Examples

Webinars

​To develop a game, you must boil it down to its most essential parts and figure out where it falls short. That’s why it’s crucial to get your core loops right and to prototype them as soon as possible. 

​Join us for a webinar as we discuss and build the most popular gameplay loops that make the foundation of any game design that keeps players entertained for hours to end. 

​During this live event, our experts will go through different game loops and, using Machinations, will teach you how to model, visualize and test your core loops without the need to write a single line of code.

​Agenda

​ ✔️ What are core loops?
✔️ A quick review of popular core gameplay loops
✔️ How to design and prototype them in Machinations
✔️ Q&A

​Speakers

​Cezar Cocias
Diagram Craftsman @ Machinations
Cezar is our resident Machinations Expert. Extensive experience in game testing and some programming knowledge allow him to easily create player profiles for different game systems and game mechanics and validate game balance.

​Matthew Morris
Evangelist @ Machinations
Having been in the games industry for many years working on systems that powered games like Titanfall 2, APEX Legends and Fall guys, his mission is to show game designers how they can remove the guesswork out of their game designs and create game mechanics that engage and delight players of all types

As Automated Market Makers (AMMs) have become very popular in providing liquidity for a wide range of digital tokens, they now play a crucial role in powering decentralized exchanges (DEXs).

In this session, we show you how to build a simple Automated Market Maker (AMM) in Machinations.

Web3 games must ensure their economy is well balanced prior to the launch of their game. Unlike traditional games, the consequences of a poorly balanced economy in crypto games are massive. The difference being that items are now assets and hold tangible monetary value across markets.

We’re joined by Yvan “Aiven” Feusi who is the Executive Director on Heroes of Mavia, an upcoming blockchain-based strategy game where players use their base and army to battle other players and compete for real cryptocurrency in a play-to-earn fashion. Players can purchase, rent, or partner with landowners to acquire and build a base in the game, earning more rewards as they battle with increasingly difficult bases built by other players worldwide.

Yvan and his team have been using Machinations to build and verify their economy and sharing their learnings publicly with the community. During this webinar, we’ll talk about why this process has been helpful for them and how Machinations can serve a pivotal role at the centre of web3 gaming by verifying game economies.

When the economy or progression system of a single-player premium game is out of balance, it has a direct impact on player experience. In the case of Free 2 Play games, having a bad game economy impacts the chances of players spending money or watching ads. ​

With the rise of Play 2 Earn games, however, the game economy is now at the centre of the game’s whole experience. Failure to properly design and test the economy could result in your game failing before it even gets out the door. ​

During this session, we’re showing how Machinations can be used to model and test different types of Play 2 Earn game economies and how to validate their sustainability. ​

We go over:

• How Machinations can be used to simulate Play 2 Earn economies
• What are the potential issues with a Play 2 Earn game economy
• How Machinations can be used to test different mitigation strategies

The younger generation is relying on non-verbal communication more than any other generation before it, and alongside memes and videos, multiplayer games play a huge role in this type of communication. The global pandemic has accelerated the trend that Mojiworks started around back in 2016: the rise of a new generation of social games that they call “Hyper-Social.”

In this talk, Ioana Cazacu of Mojiworks, will share with you valuable insights into the social gaming behaviours of the younger generation, and how they go about designing their games with community input. Ioana will deconstruct their game Ready Chef Go! that has been played by over 70 million Snapchatters and she will talk about how their data-oriented approach helped them build features that their Gen Z audience loves.

Speakers:

• Ioana Cazacu: lead game designer on Mojiworks’ successful title Ready Chef Go!, exclusive to Snapchat. Her main drives are innovation and diversity, and her goal is to make games that people can instantly identify with and use them to connect with the people they love.
• Mohamed AbdelKhalik: Game Design Relations at Machinations. He is a game designer and also the co-founder of the Game Design Dive Discord server. He believes in the blend of creative planning and worldbuilding to support and give meaning to game design.

