This is my talk about the power of play and unlocking creativity to solve problems versus using the game-loop for routine to become better. Feedback is welcome through Twitter @BartHufen #gamification

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On October 17th 2015, I was invited to give a presentation about gamification of businesses and organizations. Particularly I disclosed the essence of my new book “Playing on the Job” (out in 2016 I hope) – my main model – the ‘Loop of Progress’. The idea of the ‘Loop of Progress’ is that you identify which concurrent processes lead to synergie in your organization and create multi-disciplinairy teams to take part in those processes, rather than letting departments do that. Inspired from FarmVille – I started rethinking business processes and business models, from understanding the gameloop and other game mechanics and applying them to your daily business. In this presentation I explain our GameStorm tool – that we use to develop our serious games and help to start making a change in organizations like the City of Amsterdam, Foot Locker Europe and Vodafone. And – of course – I elaborate on the ‘Loop of Progress’…

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For all you globetrotters that want to meet me in person, here’s a quick overview of upcoming events where I will talk about my biggest hobby: games in relationship with brand- / marketing- and (change) management.

Join me on the following dates in the following locations for a sneak preview about me new book:

Adfolive (NL) : 15-9 2015 workshop Gamification (closed session)

University of Amsterdam (NL): 23-9 2015 workshop setting goals for serious games (closed session)

University of Amsterdam (NL): 7-10 2015 workshop project management & production of serious games (closed session)

Amsterdam Dance Event ADE (NL): 15-10 2015:  moderating a panel session about music for games and other media (open session)

Bosnia Agile Day (Sarajevo): 17-10-2015 presentation how game mechanics can help companies to become more agile (open session)

Agile in Africa (Ghana – Accra): presentation how game mechanics can help companies to become more agile (open session)

Inzet op maat (NL): 3-11-2015 presentation and sharing successes of recent projects (open session)

WEKA HR Strategie (NL): 11-11 2015 presentation and sharing successes of recent projects (two open sessions)

HRM & het onderwijs (NL): 17-11 2015 presentation and sharing successes of recent projects (open session)

HR Goes digital (NL): 19-11 2015 presentation and sharing successes of recent projects (open session)

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I spoke on a congress recently about Agile and Gamification. My good friend (and business relation) Ahmet Akdag from ACM Software invited me to speak during the congress of a big Turkish telephone company ánd the ‘Agile Turkey Summit 2014’ and I had a blast! Over 400 people attended in the Dedeman Hotel, where we also do the Gamification Workshops.

Of course we (as BrandNewGame) use agility in game design and game development, but I never really realized how much we actually need it during our development proces. A game is such a complex system, which makes it suitable for an agile approach and using scrum during meetings, but the interaction with the player makes it even harder to develop something sticky, fun and successful (effective). The average lead-time of our productions take about 3 to 6 months and we iterate the hell out of each phase / milestone. Just to give you an idea how a typical applied game design project goes, these are the milestones we define:

1. Idea creation phase

2. Concept visualisation phase

3. Prototype phase

4. Development phase (alpha & beta code)

5. Launch & Support

Each phase has several sprints (depending on the size of the project) and we do not continue to the next phase unless our client (the ‘product owner’) and his ‘Game Changers’ – as we call them – are satisfied. Our clients participate actively in each phase and ‘co-create’ the product we develop. This is not only the best solution for the quality of the product, but it also helps us to ‘sell-in’ the idea. During development process, more and more employees get involved in the development process, especially for testing the prototype, alpha code, beta code and finally during launch to promote the game.

The funny thing is that the development proces of games look a lot like the actual gameloop that most games have. Most games require the player to undertake 3 to 5 sequential actions that they need to do over and over again, take FarmVille for instance: buy seeds, plant seed, wait, harvest plants for money… buy seeds, plant seeds, wait, harvest plants for money… buy seeds, plant seeds, wait, harvest plants for money…  and of course: level up! Running a business is an equal process, but I will not go into detail about that – I will try to stay on-topic about gamification of agility…

Now how can you ‘gamify’ agile methods? Well… we have our own methods and products – which I cannot disclose yet, but simple tools to start making meetings more fun is to add some rules to your meetings, ad time (use a sand timer) and to always have an objective for each meeting.

Our rules for meetings are:

1. Set an objective for each meeting

2. Set the rules: come prepared, show active involvement during the meeting, leave the meeting with actions you defined

3. Time the meeting, the time you wish to spend on topics (each participant gets 5 minutes), and how long people can discuss a topic (ten minutes in total) – if you only have 5 minutes to get your point across in a meeting, you will prepare a meeting really well!

