Putting Emotion into Play for 18 Years
Reduce complexity, increase engagement, drive viral distribution with social features, and make more fun through XEODesign. We create riviting player experiences with our XEODesign Reviews, Player Studies, and XEOPlayShops. XEO means the thrilling feeling of discovery. Here's how we have helped clients lasso this and other emotions to increase engagement and make products easier and more fun to use.

Go Full Tilt with Player Emotions
Tilt: An Adventure in 1.5 Dimensions

Click on images for a slideshow.

Emotion and the fun of games: Not only is Tilt the first iPhone accelerometer game, it is also a research platform for detailed studies on emotion and game mechanics. Becuase it uses the Four Keys to Fun it's also a fun game! Tilt's user interface and playfield not only integrates seamlessly into the iPhone, the game mechanic creates the iPhone's emotion profile to increase appeal. The original demo was one of Wired Magazine's top iPhone hacks and won best game at iPhoneDevCamp 2007. Proving once again that with the Four Keys to Fun a small team can literally invent a new genre overnight. Visit TiltWorld.com for a preview!
Coming soon to the App Store!

Drive Viral Distribution
TattleTalz

Social Emotions Drive Web 2.0. In addition to making games fun, the features that create social emotions are the ones that drive viral distribution. In TattleTalz friends play two truths and a lie any time anywhere. Another arm of our games research platform TattleTalz explores features that bring friends closer and new ways to create the social emotions that drive viral distribution. Hint: the term "social capital" must die! TattleTalz won best game at iPhoneDevCamp 2008. Visit the beta TattleTalz.com! Coming soon to the App Store and Facebook!

Increase Engagement
TiltWorld Website Concepts and Logos

Emotion from Brand: Interaction and art work together to craft the emotion profile that enhances the player experience. For the companion websites for Tilt: An Adventure in 1.5 Dimensions we compared a mysterious story world treatment with a lighter Web 2.0 look. Check out final sites. Visit TiltWorld.com and XEOPlay.com.

Visual design captures the emotions of what's fun and the essense of play. Logos are visual words that contain both the meaning and emotions of a brand as well as make a game's the first impression. These logos capture the emotions and fun of our own products and services.

Reduce Complexity for Generations
Easy CD Creator 5, 6, and 7

Support Beginner and Expert. For Roxio's Easy CD Creator line of products XEODesign helped consolidate multiple software components into a unified UI that supported beginners without getting in the way of experts. Through innovative interface design we offered one UI that supports new users with easy acess to beginning features without adding extra work for advanced users. We also kept in mind that in reducing complexity it is important to make so many changes that it alienates existing customers.

After our success with Easy CD Creator 5 and Toast, Roxio hired XEODesign for multiple other interfaces for new products, such as this video editor. These concepts made DVD creation simple and fun! XEODesign's work on for Roxio's flagship products laid a strong design foundation still in use today. Even iTunes uses a shiny big record button in the lower right.

Enhance Social Interaction for Massive Audiences
The Matrix Online
Massively Mulitplayer Online Games (MMO)

Reduce Complexity. XEODesign has worked on and researched dozens of MMO's. The major issue with games played from 6 months to 6 years is that many MMO's repell new players by crowding the UI with the hundreds of features needed by advanced players. For the Matrix Online we worked with Monolith's design team to consolidate the interface into menus that hang off the compass rose. This keeps the UI clean for beginners and support experts. Advanced players can tear the panes off and put them wherever they want.

Add Social Features. In reducing complexity we have also increased social features for games played by masses. Other companies we have helped become massively multiplayer and offer social experiences include: Cartoon Network (Fusion Fall), Seirra Online (Free Style Basketball), GoPets, 3 Rings (Whirled), Nickelodeon, and Disney. Not only have our interaction design services improved player experiences, they've improved account registration by as much as 30%. A big boost to the bottom line, especially in free to play games.

Make More Fun!
Riven, Cosmopolitan Virtual Makeover Totally Mad

XEODesign has a long history of creating branded interactive experiences that reach mass markets. For Broderbund we localized Riven, the sequel to Myst, all 5 CDROMs for 3 markets in 13 days. Before there were casual games, we created a new UI for Cosmopolitan Virtual Makeover as easy as 1, 2, 3. And we made interactive with 500 issues of Mad Magazine as MAD as the magazine itself.

Amp up the Fun!! Invite Us Over to Play!!

XEODesign Reviews. Imagine having access to player emotions early in the design process when changes are easiest to make. With XEODesign Reviews you can. Craft the engagement from emotions as early as concept with heuristics from Four Keys to Fun. For example did you know that introducing a new strategy on level 4 increases player enagement more than adding more monsters and less time? And if you don't do this players will often put down your game! We've also helped client increase player engagement by incorporating a brand's emotion profile into the game mechnic so that it "feels" like the brand. For Fusion Fall (Cartoon Network) we helped the team identify ways to craft emotions that blended multiple shows. Our XEODesign Reviews spot areas to focus on and missed opportunities in prototypes or even before any code is written.

Player Studies. Developers design the emotional space between players and game, and the only way to see this is to watch someone play for the first time. We've player tested everything on all platforms from several in the Myst series, to Rebel's bearing light swords, and a whip flicking archeologist on the Wii. Our studies on the DinerDash series helped PlayFirst build a multi-million dollar franchise with over 5 million units sold. Our research for LeapFrog helped dozens of titles including The Fly pen make learning more fun. As leading experts on emotion and the fun of games our player studies not only uncover usability issues in a prioritized actionable format, they also identify what gets in the way of the fun. We've run player studies longer than anyone and know the difference between a usability issue and a fun to beat challenge.

XEOPlayShops™ Our XEOPlayShops unlock your team's creativity and take them to new heights. Everyone from The Sims team (Maxis), to DGamer (Disney), to Battle Front (D.I.C.E) has invited us over to play. If your team needs to increase player engagement, add emotions, invent a new genre, or simply think outside the box our XEOPlayShops will help them unlock player emotions by adding the fun of games. Give us a call, we'd love to hear from you!

iPhone Fun and Games! Tilt is the first motion controlled game for the iPhone. Read how we used the 4 Fun Keys to design emotions for a game with an iPhone PX! Over 250,000 visits!

Tilt Coming Soon to the App Store!

Since 1992, our services have improved over 40 million player experiences and helped industry leaders such as UbiSoft, LeapFrog, Sony Online, Sega, Roxio, and Maxis profit by offering more fun for their customers.

XEODesign, Inc. offers deep and unique expertise in the development of interactive entertainment. We have spent over a decade researching design, usability, and game-playing experiences. With our integrated services, we improve usability and the fun factor to help make our clients’ products a success.