About Socks Off Games
Our Mission
Socks Off is a Scottish game development studio located near Edinburgh. Our mission is simple: develop games that provide players with a positive, inspiring and transformative experience. We develop compelling gaming experiences with the aim of making a difference to our players.
We are passionate about games and committed to the development of both purposeful and entertainment games.
Our Games
Whilst they share the same overall intent (i.e. offering a transformational experience to players), their actual design practices and development processes significantly differ from one another. Entertainment games are designed from the perspective of a theme, narrative or gameplay towards a wider, perhaps slightly under-defined audience. Purposeful games are ad-hoc experiences designed for a specific audience and purpose.
Purposeful Gaming
Purposeful Games are our passion. Essentially any type of gaming intervention that has a purpose that is other than pure entertainment. There is a wide range of interventions and nomenclatures (i.e Serious Games, Gamification, Game-based learning) and we would recommend the article at the end of the post for a nuanced discussion on the research in the field. Dr Sandy Louchart has been involved in the research, education and development of purposeful gaming since 2002. We are passionate about designing games for research that support change and contribute to positive societal or environmental impact.
Ad-Hoc and Unique
Purposeful game design is exciting and challenging. Exciting in that it requires a design and development that is perfectly aligned to the aim of the research intervention. Challenging in that the very nature of research often requires the game designer to work with incomplete data or experts whose work can be far removed from gaming. Our experience in developing and publishing inter-disciplinary research allow us, through mainly social science methodologies, to engage effectively with partners whilst extracting the essence and core values of a project towards a meaningful ludic output. Purposeful games are ad-hoc design and unique, making them one of the most fun and challenging games to design. At least, this is how we see it.
Gaming for change
Entertainment Games can support change too. Change is a core aspect of any Socks Off game, be it purposeful or entertainment. To put it plainly, we develop story-driven games inspired by life with a view that the experiences they provide can resonate with players on a personal note and support them in their personal journeys, whatever they might be. We live in a busy world and it can be, at times, difficult to keep focus on what really matters to us as an individual. Socks Off games provide players with a message of hope and, we would like to believe, support them in (re)gaining perspective on life and care for what/whom matters to them.
