Session with Nicole Lazzaro of XEODesign.

Usability is crucial in all games, but especially children's games.  Nobody likes to play with or use things that are difficult to use.  Should be a great session!

3:00PM - Session is subtitled 'A Pre-Flight Check List'.  I love it!  XEODesign uses emotions players feel -> improve games.  7 emotions displayed on the face, hard for people to fake.

Hacking what's fun from the player's perspective.  4 Keys to Fun:

Imagine the audience of your game.  Would your mom like it, would some stranger on the bus like it?  Paint the type of player engagement with verbs.  Frustration.  Discovery.  Curiosity.  Schadenfreude.  Excitement. Relaxation.  Generosity.  **People like games best when they can move within 3 of the 4 play styles.**  Socializing in games helps achieve some of these well because you are interacting with friends.

The iPhone has a deep emotion profile.  (YES!  This is why people are so upset when they're stolen or lost!)  Stroking, tapping someone's hand is affectionate, and this is what we do to our iPhones!  (GREAT OBSERVATION!)

Two wheels of a bike.  Back wheel = controls/usability.  Front wheel = choice/can they have fun?  Center of bike = rider not thinking of either of these things, simply having FUN!

Part 1 UX - Reduce Complexity.  Look at game and simplify it!  Reduce the amount of work players have to do to put their feet on the bike's pedals.  Don't overwhelm people with things they can do.  The more things users must click to do what they're there to do, the more users will drop off and leave you.  When it all fits in your head at once, players feel good and comfortable.

3:28pm "Just push the button!"  Keep buttons clickable.  Bounding box should be cursor to cursor and a half bigger than the icon.  Texture on buttons is bad.  They should stand out.

Players don't read.  (YES I AGREE!)  Many games have too much text.  You shouldn't have to read things to understand.  No more than 5 to 10 words.  Only an alphabet and a half wide (abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz) so players can scan it.  Blue background is bad for visual acuity. 

"We'll fix it in the tutorial!" = Band Aid approach.  Don't go there!  "They'll love the game once we teach them!" You won't get to teach them.  Don't go there either.  Halo 1 tutorial = excellent.  Koi Pond = intuitive = excellent.  Have lots of sandboxy play in tutorial, not step by step instruction.  Give the player feedback during play.  Great feedback example = Peggle.  When Ode to Joy plays, you know you have succeeded.

iPhone icons are like personalizing your phone, displaying what you like and value.

Diner Dash 4 - prizes are things like coffeemakers that make the game more challenging.

There is a sin wave within the flow channel.  (WOW!  There definitely is.)  Game should get more challenging with time, and still provide periods of rest & relief.

Social bonding, overcoming obstacles together = unique bonding.  (Note: This was touched on in the Kids & Parents session on Wednesday.)

Leverage over the shoulder play & sharing.  Lines of sharing should go in a circle.  Vampire Game on Facebook is one directional.  Once I bite you, there's nothing for you to do to me.

4:02pm Cheat!  Do lots of usability testing with friends and family before formal testing.  Don't help them play, just watch their reactions and actions more than what they say in a survey.  Then, don't fix every small issue of your problems.  Instead, look at the larger system problems as a whole and fix those.  Communication systems, feedback systems, etc.

Always connect core activities with loops.  They should flow from one to the other.  You shouldn't have to back out of one activity to get to another.

Find Nicole's slides from this and other presentations here.

Richard Weil of Cartoon Network and Rebecca Newton of CrispThinking.com follow up on their 2008 GDC Austin presentation, which I did not attend.

11:00am  Rich Weil is the community director for Fusion Fall.  They plan to talk about regulatory changes in the last year.  Rebecca Newton is in charge of safety at CrispThinking, which monitors children's online behavior.

Rebecca starts us off.  COPPA changes as of Oct 2008.  Tell a Friend system- no email addresses or real names revealed.  No more than 10 characters in From field to prevent most full first and last names.  Email collection from <13 kids: You must notify parents if kids' email is in "retrievable form".  Any PII gathered and retained, parents must be notified.  See COPPA FAQ.  CyberBullying laws vary by state.  45 states have laws or pending laws on CyberStalking.

Self harm is a common theme in kids online interaction.  Guidelines / terms of service on sites should define self injury or self harm as inappropriate behavior, and point users to proper authorities for help.  (selfharm.net)  Suicide threats online are a misdemeanor "inducing panic" in Ohio!  Sexting is a common problem because children exchanging nude pictures with each other via text or email is child pornography legally.  Vermont just decriminalized it in July 09.  Ohio intriduced legislation to decriminalize it in April 09.  Helpful guidelines for child abuse and child pornography are available here.  (My note: The Oprah Winfrey Show did a mind blowing episode on child pornography this year.  Here's a detailed episode runthrough.)

11:23am Rich Weil takes over.  Boys spend 7% more time online than girls.  Girls viewed 9% more webpages.  (Boys go to the same sites over and over again.)  Top Ten Kids Gaming Sites traffic has gone down.  Rich attributes this to traffic spreading out among many sites.  Top sites include miniclips.com and clubpenguin.com.  Kids still play more games on the computer than anywhere else, including consoles.  (My note: But this could be because they measured different popular consoles separately.)

