Game Design Practicum (CMPS 179) Summer 2012 Course Overview UC Santa Cruz CMPS 179 – Game Design Practicum courses.soe.ucsc.edu/courses/cmps179/Summer12/01 kecompto@ucsc.edu 25 June, 2012

What is this course about? Gaining game design skills by working with a challenging platform Last semester: Kinect games This semester: Games connected to the World

What is this course about? Becoming a better game designer Quickly develop a game pitch that is consistent with a provided theme* Quickly refine a game idea based on received critiques and playtest feedback* Use traditional mechanics in non-traditional games Understand the mechanics of non-game experiences, and how they can be applied to games Economics! *From Jim Whitehead’s intro lecture to Fall CS179

What is this course about? Being a critic, and taking criticism Ability to give constructive game feedback based on a game pitch, or a gameplay presentation* Learn the qualities of a good game critique* Ability to give a gameplay demo as part of a process of eliciting critiques* *From Jim Whitehead’s intro lecture to Fall CS179

What is this course about? Learning a new technology A different platform requires different kinds of design Making games on the web creates many tricky constraints And MANY new capabilities Web development is a new way to make games And a really, really fast way to deploy them Connecting to web services and data feeds

Course Format High-level organization of the course: Classwork and technology Week 1 Start learning JavaScript, HTML, and CSS Week 2-3 JavaScript Frameworks for advanced graphics Phase I game (individual project) Week 4-5 Critiques of Phase I game Phase II game (small team project, two team members) Week 6-7 Critiques of Phase II game Phase III game (small team project, 2-4 team members) Week 8 Refine the Phase III game

Course Format High-level organization of the course: Design issues and readings Week 1: What is Web 2.0? Week 2: What is value? Linking in-game element to external values, advertising Week 3: Rewards and achievements Week 4: Games with friends: social capital as a game resource Week 5: Distributing resources, auctions, elections, “fairness” Week 6: Location! Week 7: Hacking economics: new models of “value” for a post-scarcity world Week 8: Review of the topics covered What happens when you connect a game to the Internet, or to the real world?

Weekly Schedule Scheduled Class Time Drop-in help Tues/Thurs, 1-3:15pm, JBE 268 Will often include working lab time Drop-in help Tue/Thurs, 3:30-5pm, E2 393

Grading Grades for the class are based on the following weighting of class activities: Homework assignments and participation (20%) Game project #1 (25%) Game project #2 (25%) Game project #3 (30%) Grades for the game projects are based on the following weighting of project activities Game pitch (15%) Critiques of other student games (20%) Week 1 prototype (25%) Final game (40%) The class instructor reserves the right to grade a project lower (or higher) than these individual sub-grades might indicated, based on their overall judgment of the quality of the game as a whole.

Introductions Please introduce yourself Name Class year A connected game (or ‘experience’) you’ve been playing recently

An introduction to web games

An introduction to web games

An introduction to web games

An introduction to web games

An introduction to web games

An introduction to web games

An introduction to web games

An introduction to web games The ecosystem is changing It can support fewer dinosaurs, but more small mammals When you graduate, where will the jobs be? If you start your own studio, how will you provide value? How will your game get to customers?

What is Web 2.0? Web 2.0 is a concept that takes the network as a platform for information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators (prosumers) of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where users (consumers) are limited to the passive viewing of content that was created for them. -Wikipedia

What is Web 2.0? "The best way to build a successful business is to help other people make money." Rich Skrenta "eBay has 150M customers, in the nicest terms, that's 150M people who have learned to trust strangers." Pierre Omidyar Web 2.0 is about using COLLABORATION to create VALUE

What is Web 2.0? A collection of technologies HTML JavaScript (and its frameworks) CSS

What is Web 2.0? A collection of technologies HTML Creates the structure JavaScript (and its frameworks) Implements logic, and communications with other services CSS Controls the appearance

What is Web 2.0? A collection of technologies HTML Creates the structure JavaScript (and its frameworks) Implements logic, and communications with other services CSS Controls the appearance

What is Web 2.0? A collection of technologies HTML Creates the structure JavaScript (and its frameworks) Implements logic, and communications with other services CSS Controls the appearance

What is Web 2.0? A collection of technologies HTML Creates the structure JavaScript (and its frameworks) Implements logic, and communications with other services CSS Controls the appearance

http://jsfiddle.net/ LAB SECTION! And let’s build an RPG Get to a computer, and go to http://jsfiddle.net/ And let’s build an RPG

Assignments for Thursday READ “What is Web 2.0?” Tim O’Reilly Install Aptana, by itself or on Eclipse Port the RPG JSFiddle example to Aptana You’ll need to create an HTML file and a JavaScript file Upload it to your student site http://its.ucsc.edu/web/hosting/personal-pages-tutorial.html

Assignments for Thursday AQUIRE: “The Cartoon Introduction to Economics: Microeconomics” $10.55 on Amazon