Category Archives: Development

Code, code and new features bubbling under.

Claiming a challenge has just gotten slightly more challenging …

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… nah, not quite what you think. Well, somewhat. But it’s just gotten a bit more meaningful.

Previously, you could ‘claim’ challenges by simply hitting the ‘Claim it!’ button without doing anything else. Adding a photo to validate your claim was optional. This led to loads of people swarming our office and up in arms, protesting for a fairer system. Okay, okay … we kid. There were no protests. But loads of people we spoke to brought up the same concern.

We’ve heard you! Even from our end, we could spot attempts to game the system by users claiming challenges which they obviously hadn’t done. (; Yes, we’re watching folks!

So … what’s new? Well, GameMaki is about sharing and discovering experiences ain’t it – so … claims will no longer go through unless you share YOUR experience doing that challenge. Submit a blank claim? Nuh uh, no points for you brudda!

Claim screen!

Empty claims are so not cool. What’s the point of claiming a challenge when you can’t boast brag tell everyone about how it went?

Additionally, we also feel that your experiences will bring more value to the challenges. As human beings, we are largely dependent on peer affirmation. People want to know more about how other people feel before deciding whether to do a particular activity or check out a particular place. So, share away. People are listening and so are we!

Oh, and of course – you may still upload a photo for an additional 10 points. (;

Stuff we use to work together (cleverly)

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One of the things I do to make myself look more useful in the team is ensuring we work like one. By that, I am talking about being productive collectively and communicating effectively. In our choice of weapons to help us get there, we look for: (1) Less is more / (2) Easy means usable / (3) Strong integration with other products (e.g. Google apps).

We like-y to work cleverly, and so we like-y these stuff:

Dropbox
A tip not for the faint-hearted: To make our $ count, we share a common 50gb plan account, though some run multiple instances to keep their p()rn on their own personal box. All my pitching decks are all on Dropbox so I could load up on my iPad quickly for a VC I just met in a lift. We also plant our Wiki in docs format (imho much easier to manage compared to other wiki s/w).

On day of writing this post, I am evaluating the use of Box.net with Google Docs – I passed over Box.net earlier because Dropbox provides a much more seamless experience, but mayber the new integration feature could change that.

Google Mail, Calendar
Nothing too different from how most will use it. Google groups are good for mass mailing internally to the whole team, or just the tech/business folks. Calendar is also used to track movements of our teammates, as well as medical and entitled leave (honor based system ftw!).

Pivotal Tracker
Absolutely the best project management app for agile development I dare say.  We also like the iPad/iPhone app version of it – nuff said. We did experiment it for our business operations, but found it a different animal altogether for non-technical tasking – which is better handled by the next app below:

Manymoon
It was a rough fight between Manymoon and Zoho, which we used for 2 years now – ultimately we decided we did not need Zoho’s forum, wiki, slightly complicated UI, small fonts while we could live with Manymoon’s lack of features, and provision of a lovely experience. Assigning tasks and attaching Google docs is pretty much a breeze, while their timesheet feature is useful for billing contractors. And oh, did I mention this is also a Google app accessible from our gmail account.

Facebook Group
I wandered across Socialwok, Yammer and even Zoho, but nothing beats our own private Facebook group for casual communication – these includes sharing events, news on competitors, a photo taken over lunch, or discussions on a UI change. What’s better than using something all of us are familiar with, for doing pretty much the same stuff – sharing!

Skype
We live by the rule: “don’t come to me even if I’m inches from you, just Skype me!”. We enjoy that f2f conversation but most times it is more productive to discuss stuff on IM rather than create some “noise” for our neighbouring mates, or catching our recipient at a time where he is fully absorbed in a task.

The key is to keep things simple

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The observant would have noticed that we’ve pulled the ‘claim a challenge with a video’ feature in our latest release earlier this week. (Just a coupla’ weeks ago, we rolled out a massive update to our web application which included the option for users to claim a challenge with a Youtube link.)