4. End each meeting with a recap of all proposed actions and give positive feedback to the individual and team effort.

You can find the presentation I held in Istanbul above (you found it already of course) – and if you want to know more about Gamification in Turkey, read the article below or check out www.4pio.com

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The video below gives you an impression of the Gamification Workshop I host 4 times a year in Turkey (Istanbul) and soon also in Holland (Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam). The video (and program) is based on a 2-day workshop, but also comes in a 1-day and even 1/2 day format. Check the links below to subscribe to any form you like.

You can subscribe here for the upcoming events:

Gamification Workshop Istanbul #4: www.4pio.com
This is a 2 day program. Dates to be confirmed, but expected on 28 & 29 November 2013

Gamification Workshop Rotterdam #1: www.eurib.nl
This is 1/2 day program on 27-9 2013 for € 245,-

Check out the scores here of this Masterclass

HR – The Next Level

90 minute Gamification Workshop – More information here: http://www.hrthenextlevel.nl

Gamification Workshop Utrecht #1: www.nima.nl
This is a 1 day program on 20-11 2013 for € 595,-

Gamification Workshop Amsterdam #1: www.brandnewgame.nl … opening soon…

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Brilliantly developed by ‘Learned Evolution’ and righteously backed by Twitter the #Feed project is a typical crossover event that bridges the gap between art, social content creation (through Twitter) and Real Life… I was there with my good friends from Amsterdam on Friday before SXSW really kicked off and I must say the video wall installation on the 1st floor of the MOA was awesome and unmatched! The Top floor of the museum featured all kinds of short video’s by various directors and artists supported by great music and (of course) free cocktails! 😉

I have to thank Len Stein for putting us on the guest list and hope we can visit something extraordinary again next year at SXSW! Check out every day’s video here: http://feed.is/live/

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This is the last update about SXSW 2013 from my side. Apart from visiting a lot of fun things and hearing about some great innovations I can say that LEAP impressed me the most. Not because it’s that innovative – basically it’s Kinect for your Desktop computer – but because it is so perfectly optimized. In potential it could unleash a new iTunes store full of creative applications. Think of typing on a virtual keyboard, playing gesture games in a 3D environment, presentation tools for keynotes, Interactive Stand up comedy, etc. etc.
Check out the video below to see what it is.

To be honest, the other presentations I witnessed in these two days, just weren’t that impressive, apart from ‘The Playful Viewer’ of course, where I was a panelist 😉 Check out my previous blogpost about that if you wish to learn more about the gamification of a documentary…

I will update a video shortly!

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By exception a posting in Dutch!

Inmiddels ben ik begonnen met het plannen van een nieuw boek: ‘Laat op je werk spelen!’ Omdat ik graag input wil van Learning & Development en HR professionals nodig ik je uit om gratis naar de inspiratiesessie te komen tijdens Festival of Games in Amsterdam op woensdag 24 april. Daar zullen twee opdrachtgevers hun case presenteren waarvan de resultaten om te smullen zijn!
Verder zou ik graag vernemen wat jouw top 5 HR uitdagingen zijn binnen de organisatie waar je voor werkt. Komt dus allen in grote getallen!

Het trainen van personeel is kostbaar en het resultaat is niet altijd helder. Sterker nog, uit onderzoek blijkt dat het effect binnen enkele weken al is uitgedooft. Games worden als trainingsmiddel steeds vaker succesvol toegepast. Deze games worden ontwikkeld voor bijvoorbeeld het opleiden van personeel op het gebied van sales, compliance, HR, brand awareness etc.

Serious gaming gebruikt spelbeleving om bewustwording en verandering van houding en gedrag te bewerkstelligen, waarbij de speler in een veilige omgeving kan experimenteren en fouten mag maken. Games bevorderen actief leren (learning by doing) binnen een relevante en veilige context. 

Bart Hufen – auteur van het boek ‘Laat met je merk spelen’ – toont tijdens deze sessie op het congres Festival of Games aan de hand van drie projecten samen met opdrachtgevers hoe games succesvol worden ingezet als trainingsmiddel voor verandermanagement bij ABN Amro en Schiphol Airport en als middel om upselling & cross-selling te verbeteren bij Ziggo.

