I HAVE STARTED MY COLLECTION
So, you’ve found some of my hidden gems, explorer? You must be curious about their origin, purpose and mechanics! Well, you are in the right place… let’s begin.
Origins and Purpose
Oh, I forgot to present myself. My name is Javier Velasquez, and I have been working tirelessly on creating one of the most complete gamification frameworks around. As part of my job, I have been cataloging all kinds of game components and concepts to help in the transference of those concepts to real life applications. Over the course of many workshops, I’ve been polishing these concepts and I currently have 700+ identified useful concepts for game and gamification designers alike.
Now, making a catalog is half the job, I also have been working on finding a way to make all those pieces work. And the results of 12+ years of work is this pseudo-trading card game. The big idea: some concepts are enough to inspire a design, more concepts can help you explore even more ideas! The choice on how deep you want to go into the rabbit hole is yours!
Keeping this in mind, I wanted to release these cards in waves of 70 cards (7 being a BEM magic number), to help people scaffold their knowledge and game mastery over time. So I broke my arcane knowledge into little pieces and distributed them into these small coffers of wisdom. Some might seem as common sense, but when combined with other cards, now we are creating!
Mechanics
The basic principles behind the cards do not change, but you can incorporate many game mechanics to use them and get inspired! So let’s first talk about the basics.
Wait… first I must clarify: while you will learn how to use these cards on this web page, I do have some workshops to help you go deeper and understand the real deep secrets behind these cards. Also, if you pay for one of the wave workshops you will get the whole wave of cards! If you wish to book a slot in a workshop
These cards are divided into drivers and categories. The BEM framework uses 7 drivers as the starting point to design great stuff, so it makes sense that each concept is aligned predominantly (not exclusively) with one of the drivers.
Drivers: convergence or divergence
One of your objectives of a TCG is to collect cards, but you can prioritize cards of the same driver, or mixing them as much as you can!
If you focus on getting many cards of the same driver you will be using a niched strategy, where your game or gamification project will reinforce the experience for one player type, to create a super engaged niche of players. This is great if you have a product, service or process that emphasizes a motivational niche, like Mastery for students, Discovery for innovation consultants or Efficiency for project managers.
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On the other hand, if you diversify your cards, you will be aiming for a broader and more complex strategy. Your game or gamification project will allow more player types to enjoy part of your game by adding more mechanics and complexity to the system. This is great if you want to attract more people to a product or service and are willing to spend some time designing the learning curve for them.
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​Think that the first one can be the Tetris approach, with a puzzle game based on mastery mechanics and feedback, while the second can be a Grand Theft Auto game with many types of missions and mechanics.
Categories: the pyramid
The game is built around the following categories:
1. DRIVERS
the base description for each of the 7 drivers. These are rare cards, but you can find information on those drivers on this website.
2. DRIVER DOMAIN
They are basic needs and pains that stem from those 7 drivers. While not related exclusively to games, they inform many game behaviors. They include an icon to determine if the domain is a need based on approach (desire) or avoidance (pain).
3. GAME SCHEMA
They are basic game genres or patterns of design. While a game can be inspired by many schemas, they tend to focus heavily on one.
4. GOALS
They are the building blocks of game incentives and patterns of design. They inspire what the players will try to achieve while playing. Goals direct motivation and entice players to spend energy and attention on a task.
5. GAME LOOPS
They inform the structure of the game in terms of positive and negative feedback patterns. Game loops help us know how a game will progress and develop overtime: what you might call the dynamics of the game. They include an icon to determine if they are positive or negative feedback loops.
6. SIGNALS
They are interface elements that build the meaning, the emotion and the information flow of the game. These are the engagement keepers and experience builders!
These concepts form a pyramid in terms of hierarchy and quantity. While a game might focus on two or three drivers, it will need tens of signals to keep the engagement going. While I often only use the signal cards to inspire designs, having a set of all the categories can help you better inform the whole design strategy.
Rarity: it is a TCG after all
Cards will also have a rarity. The higher the rarity of the card, the lower your odds of getting it. You can use this information to trade it for lower rarity cards, or to treasure it in your collection. While the rarity does not mean the card concept is more powerful, it often means that I have an emotional connection to that concept, or there is some easter egg associated with it.
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Recommender legendary card, first wave: Variable Parameters
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Game Mechanics
By understanding these concepts I am working on creating different game mechanics that can be used with these cards. The objective of the game is to help you sort and randomize the cards so you get a scaffolding for your design! I will include an example here, but follow us on instagram @f2p_bem_gamification to be informed when new mechanics are available.
Trick taking example:
This game will prioritize focused designs by creating pools of cards with the same driver.
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Each player takes 5 to 10 random cards from their own deck (or deal from your own). Make sure that everyone knows their own cards.
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Each round an initial player starts by playing a card: the driver will be the lead for the round.
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Every player has to play a card of the same driver. If they can’t, the player can choose any other card.
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The highest numbered card wins the round and the player that placed it will take all these cards into a personal pool.
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When all cards have been played, each player organizes their cards by driver. Each player must think of a game or gamification concept that uses those cards.
Build your own games
If you bought these cards, you are a game designer! Try creating interesting mechanics that will yield different results. Use the numbers, categories, drivers and rarity in the cards to make rules so you can play alone or socially with them. Share them with us if you want to be featured in our social media.
The Workshop
Each wave of cards will inspire a wave workshop given by me. Any person that takes the workshop will get the whole wave of cards in a deluxe package anywhere in the world (shipping might take some time), and a Google Sheet with the whole list of cards. In addition, they will get a handbook with tips on using some of the cards.
The workshop is a 7 two-hour session design experience where I will teach you 7 design patterns you can use in your gamification projects, using the cards of the current wave. I will go deeper into what some cards mean, which pitfalls you should avoid and what sinergies work really well in many contexts.
At the end you will have a deeper sense of what game designers have discovered about human nature so you can use these techniques in your projects or your daily life!
Become a BEM Keeper
Do you want to give workshops using these cards, or do you want to produce, sell or distribute them? We know the game is better played with allies and are willing to hear proposals. Write to javier@f2p.co with the subject “I want to be a BEM Keeper”. Try to explain what you wish to do with these cards and how could this drive business for you and we! If you read this far, then you are as excited about these cards as I am!