Gamestorming: A playbook for
innovators, rulebreakers, and changemakers
by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo
Presented by Bethany Huseman
About the Authors
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Dave Gray: founder of XPLANE, a consulting
and design firm that focuses on informationdriven communications
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Sunni Brown: owns BrightSpot I.D. “We
work with clients using visuals that go
straight to the brain”1
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James Macanufo: a consultant at XPLANE
1. http://sunnibrown.com/about/
2
Why Gamestorming matters
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Generate creativity
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Solve problems through play
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Increase the productivity of groups
3
Main goals of the games
Introduce people to each other
 Brainstorm ideas
 Explore ideas
 Pick solutions
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What I plan to cover

What is a game?
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Details about artifacts and goals
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Four main steps of gamestorming
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What is a Game?
Gamespace: Alternate world
 Boundaries: A beginning and an end
 Rules for interaction
 Artifacts: Items to hold ideas and track
progress
 Goal: How to know the game is over
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Ways to Organize Artifacts
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And Yet Another Way
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Fuzzy Goals
In information work, goals should be fuzzy
 Give a sense of direction and purpose
 Three characteristics of a good fuzzy goal

◦ Something players are passionate about
◦ More tangible
◦ Progressive
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Four Stages for Gamestorming
Prepare
 Open the game
 Explore
 Close the game
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Prepare: the 7 P’s
Purpose: Why do this?
 Product: What task or result will be
achieved?
 People: Who needs to be there?
 Process: What is the agenda?
 Pitfalls: What could go wrong?
 Prep: Things that need to be done in advance
 Practical concerns: Where, when and food?
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Open the Game
Explain rules
 Introduce players to each other
 Generate and develop themes, ideas and
details

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Do not criticize or be skeptical in this
stage
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Exploring
Create conditions that will allow new things
to emerge
 Look for patterns
 Try to see things in new ways
 Build and test
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13
Closing
Critique and select
 What is important?
 What can be done?
 What is the priority?
 Close everything that you opened

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Now What?
Do gamestorming often
 Become familiar with the games
 Try new things regularly

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Questions?
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Credits


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All content and ideas came from Gray, D., Brown, S., & Mancanufo, J.
(2010) Gamestorming : a playbook for innovators, rulebreakers, and
changemakers. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly.
Fuzzy goal, opening, exploring, and closing illustrations are copied from
those done by the authors.
Illustrations for ways to arrange the information came from p. 33-39 of
Gray, D., Brown, S., & Mancanufo, J. (2010) Gamestorming : a playbook for
innovators, rulebreakers, and changemakers. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly.
Company blurbs of the author’s businesses came from the book, and
from S. Brown’s website http://sunnibrown.com/about/ viewed April. 6,
2011.
Many of the questions were verbatim from the book.
Questions image from ClipArt
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