Course Introduction CGDD 2002

Early board games… 2500 years ago… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_%28game%29

… and a little later http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chutes_and_Ladders

Early PCs… 1982 Radar Rat Race – Commodore 64/Vic 20 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64 1982 Radar Rat Race – Commodore 64/Vic 20 http://www.ohgizmo.com/2009/02/18/the-games-we-played-radar-rat-race-c64/

PCs a little later… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfenstein_3D

And now… http://www.frictionlessinsight.com/archives/2008/04/dogmeat-joining.html

Early consoles… http://www.thegamerag.com/ 1972 – Atari’s first game http://www.thegamerag.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong

Later … 1985 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.

And now… http://playstationlifestyle.net/2009/12/17/heavy-rain-will-receive-dlc-episodes/

Web-based games… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmville

Mobile gaming… http://games.venturebeat.com/2009/02/02/iphone-owners-account-for-14-percent-of-mobile-game-downloaders/

A different approach… Façade Milo the Virtual Boy

Fundamental Questions Why were/are these games so popular? What makes a game good? Better question: what makes a game bad? Why is a game considered fun? How are games designed?

What this course isn’t A traditional, lecture-based class Requires reading Requires creativity A programming class A game engine class A “let’s make fun of Farmville” class. Well…

What this class is Fun A vocabulary lesson A look at the design of games in general Board Digital games A look at the industry A chance to see how creative you are…

Questions? Course Website: Instructor: http://cse.spsu.edu/jchastin/cgdd2002 Instructor: Name:Jeff Chastine Email: jchastin@spsu.edu Office: J-383 (temporarily); soon to be J-226 Phone: 678-915-6868