Well, it’s gone now. Why? You may ask.

It all boils down to the question of whether the feature is needed. Will users really use it? The team had a huge internal debate over this question.

The idea behind GameMaki is to get people out to do things and discover new experiences. And human beings in general have a certain level of inertia when it comes down to trying something new. Think about it. Trying to get over this inertia is difficult enough. Should we really make things more complex by trying to further encourage people to take videos of what they’re doing too?

Well, one might point out that the same argument can also be applied to photos. But photos are ubiquitous. People take photos when they meet their friends or discover something new or out of the ordinary. People like to take photos to commemorate they have actually done something.

It’s very simple to whip out a camera, point and shoot. Videos on the other hand, take time and effort. (And a hell of a long time – depending on length – to upload to video sharing sites like Youtube.) Additionally, pictures have an innate ability to tell the viewer a story with a simple glance. Videos on the other hand, require attention.

The key is to keep things as simple and natural as possible. We want to help people focus their attention on things they can do in real life (and claim challenges easily), rather than struggle with the technicalities of trying to validate that they have actually done something.

Originally, we went ahead to implement the video claim not because we felt it was needed, but fun to have. (Ooh, we can nao watch vidz of peepz pranking their friends or singing weird songz! Or videologz of peepz relating their experience of doing somethingz! Coolz!)

Then, we realized it was introducing unnecessary complexity to the claim process.

Even then, we know for sure that we cannot eliminate videos from the equation altogether. People will still want to share related videos in response to a particular challenge or as part of a challenge (i.e. a related video that well illustrates what the challenge is about).

So, where do videos fit in the GameMaki experience?

Videos as a method to validate claims is definitely out of the question. So, we focused our attention on making it easier for users to share and consume videos shared by others on GameMaki. Now, our engine detects any video links in challenges and comments and auto-embeds them instantly – a crucial first step with many more to come as we continually strive to simplify and streamline things.

Phase 1 of the spankin’ new GameMaki

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After the excitement of Echelon 2011 and having gathered loads of feedback from the people we spoke to, the GameMaki team worked fervently behind the scenes in order to bring you the best experience possible.

After slightly more than a week of hard work, phase 1 of the revamp has been rolled out … complete with a sleek new front page.

The new GameMaki!
New landing page for GameMaki.

GameMaki’s UX duo had settled on a slightly bolder look and feel for the landing page. The major challenge was also to make it as informative as possible and yet maintain a sleek, clean look.

The new GameMaki!
Informative footer for GameMaki’s landing page.

There were three design interations in the past week alone, and that was after tons of research on landing page design and user psychology.

Let us know what you think.

Design aside, here is a run-down of the new features and tweaks we’ve made to our GameMaki web application:

1. Location retrieval, with challenges in your vicinity
2. Claim a challenge with a Youtube video link
3. User experience and usability improvements
4. A number of bug fixes
5. Minor optimization

Continue reading →

One GameMaki to go, please!

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This evening, the master chefs behind GameMaki dished out yet another delicacy, the mobile-friendly web application!

Now, you can have your GameMaki fix anytime, anywhere while you’re on the go. Spotted anything interesting or experienced a sudden flash of inspiration for a great challenge while outdoors? You can now suggest them instantly.

(Note: You have to be on a mobile browser to access the mobile-friendly version.)

Challenge Categories
Browse for challenges to do while you’re out and about.

Our mobile-friendly web application has everything GameMaki has to offer, with even more to come. Now, you can be in the know of the latest challenges suggested by your friends and the world instantly.

Recent Challenges by your Friends
Check out recent challenges by your friends.

Most Popular Challenges
The most popular challenges by the number of claims, at your fingertips.

Suggest and claim challenges while you are on the go. Now, the world has indeed become your playground.

Claim Challenges on the Go
Claim challenges anytime, anywhere.

Should you have any feedback on how we can further improve our standard and mobile web applications, feel free to drop us a shout in our community support forum or in the comments.

Enjoy!