Our last post noted how a five-year old paid tribute to his favorite Storybird artists. As a corollary, these images from Dave Devries seemed fitting as a follow-up. Devries, a successful comic book and conceptual artist, was so inspired by his 7-year old niece’s drawings that he created a series of realistic paintings to mirror her originals. What followed became a book and lecture tour dubbed The Monster Engine. Speaking about its success, Devries notes: “It made me remember my childhood and realize that no matter how old I became, I could always see things like a child.” Amen.

Nicole wrote us to say that her 5-year old son drew these as a tribute to Paul McDougall and Aaron Blecha. She sent them to the artists who wrote back to encourage him to keep drawing. “Now,” Nicole says, “he tells everyone he wants to be an illustrator/author when he grows up.” Imagination, FTW!

Deliciously non-Delicious bookmarks by Lesley Barnes via Where the Lovely Things Are.

Game designer Dan Lawrence caught our attention this week when he mused about “behaviorist game design.” Observing the success of game mechanics in environments like World of Warcraft and Farmville, he notes:

It seems to me that the very interactivity of games that makes them so compelling also makes considering their ethical dimension more vital. Every game is a system that you interact with; listening to and responding to your actions in a certain way. While the game is responding to you, you are responding back to it even if you don’t realise it. Every game is teaching your brain something, every game is a dialogue with its player.

Storybird isn’t a game, but it does contain a slim volume of game mechanics—a system of triggers and rewards—to make it fun and engaging. And, apparently, addictive.

A few times a week, we hear from kids, teachers, and parents that Storybird is “hugely” addictive. “I couldn’t get them out of the classroom!” “She won’t go to bed until she makes one more!” And our favorite “I wouldn’t let my son make one because I was too addicted myself.”

In the context of literacy, ideas, art, and words—addiction doesn’t sound so bad. It certainly sounds better than grinding for gold in WoW. But we’re uneasy with it nonetheless. Addiction is the triumph of habit over imagination and, in its worst form, literally carves new funnels in your brain in its desire for dopamine.

Lawrence makes a point that resonates greatly with us:

It worries me that this power of games to teach and train their players is either not understood or being wilfully misused for commercial gain. It doesn’t strike me as ethical to train a player to want to do something that they wouldn’t want to do in the absence of an external reward. [Emphasis ours]

It’s a tricky line to walk: you want people to use your game/service/product because they want to, not because they feel they must. On the other hand, reinforcement systems help them get over inertia to re-engage with you after a busy week of work and distractions.

We’ll be chewing on this as we build out our “Awards & Achievements” mechanics in the months ahead. We had always planned for points, levels, badges, etc. But as they become more pervasive and exhausting (Foursquare anyone?), our goal will be to throttle them, taking a quieter, long-term approach to the benefits they provide members of our community. We want people to feel happy and secure using Storybird—not anxious and needy.

PS. While you’re thinking about game mechanics, be sure to watch Jesse Schell’s DICE talk. Schell, an ex-Disney Imagineer, takes an amusing romp through social game design and how life is increasingly a game itself. Level up!

Multi-image goodness & full page artwork on Storybird

Search is on it’s way done!. Check it out.

The Pew Report notes that 58% of 12-year olds are running around with mobile phones, up from 18% just six years ago. While they seem eager to join the rest-of-the-world in hyperactive media consumption, six-year old Lucien seems to have his pulse on what matters. Certainly supports the adage that you’re born knowing everything and life is the process of forgetting.

Here’s a small sample of some of the fun, gorgeous, inspiring images and art we’ve tumbled over the last week.

God Save the Queen (of Nabu)

Stop! Tea time! by DoWorkDesign

Hotel for Dogs by Chris Appelhans (a god, he is!)

A different kind of pea by moonywolf (found by the incomparable loobylu)

We’ll continue to post inspiring visual and narrative artists to the Storybird blog, but if you’re a Tumblr user, follow us here.

Chirp chirp!

During the month of December you can send your Storybirds as free electronic greetings. This applies to your existing Storybirds or ones you create just for the holidays.

Look for the big red “Send as Holiday Greeting” button in the top right corner of your Storybird page.

Just click the button, add a message and some email addresses, and send. It’s that easy. Don’t want to send it right away? You can choose a specific day to have the greeting sent using the calendar.

Your family and friends receive an email that links them to a special greetings page that frames your Storybird and message:

All greetings are private and can be sent as many times as you’d like. Enjoy!

We’ll soon be releasing v0.2 of Storybird, including some great upgrades to our core application—Storymaker.

The new engine features:

¶ Thumbnail previews: double-click to preview a thumbnail

¶ Visual Typing: image thumbnails are surfaced based on keywords in your story

¶ Multi-position art: art can occupy one of four crop styles and up to 7 locations

¶ A new dock: pictoral page icons, page re-ordering, and enhanced page controls

Click the image above to see the new dock—it’s gorgeous.