Art of Game Design Cards Jason Leigh Copyright 2011 University of Illinois at Chicago

Art of Game Design Cards Developed by Jesse Schell. Teaches game design at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center. Stack of 100 Cards that ask critical questions about game design.

How Cards Will Be Used In Class 1.In-class activity to introduce the cards in the context of existing video games. 2.When team members meet to pitch each other their game designs. Team members will use the cards to explain why their design is better than their team mates. 3.Presentation of game concept to the class as a whole. The team must explain how their design answers the criteria of at least 3 AGD cards. 4.In-class critique. During weekly progress updates, a competing team will choose a card and ask the presenting team to answer the questions on the card.

1. In Class Example Goal is to use this as an example of how to use the cards to think about game design. The chosen game is: Mario. Class watches a video of the game- probably a video review from Gamespot. The class as a whole answers the questions on 10 of the cards. Cards are: 2, 5, 6, 15, 21, 51, 53, 63, 64, 66, 67, 71.

2. Brainstorm Meetings Each of you will come up with your own idea for a game you want to develop for the class. You will use the paper and pen described in the class web site to illustrate your ideas as a storyboard. Anyone that uses anything else is automatically disqualified. You choose AGD cards that you believe best argues for your game idea. When you meet as a group, you pitch your overall game idea, and you answer the questions on the chosen chards to convince your team to go with your game idea. For every card you are able to successfully use, you get 1 point. After everyone has presented their ideas, the idea with the most points is the chosen game.

You can also cash in points you were awarded from assignment 1. You can either use these points toward your game idea or choose to donate them to support another person’s game idea. Ties are broken by randomly selecting 3 cards from the deck and having each champion answer the questions on the cards. Whoever answers the questions the best is awarded the card, and therefore the point. The final chosen game, and the associated cards will be used as part of the presentation in class when describing the game to the class.

Note about Assignment 1 After you demo assignment 1 to the class, you will be awarded either 1, 2 or 3 bonus cards depending on how good your attempt was. You get 3 cards for doing something that is awesome and surprising. You get 2 cards if there was something cool but not quite amazing. You get 1 card if you did the bare minimum. These cards will be given by Jason or Bob. [PS: I need the cards back after the class is over].

3. Presenting the Game Idea to the Class Scan and upload all your storyboards to your project web site. (Even game ideas that were not used). Scan the cards that are associated with the game ideas and upload them to the web site as well. For each card, write down your answer to each question on the web site. Present all the above to the class.

4. In Class Critiques Each week, in round robin style, teams must give a progress update that includes a quick demo of the game so far. The team should then describe what their next steps are. The previous team will select a relevant card from the deck and team giving the presentation has to answer the questions on the cards. Audience members can also help the team answer the questions if necessary. General Q&A follows.