I will pull this off.

Toby Beresford taught me many things in one night. What we are doing MATTERS. Not that I didn’t believe in it, but he showed us numbers that show the size of the impact we are achieving. He can easily steer the world of social media with so much expertise we all have lots to learn.

Melinda Jacobs kicked my ass in inspiration talks. She put my brain back in place with one phrase on the last day which I’m grateful for, but her straight-forwardness is something we all need to learn to have when facing clients. Don’t let your guard down, and keep fighting no matter what comes forth. Believe in it with all your might. At least that’s how it sounds in my head.

Andrzej Marczewski has to be one of the experts with most experience in the industry, plus he knows Dave, another expert with even a book published, whose stories made us all cry tears of laughter but, overall, learn from our own mistakes and failures and keep moving forward even if we can’t design a game and save the world. He can definitely design #gamification systems with ease and simplicity.

Michael Wu should teach us how to keep track of the #gamification data and how to analyze it. He is truly an expert at putting everything into numbers, just like most stakeholders like it. His formula on the linear increment progression for accurate (near optimal) level design will solve the system-design side of the problem instantly.

Roberto Alvarez most definitely should keep track of all of us making sure we answer to what the community wants to know. His Podcast Professor Game is helping all of us learn who is doing what and how each of us are impacting the industry. Still a long way to go, he only has interviewed the top 10 gamification experts already.

This list should continue as I meet more experts. If I didn’t mention you, don’t worry, I’ll keep posting on this subject. You keep doing what you are doing.

 

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote Speaker & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

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11 + 6 =

The #gamification powerhouse – Part 2

The #gamification powerhouse – Part 1

by | Dec 5, 2017 | Education, Gamification

The #gamification powerhouse - Part 1

Something like the dream team but made of experts from the industry

Always after such a huge event filled with all experts from around the world, keeping the momentum of such a trend as #gamification, #engagement can’t be one of those things missing.

This post is dedicated to all those I met, I know and I want to be working with. I believe, the one thing we are missing as #gamification experts is to truly gamify the conference.

So here is my idea on what we can all offer using our #gamification superpowers.

Michiel Van Eunen should be making ANY and EVERY icebreaker event on the planet. An escape room brings people together in ways most won’t expect. Oh, and the level of production he invested was amazing. I do think everyone MUST learn from him how a great strategy isn’t about the budget.

Marigo Raftopoulus must be selecting the projects. She made VERY clear what we all must be focusing on and how powerful #gamification is. We really need to pay attention and try to use this for the good of the planet and humankind. Quoting Ben Parker: With great power, comes great responsibility.

An Coppens should be leading a team on systematic failure supervision and prevention. She is one of the few people who has seen far enough to run THREE levels of her own framework to deploy #gamification solutions and one of the people with most experience with bad clients in the industry. Her skills are unprecedented and her perseverance a huge example for us to follow.

Sylvester Arnab IS in charge of raising funds. He is without a doubt someone who inspire me to keep going. He is making a difference for the industry in the numbers impacting world-wide solutions with his hybrid thinking. Be Co-everything. He always teaches me we can accomplish a lot more and there is a lot of people willing to help.

Pete Jenkins and Vasilis Gkogkidis should stay running the Gamification Federation and we should all join. They were the most amazing hosts proving their social connection skills are what the world and the industry needs to follow a great cause. They managed to pull the conference with success in only 2 months notice and 2 weeks of preparation. They @#%$ rock.

Keep reading here… still many more to thank.

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote Speaker & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

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9 + 14 =

#Fiero

#Fiero

by | Dec 4, 2017 | Gamification

The meaning of #fiero

What is an epic win?

As a #gamification designer, part of my job is to explain how people reach the fiero state. “It is the natural consequence of FLOW” I used to say.

However, how often do we experience FLOW? Even being aware of its existence, for FLOW to actually work and for #fiero to actually be felt, both must be experienced subconsciously, otherwise, you aren’t really feeling it.

Last week, exactly on Tuesday Nov 28th, in Brighton U.K. during a certain dinner I finally got to feel and understand the true meaning of #fiero. I could talk all about it and try to explain it in plain words, but the feeling is so strong that I can’t honestly translate it to words.

BLUErabbit was awarded as the Outstanding #Gamification Software of 2017 in Gamification Europe.

Every single cell of my body was vibrating. I cried, I laughed, I ran out of words (which for those who know me know it’s hard), I felt week and strong, I felt pushed and pulled, I felt the power of every single person who has ever helped me, I felt love but overall I felt thankful.

After three years of hard work, I submitted BLUErabbit and turned out to be recognized by the experts of the industry as the outstanding software of 2017 by the side of 5 other great awards: Outstanding Agency (An Coppens ~ Gamification Nation), Outstanding Research (Elements of Gameful Design Emerging from User Preferences), Outstanding Community (Octalysis explorers), Outstanging Project (Octalysis P&G) and Outstanding Guru (Yu-Kai)

I know we are only starting this journey and many more things will come.

This post is not a scientific explanation in #fiero, it is my thanks to everyone involved.

So Thankyou

Thanks to my partners Roberto and Adrian for supporting me this last years

Thanks to my clients Edgar and Henry for believing this project will change their businesses for good

Thanks to all my family for being there for me every time I’ve needed it

Thanks to all my friends who have listened to my ungoing rambling about how great this is

Thanks to every client who has believed #gamification will change their companies for good

Thanks to every single expert I’ve met in the #gamification industry. Every line, every word, every thought, every debate and every keynote you’ve expressed is deeply protected with all might

Thanks specifically to Monica Cornetti, Jonathan Peters, An Coppens, Andrzej Marczewski and Rob Alvarez for a much closer relationship in the #gamification world

Thanks to Pete, Toby and Vasilis who organized Gamification Europe and the Awards for 2017

And last and most importantly, thanks to the the woman who has been by my side not letting my despair kick in, not letting me give up under any circumstance and keep pushing forward no matter how deep the pit seems to be. Thank you Ursula 😉

BLUErabbit is just starting and will become a much bigger and brighter movement. It shall win the war on grades and free education from an industrialized point of view.

Everything we’ve done was to get ready. This award is just step one of the journey.

Thank you all again.

 

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote Speaker & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

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13 + 1 =

How not to gamify a classroom – Explained

How NOT to gamify a classroom

by | Dec 4, 2017 | Education, Gamification

How NOT to gamify a classroom

A keynote with some tips that will help teachers add #gamification to their classes with less mistakes

Applying #gamification to a class will always be a good challenge. It doesn’t matter how good a Dungeon Master you are, you will always find it more challenging that you accounted for.

I hope that this 10 tips on how NOT to gamify a classroom will help teachers out there to simplify the task a bit, know some insights from the battlefield and will successfully reach a gamified system faster than I had to.

This keynote was presented during Gamification Europe in November 28th-29th 2017 in Brighton U.K.

Slides can be seen here 🙂

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote Speaker & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

<a class="twitter-timeline" data-height="400" href="https://twitter.com/bletayf">Tweets by Bernardo Letayf</a> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

2 + 14 =