I sometimes make hand made prototypes of ideas and explore them with my roommates. When I make a prototype I do so to test assumptions about designing for maximum emotions and social interaction. I then use this learning on tech apps I work on, which may not be the same as the concept of the handmade prototype.

Recently I experimented with a game for house chores. Here is how the game works:

1. each roommate looks at the chore list to find out what chore they have assigned this week. The chores revolve every week so no roommate does the same chore two consecutive weeks
2. after completing a chore the roommate gets the currency of the game–a heart. This heart and the roommate’s name can be placed under a badge heart. The most recent set of badge categories are cupcake sweet, happy rockstar, cool rockstar, loved, friendly, and open to new ideas. As a roommate you can make and recommend more heart badges.
3. if all chores are completed everyone gets to have a celebratory house dinner on Sunday
4. to bring guests to the house dinner a roommate can either complete a bonus chore, do someone else’s chore, or do their own chore for next week early.

This is a picture of the wall with the heart badges. Three of them have the heart currency and roommate names posted under them.

Results

All roommates have been playing the game for 3 weeks now and the house has never been cleaner, more functional, or more happy than it has been over this time period. We have not had a single week when even one roommate did not complete their chore. Even those who did not do chores before the inception of the game are happily doing them now.

Drivers for success

The success of the heart game is attributable to a couple of key drivers.

Focus on fun

While there are real tangible tasks and rewards involved in the heart game such as the chores and the house dinner, the real reason why people play is because it is fun. Its fun to get cute heart currency and heart badges that define you weekly.

Generates emotions

The game raises a number of emotions like:

• competition on who gets their chores done first and thus gets first dibs on the heart badge. Here’s a picture of our roommate Pierce pasting his heart and name under the cupcake sweet badge. Pierce is generally the first person to complete his chores, which always galvinizes others to follow.

• pride since all rewards are visible to roommates and all visitors. Many conversations in the house start of with what someone is in a certain week. All guests visiting the house for the first time since the inception of the heart game get a quick passionate run through of the heart game by a roommate. Most help us clean up to achieve our heart badge goals faster without our asking. Some guests have even asked for a heart and their name on the wall for helping a clean up.
• social interaction, with other roommates making the game is highly involved. For a roommate to miss a chore would mean a public uncomfortable reminder each time they visit the living room or talk to a roommate who has completed a chore. Not completing your chore feels so much worse if your guest wonders out loud why your name is not on the wall or if the guy in the room next door is showing off for being cupcake SWEEET.  The social nature of the game maximizes each emotion bought out by the game.
• curiosity–the heart badges become the subject of a lot of curiosity every Saturday as I usually replace a less popular badge with a new one. This keeps the game fresh and the players more engaged.
• self expression–Roommates can celebrate a different part of themselves each week and even add new things to identify with or celebrate by making their own badges.

Concidentally top social game companies like Zynga, Playdom, Playfish talked about many of these factors when discussing building social games at scale.

While most of these companies would probably say that social games have to be on a social network in order to be considered social, I concur with @andrewbusey who says that it is the social interaction of games that make them social. Oftentimes synchoronous games off social networks [whether they be a house game like mine or] on web platforms are more social due to the real interaction and deeper commitment involved.

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• Should you make a competitive or cooperative social game?

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