Ben Sawyer discusses different models for behavior change games. These include: 1) A single tight game focused on one topic. 2) An internal hub and spoke model with a central game connecting to mini-games. 3) A collection of separate mini-games. 4) An external hub and spoke model where a manager game connects separate mini-games. The document emphasizes the importance of choosing the right model and designing effective handoffs between game components to guide behavior change.

1. A Comprehensive Model for
Behavior Change Design
My Own Journey
Ben
Sawyer
Digitalmill,
bsawyer@dmill.com
@bensawyer
Inc.
June 2012 Games for Health Conference www.gamesforhealth.org

2. Behavior Change
My own design journey

3. Disclaimer...

4. The beginning...

5. Skepticism...

6. The horror of
templating & recipes

7. Time & Work

8. Games for Health

9. Play2Prevent

10. Play2Prevent
• Avoiding the obvious & “catch the fruit”
• Enabling procedural rhetoric &
“translational game design”
• Creating parsable statements that become
games & gameplay (written long hand)
• Breaking apart contextual narrative, and
“situated, acceptable, practice”

11. Play2Prevent
• “mini games” and repetitive practice and
spectrum
• Exertion, grit

12. What does this mean?

14. Hub & Spoke

15. SuperBetter

16. Health Month

17. MeQuilibrium

18. Elbrys Networks

19. Leadership Game

20. Phone’s

21. What’s the model?

22. Hub & Spoke

23. Four models...
• A single tight game
• A one-game hub & spoke model
• Game of mini-games
• how well integrated and interrelated?
• A collection of mini-games
• A external hub & spoke model

24. A Single Tight Game

25. Internal Hub & Spoke
mini-game
contextual narrative

26. Collection of Games
mini-game
mini-game mini-game
They can be
very different
experiences
mini-game mini-game
mini-game

27. External Hub & Spoke
mini-game
mini-game mini-game
Manager/Meta-Game
mini-game
mini-game
mini-game

28. Single Tight Requires focused
Hard to design
Game topic
Internal Hub Handoffs key Common look &
& Spoke Player orientation feel
Collection of Portfolio There’s alway a
Games approach runt or two
External Hub Requires good
Hub is critical
& Spoke hub & backend

29. Why hub & spoke?

31. Why?
• Discreet components and targeted
gameplay translations
• Separates contextual game experience
from skills and practices needed and allows
you more flexibility to vision

32. Dosage?

33. 10X
15x 5x
6x 3x
15x

34. Gamespace that exists between points of device
based input where everyday activities and data
exhaust can drive remote inputs thus expanding the
game temporally and physically to previously
untouched situations and affect player behaviors
Passive Spaces
The point where decisions are affected outside of
gameplay between sessions of gameplay

35. “Passive
Space”

36. My Model?

37. Comprehensive?
• What’s your hub? How does it orientate
the user, define their narrative, mark
progress, and bring shared progress
together?
• What are your spokes? Are they cool
things to do or lighter weight?
• What’s the handoff or roundtrip process?

38. Additional Smaller Things

39. Exertion
“do I do everything I can do?”

40. Reducing the Delta

41. Delta 1

42. Summary
• See your game as distinct components
• Identify how those components form your
high level model
• Adjust those components for guided
dosage
• Beware of handoffs and roundtrip
interfaces