“Games zijn zeer geschikt omdat ze inhaken op onze basis motivaties als competitie. Het spelen van een game vereist 100% aandacht, alles is meetbaar en boven 1.000 medewerkers is de inzet van een game voor gedragsverandering zeer kosten efficiënt. Bovendien stimuleer je ‘leren van ‘verplicht’ naar ‘vrijwillig’ doordat games gebruik maken van ‘intrinsieke motivatie’!
De resultaten bij diverse opdrachtgevers waren dat tot 70% van de medewerkers de games gemiddeld tot 3 keer toe vrijwillig speelde. “

Gratis inspiratie en praktijk cases op 24 april 2013

Programma:

9:30 uur               Inloop
10:00 uur             Inleiding Bart Hufen
10:20 uur             Case KPN i.s.m. IJsfontein
10:40 uur             Case ABN AMRO Dick Krikke
11:00 uur             Q&A
11:30 uur             Einde en koffie!

Locatie:

De Overkant, Gedempt Hamerkanaal, Amsterdam Noord

Aanmelden via deze link

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The day started with breakfast: bananas and oranges – healthy old men we are! Then we went on to get some real breakfast and coffee at Congress street. I met my panel leader for the gamification of a documentary – Suvi Helminen – at 11:00 (she was one hour late… 😉 Our panel discussion is called ‘The Playful viewer’ and you can read more details (or put it on your schedule) here. It’s upcoming Tuesday at 14:30 hours.

At the gaming expo we saw Cliff Bleszinski in a panel about the Oculus Rift – the all new virtual reality gaming device. They received 2,5 million dollars from 10.000 backers. Let’s see if VR becomes the new standard of immersive gameplay!

– Postmaster
– Lynx Laboratories
– Subtle data
– Axelo
– Aumanil
– Taskbox
– Meritful
– Rock Your Paper
– Stormpulse (which was the only one note worthy in my opinion…)

The full article of ’10 steps to make you more interesting’ is stated here, since she previously published it on the Forbes website.

After that – we went to a party organized by the Dutch Fellows, free booze and dancing women, what more does a geek want?

On the third day of SXSW we did the following:

Watched the documentary innovation lab of MIT, where some cool things are happening, altough gamification was not mentioned.

We went to an – almost empty room – and watched the talk Games for Good, basically portraying the different options you have to publish a game… Not really innovative and ground breaking…

Since I couldn’t get into the presentation about Minecraft (too many parents and kids were in the room and they apparently had an advantage over international press…?) we just strolled the floor of the gaming expo…

Gaming Arena

– Steam’s box: read IGN’s vision about it here

– Augmented Alternate Reality Games the future? iPhone becomes scope rifle. This was actually quite cool. You just put you iPhone on a ‘specially developed’ gun and there you go: paintball 3.0 !

Make love not Porn

Hoping to learn t=from payment and distribution methods used in the porn industry I felt this presentation was more a promotion for socialisation of sex and open discussions of sex – as opposed to porn. More about this keynote here: http://makelovenotporn.com 

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SXSW – The biggest creative blend of Film, Music and Interactive art & entertainment takes place in Austin – Texas. I really look forward to indulging myself seven days during the festival. I rented an apartment for myself and three friends that also work in the creative / games industry. For the past weeks I have tried to set up a schedule to visit all the interesting keynotes. workshops, seminars, meet-ups, mashups etc. but it’s just too much!

We have decided to just ‘go with the flow’ and see what people we meet and were people go. So if you’re going – LET ME KNOW! Send me a tweet @BartHufen

I will probably follow everything on the ‘digital domain’ from MIT sessions to start-up material…

http://sxsw.com/film/sessions/digital-domain

And of course – there is one event I will be visiting at least, since I am in the panel 😉

My opinion about gamification of film has been influenced positively since the release of ‘The Walking Dead‘ was released. I first started playing on iPad, but now my girlfriend and I are playing it on PlayStation 3 and she’s scared shitless! 😉 It reminds me of the classic ‘point and click’ adventures of the nineties.

The advantage the game has over film is that it’s all animated and not ‘film fragments’… Since your mind is ‘actively involved’ in adding ‘imagination’ to the experience, you don’t feel too much interruption. In a ‘real’ film, you witness ‘real-people’ experiencing real stuff, so every ‘moment of choice’ feels like an interruption (pause-play)…. But I haven’t played Suvi’s project all the way yet, so don’t take my word for it, but try it yourself!

Play her project here: http://www.48hourgames.com 

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