Rebecca: You should do a criminal background check on all employees who interact with children or children's data online.  Check out http://www.export.gov/safeharbor to learn more about compliance with customer data.  Review ethics and code of conduct with your staff periodically, every 6 months or so.

11:39am Rich: Several children's online virtual worlds do not keep logs.  On Fusion Fall, they do.  It's defensive to track all users, let them know and let people feel safer.

Advertising is decreasing as an online revenue source in kids' sites.  Product placement is a gray area legally.  People aren't doing much of it yet.  Parents are vary wary of recurring charges.  There are too many sites out there that kids want to play with, and it's too much to have subscriptions to all of them.  Business model updates: microtransactions, freemium, mix and match models.  It's all over the map right now.  (My note: Parents must find all this variety confusing and overwhelming!)  'Free' attracts kids!  Habbo, Webkinz and Club Penguin are the big three, but it's hard to get specific data on traffic and success.

11:49am Maine pushed an act to prevent predatory marketing to children, but it is not going through.  Follow Rebecca on Twitter for updates. 

Someone asked about data for what kids do within games.  Rich says they do have some data in Fusion Fall.  They have 2 people on staff for metrics.

Someone asked when we'll reach the point where there are so many regulations that we can't successfully do children's games online.  Rebecca doesn't see that happening in the next 8 to 10 years.  She says government wants it all to be credit card based, so we can know that a parent approves.  Legislators currently aren't too familar with child behaviors online.  Studies show predatory behavior offline is much higher than online.  Statistically, children are in more danger from predators at school or on playground.

Alright!  This is my first attempt at live blogging.  I'm excited, and waiting for the session to begin.  It's so cold in this room, my hands are shivering and it's hard to type.  But this session should be great!  It's Reaching a New Demographic: Kids AND Their Parents with Jesse Schell, Laralyn McWilliams, Matthew Schwartz, Megan Geiser and Sheri Graner Ray.  The only name I recognize there is Jesse Schell, the author of the excellent book, The Art of Game Design.  It's the most useful book on the topic I've ever read.  I'm looking forward to "meeting" the other panelists!

I'm very interested to see what they have to say.  'Kids and Their Parents' is far from a new demographic for me, because Sesame Street has been serving this demo for 40 years.  They write episodes to encourage co-viewing between kids and parents, so parents can talk to kids about what they've seen, and thereby increase the learning.  It also gives kids another opportunity to have a shared experience with mom or dad.  And what kid doesn't want mom or dad to spend more time with them?  But Sesame Street is TV.  Games are different.  Similar in some ways, but still different.  More active and engaging.  Requires more participation.  You can't knit or catch up on email and play a game with your kids at the same time.  And to enjoy a game, both parents and kids should be challenged, not simply entertained.  So here we go with the session!

11:03 am : Sheri Graner Ray is moderating.  Been in industry since 1989, has worked on arcade games and MMOs.  Asking panelists to share something about themselves that's not in their bio.

Laralyn McWilliams has worked on Over the Hedge, Lilo & Stitch, Fear & Respect with John Singleton!  Creative Director for Free Realms.

Margaret Wallace - online virtual worlds, virtual pets. CEO, Founder, Rebel Monkey, Playmatics

Matthew Schwartz - Cartoon Network's Fusion Fall, at CN since 2000, film and TV background, once bought Michael Bolton album on purpose

Jesse Schell - Disney Virtual Reality, teaches at Carnegie Mellon, owns game development company, first movie in theatre was Fritz the Cat.

11:07am : Where does parents and kids playing together work well?

Jesse: Theme park design!  You have to design things for both parents and kids.  Has been shown to work very well. 

Laralyn: Console games, kids play, parents watch and comment. Parents enjoy watching and being involved that way. 

Jesse: Club Disney failure, Chuck E Cheese style for parents and kids to play together.  Games didn't work unless kids played together (needed short and tall player, etc).  Parents didn't like it though, they wanted to watch.  Kids were left to play these games by themselves, and they couldn't. 

Matthew: Traditional board games.  Parents are active and involved.

Laralyn: Up until age 5 or 6, parents help kids.  6 and 7, play together.  7 and 8, parents expect kids to play on their own. (because kids beat at games parents at that point?)

Margaret: Generation shift too.  Today's parents are more computer savvy than our parents were.  Parents today are not as hesitant to play.  Learning curve is not as steep as it used to be.

11:15am : Why is this demographic important?

Jesse: It is children's job to play.  Long term entertainment properties are things that people want to pass on to their kids.

Margaret: Lego Star Wars - retro feel, parents love both Legos and Star Wars.

Jesse: Kids are honest.  If it appeals to them, it must be solid.

How important is teaching?

Margaret: Learning is a natural process (YES I AGREE!) Games like World of Warcraft develop leadership skills. (leading a guild) 10 year old plays Medeval 2 and Age of Empires and loves history, learns through the game. 

Laralyn: Are you making the game the parents want kid to play, or the game kids want to play?  Do you allow chat feedback to be negative?  Kids don't like games that feel like school.  Kid should not be embarrassed to talk about your game to friends at school.

