November 13th, 2002 Course summary Industry visit Evaluation feedback Work, work, work

Four main areas Game design: Game play, storytelling, characters Production: Design document, post mortems, play testing Theory: Why fun? What cultural status do game have? Game history. Players: Sociology, identity

Henry Jenkins: Art Form for the Digital Age Compares the status of games today to that of movies in the 1920’s. Theoretical value: Broad thinking of what a computer game is in relation to traditional media. Practical value: Enlarge your idea of what a game can be. Useful for persuading family. Useful for persuading sceptical friends.

Richard Rouse: What players want. Theory: Discuss why games are fun; analyse specific games; argue for design decisions. Practice: Good guidelines for design. Bruce Shelley: Guidelines for Developing Successful Games Theory: Useful points about the broadness of the game format. Practice: Very ”slick & commercial” idea of how to design & create a game. Bob Bates: Genre-Specific Game Design Issues Theory: More specific discussions, but a bit loose. Practice: Good guidelines for specific genres.

 Susana Tosca: Role-playing in multiplayer environments. Theory: Translating games between media; what can the computer do vs. the game master. Practice: Inspiration when adapting real world games to computer games, what to think about when doing it.  Simon Egenfeld-Nielsen: Computerspillene "I sig selv". Theory: Discuss what computer games are / what they can do. Practice: Background for discussions.  Richard Rouse chapter 17: The Design Document Theory: Not much. Practice: A good way to proceed.  Astinus: A History of Role-Playing. Theory: background. Practice: Inspiration for developing computer games in new directions.

 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: From Flow. The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Theory: Supergeneral explanation of ”fun”; applicable to anything. Practice: Keeping focus on learning curve and difficulty (but be a bit critical!).  Richard Rouse: Gameplay. Theory: Can be used for analysing the gameplay of any game; discussing why it works or doesn’t. Practice: Completely relevant for any game.

Gerrold, David. Worlds of Wonder Theory: Not much. Practice: Thinking about creating an interesting world. Don Carson: Environmental Storytelling Creating Immersive 3D Worlds Using Lessons Learned from the Theme Park Industry Theory: Basic discussion on how a game can have interesting content. Practice: Good ideas on how to do this. Richard Rouse: Storytelling Theory: Not much. Practice: Broad introduction. Wibroe, K.K. Nygaard & P. Bøgh Andersen: Games and Stories. Theory: Analyse why different games are interesting as stories, difference between games and stories. Practice: Useful for designing quests etc.. (But beware that the assumptions that should be story-like is problematic.)

Jack Muramatsu: Computing, Social Activity, and Entertainment: A Field Study of a Game MUD Theory: About player types (good typology and interaction description), about how people behave in game communities (good social-psychological analysis). Practice: Excellent methodology for field studies, inspiration on how to design game for one kind of players or the other... Jonathan Baron: Glory and Shame: Powerful Psychology in Multiplayer Online Games Theory: The experience of gameplay changes significantly when other humans are involved (psychology of interaction between people). Practice: How to make your multiplayer game friendly to audiences (training levels, learning curve adjustment, veteran help)

Richard Bartle: HEARTS, CLUBS, DIAMONDS, SPADES: PLAYERS WHO SUIT MUDS Theory: What games can do; differentiation between games and game genres; how game design facilitates specific actions. Practice: Thinking about what kind of players you design for.

 Seger, Linda. Creating Unforgettable Characters. Theory: Perhaps for critique of games. Practice: Good guidelines for creating interesting characters / NPCs.  Murray, Janet H. Hamlet on the Holodeck. The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. Theory: Though somewhat loose, some broad perspectives on games. Practice: Not much.  Marc Saltzman: Creating Characters, Storyboarding, and Design Documents Theory: Not much. Practice: Industry advice is always good.

 Ana Marjanovic-Shane “You are a Pig”: For Real or Just Pretend?” Theory: Discussing what games are; what it is to undertake a role. Practice: Not much; perhaps inspiring to think of games as pretense-play.  Sherry Turkle: Constructions and re-constructions of Self in Virtual Reality. Theory: Identificiation issues and translation issues in games (are the actions in games relevant to real life? healing, violence effects, learning, etc). Practice: Not much.  Kathryn Wright: Gender Bending in games (read part I and II). Theory: Identification issues when playing computer games. Practice: Not much.

 Ray Muzyka: Baldur's Gate II: The Anatomy of a Sequel Theory: Not much. Practice: What can go wrong/right in a project, what things to look for. How to work with sequels. Project management and planning.  Jeanne Collins: Conducting In-house Play Testing. Theory: Perhaps since it can help you get actual data about the consequences of design decicions. Practice: Very important.  Bill Fulton: GDC 2002: Beyond Psychological Theory: Getting Data that Improves games”. Theory: Not much. Practice: Inspiring as on how to be much more professional.  "Playtesting". Chapter 23 Richard Rouse´s book Theory: Perhaps since it can help you get actual data about the consequences of design decicions. Practice: Very important.

Four main areas Game design: Game play, storytelling, characters Production: Design document, post mortems, play testing Theory: Why fun? What cultural status do game have? Game history. Players: Sociology, identity

Evaluation feedback 1/2 System troubles Idea was: Use a system that a teacher has strong knowledge of, allowing: a) Developing the system to fit student needs b) support from knowledgeable source c) most infrastructure (network, users, world, things, database) done, allowing to get running quickly. Dark side: a) System a moving target, not previously used for entire game / no game to copy from b) Huge workload for teacher / teacher in the firing line c) system geared towards specific things / ”desktop” graphics d) transferability of experience to industry? / Non-programmers felt it too hard, programmers felt it too limiting. Todo: Probably third-party commercial engine in the future, but no obvious candidate with comparable infrastructure.

Evaluation feedback 2/2 Lack of connection between theory & practice / theory superficial Practice tends to win over theory; it is easier to know what to do. General problem with the state of computer game theory today. Todo: Do better job of applying theory to design; more examples; more focused theory.