In this webinar, we were joined by Rec Room’s Cristopher Ory, Lead Social Designer and Audrey Cox, Senior 3D Artist & Game Designer. We discussed about the Metaverse, UGC and how future game designers can grow a career on their platform.

Rec Room is an optional virtual reality online video game with an integrated game creation system where players can create their own games and play each other’s. In March 2021, Rec Room Inc. announced their Series D funding round of $100 million with a valuation of $1.25 billion to build their Metaverse. Rec Room has more than 5 million rooms for players to explore. More than two million players have built content in Rec Room with 20,000 rooms being created daily by players.

The company aims to continue providing easy tools for their players to create their own games. Their goal is to ultimately turn game creation for their fans from a hobby to a career. This is reminiscent of the early days in the industry where game designers started their careers as modders.

Similar to pretty much anyone that has a Netflix account these days, we here at Machinations, have been glued to the screen watching Squid Game.

We could not help but wonder about what it must be like to be a game designer in such a dangerous workplace. There must be some immense pressure on your shoulders to make sure that each game is well balanced. You must make sure that the right number of players are eliminated each round and the VIPs get the show they’re expecting.

During this webinar, we’ve built each of the six games in the Squid Game series as Machinations diagrams and tested them out to make sure that the Squid Game Designer can live to design games another day.

This session is perfect for people new to game design thinking and Machinations.

Be warned though, there will be major spoilers ahead!

You will learn:

• How to apply abstract game design thinking to different situations and games
• How to build simple models in Machinations
• How to test the outcomes of your game design decisions

What is the metaverse? Why is it important for game designers to take note of it? What is the potential that can be unlocked? We’ll be discussing that and lots more as we delve into economy management, what investors have in their sights, the tools required to create the content, the online behaviour of the next generation.

The digital theme park is here and there are many attractions and games to enjoy, we’ll discuss where it’s headed and how designers could leverage their skills correctly to deliver on the metaverse vision.

Speakers

• Paul Stephanouk: 21 years building games and creative teams. Currently VP/Head of Creative for Candy Crush at King. Formerly at EA, Zynga and Big Huge Games
• Maria Gonima: Maria is the COO of Reely.ai an AI powered platform that cuts highlights for sports and esports. Maria also owns Big Smile Co. a marketing communications practice at the intersection of technology, entertainment and philanthropy. They develop integrated campaigns that build emotional bonds between future forward products and their audiences.
• JP Isham: JP is the Managing Director at Alchemist Investment Fund and Business Development and Communications at 0N1 Force.
• Mihai Gheza: Currently driving the vision and purpose of Machinations.io. He previously worked in the publishing/live ops team of Blades of Brim and analytics for Subway Surfers while at SYBO Games, and contracted LEGO, Nickelodeon and Disney IPs.
• Mohamed AbdelKhalik: Mohamed handles Game Design Relations at Machinations. He is a game designer and also the co-founder of the Game Design Dive Discord server. He believes in the blend of creative planning and worldbuilding to support and give meaning to game design.

Calling all game designers looking to create high-action games with twitch-based controls.

Alex Clark is a Senior Game Designer from Nitro Games working on the next generation of mobile shooter games. He shares his views on how to create tense moments, set up a series of quick decisions, and create fun action gameplay.

Alex walks us through how Machinations can be used to visualize the moment-to-moment gameplay while building a mobile shooter system, live.

During this Webinar, you will learn:

1. The best practices of designing mobile shooters
2. How Machinations can be used to visualize your gameplay
3. How to setup a series of quick decisions for the player in your games
4. How to account for twitch based controls in your Machinations model

All game designers hope to build a game that draws players in and keeps them engaged. During this Machinations webinar we’ll show you how to achieve that.

