(Gamification by Design

What do Foursquare, Nike, and Groupon have in common? These websites and many others use game mechanics and game design to deliver a sticky, viral, and satisfying experience to their customers. This book provides the design strategy and tactics you need to integrate gamification into any kind of consumer-facing website, new or existing, with design patterns, meaningful code samples, and in-depth chapters on major gamification APIs.

With hundreds of technical and process options to choose from, implementing game mechanics can be complicated. Gamification by Design clarifies the possibilities and offers a series of steps for developers, producers, and product managers who want their websites to deliver powerful consumer engagement and enjoy viral growth.

Gabe Zichermann is an author, highly rated public speaker, serial entrepreneur and the foremost expert on the subject of gamification. His most recent book, Game-Based Marketing (Wiley, 4/2010) has achieved critical and industry acclaim for its detailed look at innovators who blend the power of games with brand strategy. Zichermann is also the author of the Gamification Blog at http://gamification.co and chair of the Gamification Summit and Workshops. A resident of NYC, Gabe is a board member of StartOut.org, advisor to a number of startups and Facilitator for the NYC chapter of the Founder Institute.

Christopher Cunningham is a well-respected software architect and developer who helped found ChroniQL, an early gamification solution, beamME a mobile social application and TrekMail, a breakthrough mobile email/text application that was sold to Visto in 2005. Christopher has deep expertise with agile development processes and distributed team management. He divides his time between Europe and the US, which is marginally more glamorous than it sounds.