Margaret:  It's tough, we're still working it out.

Matthew:  <18 year olds don't have credit cards, so you must appeal to parents on some level.

11:20am : How do you handle competition in the game? Do kids and parents compete together, or against each other?

Matthew: Boys like to show off, show mastery.  Look at it in comparison to other scenarios, like teaching them tennis.

Laralyn: Levelling up is a great reward that everyone can attain as they make their own personal progress. (GREAT POINT!)

Jesse: It's rare when parents can work together and have a shared victory.  When you can create that moment, it's really special. (ANOTHER GREAT THOUGHT!)

Matthew: When the game requires someone to lose, you're going to punish somebody.  You get tired of running the race if you're going to keep losing.

11:25am : Reward systems?

Jesse: Webkinz cash - Kids couldn't win the Webkinz cash, so parents would say "Go clean your room, I'll play the game and earn Webkinz cash for you."  You must ask, how does this game fit into a family?  ToonTown, actually mailed trading cards to families in the mail.  Parents keep the subscription on monthly bill, so to keep them paying, you must let them know that their kids are engaged and they're using it.  Every month, when they get something in the mail, the parent gets to witness the excitement they might not see if kid was only playing computer game on his own.

Margaret: Star Doll - Moms and kids use it together, moms are the moderators on the site.

Laralyn: Reward things you wouldn't think of rewarding (logins, registration) See gaia (sp?) Reward people for socializing.

Matthew: Reward based on attendance, if you log in every day of the week, you get currency.  (Cited Korean game example, but not by name.)

11:31am : How do you design for kids and parents together?

Laralyn: Free Realms- reward activities equally, and they are all optional.  Let people do what they want to do naturally.  Things parents could do to help kids, and things kids could do on their own.  Creating a space for parents and kids to play together is not enough.  Chat is not possible with COPPA compliance.

11:34am : How does age of child affect parent/kid play?

Jesse: Big factor, child is always growing and changing.  Age 7, age of wisdom and reason, kid can think for himself.  Influenced by other kids at school.  Edu software is great until this age because kids are no longer doing just what parents want them to do / play with.  They want what friends say is cool.  Brain growth and development is important.  Age 10 is an untapped parent/kid game market because kids at this age like to explore things in depth, and parents want to help them explore that.  (GREAT TIP!)

Margaret: Future Lab study shows younger kids like puzzle games and adventure, then boys age into shooters, etc.  Girls stay with puzzles.  Anecdote of Dora on PS2 easier for 3 year old than PC games.

Laralyn: Usability studies are important.  Kids under 10 use arrow keys in games not mouse.  Right hand on arrow keys, when click is necessary, they reach left hand over to hit button on mouse.  Using just a few keys in your game is ideal.

Matthew: Boys at 12 get hyper sensitive about things getting too kiddy.  Though they may secretly like it, such as Powerpuff Girls.  They would never admit to liking it, but they would watch it.

Laralyn: Skewed difficulty for Lilo and Stitch game for boys 10-13, but they said it was too easy.  They want to die a lot, because they think that is an indicator of challenge.  They aspire to first person shooter games for adults.

Jesse: Kids lie to researchers about their habits.  (IT'S TRUE! I'VE SEEN IT TOO!)  They will report play habits that are not accurate. "I play this.  I don't play that."  Often, they are not reporting accurately.

Margaret: Art style is important.  Things that you think look like teenagers, teens will not like.  They want avatars that look like 20-somethings.  (SAD, BUT ALSO TRUE!)

11:44am : How to encourage development in this demo?

Jesse: It's rare, so it's great not to have competition!  Everyone else, stay away!  (HAHA!)

Matthew: I disagree!  We need the Pixar and Miyazaki of games!

Laralyn: Figure out communication.  Dad may be overseas, parents may be divorced.  Enable play together when you are not in the same location.  Think of troubled kids, disabled kids and their parents.  (GREAT POINT!)  Add rewards to free form game play, like online "hanging out".  They play separate games and then come together and hang out, check out rewards and gear, etc.  Watch what parents and kids do together when they hang out in real life.  They talk together more than any action.

Jesse: So many forces in life pull kids and parents apart.  Less cross gender toys -> siblings play together less.  Parents work longer hours. 

Margaret: Industry does not encourage this demo because it is risky.  How about games that let parents and kids play when parent is traveling on business!

11:52am : Open Questions - my logging gets lazy from this point out.  Here are snippets I thought were interesting.

Matthew: Kids don't want virtual friends, they want to interact with their real life friends online.

All: Kid communication is very challenging to track in online systems, and COPPA makes it difficult to allow kids to talk.

Laralyn: Club Penguin makes you sign up with a parent's email address.  Free Realms figured kids would lie about their age to get more features.  What they've observed is that kids under 13 are honest about it and playing their character even with the limitations.  So you must design to let those kids feel fulfilled in the game.

Matthew: Kids are taught not to give any personal information, even gender.

12:03pm : That's a wrap!  Thanks for a great session!  Lesson learned from live blogging: Don't change your post title halfway through, it will break the link you posted on Twitter.  ;)