​Ian Schreiber has been in the video game industry since the year 2000, first as a programmer and then as a game designer. He has worked on six published game titles and two serious game projects has co-authored two books on games and is a co-founder of Global Game Jam. ​Ian will be providing his approach on how to think about game design from an abstract point of view. During the talk, he will be walking us through how Machinations can be used to support abstract thinking in a 4x game, as well as talk us through how to build a high-level 4x concept with Machinations and then proceed to design the subsystems that make up the game. ​

During this Webinar, you will learn:

• How to apply an abstract thought process to your own game designs
• How Machinations can be used to accelerate your game design processes
• How to create the “one more turn effect” in your games

We’re looking at how Machinations can be used to test progression systems for different player profiles and play styles, ranging from casual players to your biggest whales. As well as how different players might approach your game and how this impacts their progression.

We were joined by Jeffrey Feenstra, LiveOps specialist @ PopReach who went over how he uses Machinations to optimize existing games and improve their performance and returns.

You’ll learn how to:

• Use Machinations to simulate different player choices and play styles
• Adjust the game balance so that all types of players get a great experience
• Use Registers to manipulate randomness and simulate different player responses
• Use Machinations to optimize live game balance and returns

The benefits of having a holistic approach to game design, by integrating your production with Machinations using our API Services.

Specifically, we will be using an upgraded version of our Tanks game example to demonstrate systems of progression and randomization. You’ll have the opportunity to wreak havoc against our developers by influencing the game balance via interactive polls.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• How to integrate your Unity project with a Machinations model
• How the workflows between Unity and Machinations can help you reach the perfect game balance
• Ways to change and test your game parameters in Machinations
• How to use quick plays to test your game balance
• How different mechanics can be ported from Machinations to an actual game

Over 350 universities currently use Machinations to teach game design. We have invited some leading professors to discuss the best practices they have developed to teach students game design using Machinations.

During the panel, each of the speakers shares how they use https://machinations.io in the classroom and the best practices they have created. We will be showcasing a couple of projects created at Bahcesehir University using Machinations.

Battle Passes have been successfully implemented by a number of recent titles ranging from Fortnite to Clash of Clans and have quickly become a staple of game monetization mechanics.

This webinar runs through the deconstruction of the League of Legends: Wild Rift “Wild Pass” system and showcases how to create progression mechanics in Machinations.

​During this session, you will learn:

• How the League of Legends Wild Rift battle pass system can be broken down in Machinations
• How to quickly simulate different player behaviors
• How to use Machinations to design battle pass mechanics
• The key metrics to keep in mind when building your battle pass
• ​How different battle pass mechanics can be used for maximum efficiency

Similar to the Machinations 101 session, Machinations 102 walks you through all of the uses of Registers and how they can be used.

We’ve taken Hades’ game mechanics apart and put them under the microscope to see how the progression system influences game balance.

We used Machinations to balance player damage and enemy health while keeping track of how player choices will impact their in-game progression.

Whether you’ve never used Machinations before, or you just need a refresher, we’ll walk you through the building blocks and share our recipe for a successful diagram.

1. Gain a solid understanding of the building blocks of Machinations
2. Master the different Play modes
3. Get familiar with the chart and its usefulness
4. Learn tips and tricks to keep a tidy diagram

The second installment in a series of webinars will be ideal for those who have never used Machinations before as well as game designers looking at new ways of improving their own models.

In this session, the Diagram Craftsman will take the Endless Runner model that we started creating during a previous webinar and build out a full game progression, monetization, and engagement strategy. We’ll also show you some real-world examples to help you design and plan your own games.

This series of webinars will be ideal for those who have never used Machinations before as well as game designers looking at new ways of improving their own models.

In this session, the Diagram Craftsman will run through the seven tutorial stages showing you the basic mechanics of the platform. We will then expand the endless runner model from the tutorial into a full game model by adding multiple game mechanics to keep our players engaged.

Join our experts as they build a crafting and health pack sub-system as part of an open-world RPG diagram and then balance these game mechanics in real-time.

We’ll showcase how you can use Machinations to find the right balance of any item type as a player progresses through different stages of a game.