Game of Life Genre
Game Genre that enhances Dynamic Self-Improvement Method
In this article I introduce a Game of Life Genre - a type of game where a player is doing actions in real life.
Such games go beyond the domain of classic games where fun is a primary and often the only source of motivation to play the game. Games of Life have a strong utility component - they help to be better in real life and the fun part is only a nice side effect.
Game of Life Genre Definition
Game of Life is a game genre (along with RPG games or shooters) that utilizes Dynamic Self-Improvement Method. Simply speaking it is a hybrid of a self-development application and a game. The game part keeps the player motivated to keep doing actions in Real Life, or to do them more, better, wiser etc.
I define three requirements that the game needs to satisfy in order to be called “Game of Life”:
It has to motivate people to use the game-app on a daily basis
It has to motivate people to make progress in the game
Making progress in the game results in making progress in real life
The game of life definition provides a lot of freedom in what the game can look like. Let me briefly tackle three important topics.
Rules Precision
Rules can be very specific and tell the player exactly what to do (e.g. “do 10 push-ups”). I call such experiences simply as games.
Sometimes rules need to be additionally defined by the player. For example the game can ask you to create any task that is meaningful or any task related to being more healthy but it doesn’t tell the player what exactly he/she needs to do. I call such experiences as metagames.
Specific Goal of the Game
The game can be a general purpose: dealing with procrastination, improving social skills, better learning new things etc.
On the other hand the goal of the game can be much more specific: write a master thesis, launch a startup in 90 days or lose 10 kilograms.
Graphical Layout
Game of Life can be purely in a text form (see pictures from my first article) or look like board games or take the form of a card game. This genre can have an avatar that represents the player.
Summary
This article is only a starting point to discuss this important game genre. In next articles I will describe specific elements of this type in much more detail.