Gamification stuff we love: Interactive books and publishing
A few weeks ago I went to the London Book Fair, which the author in me considers total bliss, but this year they also had a game/gamification section, so I went with even more interest. The game area was rather small, but some of the conversations I had were excellent. Every year the book fair showcases a specific region and I was most impressed by the interactive book options from the Korean providers.
One book app development and publishing service really grabbed my attention, it was www.yfactorysoft.com where they showcased children’s books. You could incorporate characters that helped you read the book, little puzzles and quizzes and other content related activities to make the reading experience more enjoyable, and you could still just read the book or have it read out for you as a story. A lot of the conversation was lost in translation, because they were not at this point ready nor interested in taking it to an adult market, maybe because a lot of the adult literature may not be visible enough or for ti be visible maybe they would be stepping on the toes of filmmakers? I am not sure I understood the rationale, for me, if it works for kids books I am sure it works for adults too.
Another Korean provider that had great forward vision, was Spindle books by www.iPortfolio.co.kr, their target was educational material and they integrated a book into a learning management system as well as a social media management system all hosted in the Cloud. From what I understood it immediately facilitated multi-purposed content, which appeals to one of their clients Oxford University Press. it would have been great to see it in progress.
With the knowledge in my mind on the options, I went looking for UK based providers where the language barrier wouldn’t really be an issue. I was surprised to see that none of the providers had gone to that extent with showcases and options. In fact the most forward thinning I spoke to were the team from Freed Fiction www.freedfiction.com who have designed an interactive prequel to a Jeff Norton book Metawars: Blood Nexus. I am speaking to them about my next gamification book, to see what we can do to make it more interactive than click links to web based materials, so fingers crossed it will be possible and within my budget constraints (the joys of start-ups).
For the readers out there, what interactive experience would you enjoy from your books?
