ARTM3720 Game Design Studio 2: Schedule

1.23 Week 1 Motivation

• Discuss: Sequels, Painstation, Getting Over It
• Play: Calvin Ball https://calvinandhobbes.fandom.com/wiki/Calvinball
• Homework:
  • in teams of 3 generate 5 game ideas for games that do not have an explicit end state, exploring viral spread and changeable rules)
  • Post thoughts on what we played in class
• Read/Play: Cow Clicker, http://bogost.com/writing/blog/cow_clicker_1/, The Graveyard, Townscaper https://youtu.be/hqq25n6cQqo?si=leLV3KMoWNIXzbaM
• Questions:
  • What are the issues Ian Bogost raises about social games with Cow Clicker?
  • How do social games like FarmVille enframe friends?
  • How do social games destroy time outside of the game?

1.30 Week 2 Persuade

• Discuss:
  • Advergames – Pepsi Man, Sneak King, Chex Quest, M&M Kart Racing, America’s Army
  • Awareness Games – Vote!!!, Darfur is Dying
• Play:
  • The McDonalds Game
  • Monopoly
  • Cool Spot
• In Class Pitch – one of your endless game ideas (wrinkle – now make it a persuasive game)
• Homework:
  • generate 5 new game ideas that explore changing players minds about … (climate change, energy, politics, etc.)
  • Post thoughts on what we played in class
• Read: Advergames from Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games: The expressive power of videogames
  • what advergames have you played? did they influence a purchase?
  • why do the advergames tooth protector and escape work? What makes chase the chuckwagon and shark bait fail?
  • what does volvo’s drive for life accomplish? 
  • what company used in-advergame advertising 
  • what was one if the first home-console advergames and what beverage was it for? 
  • what makes the toilet training game sophisticated and do you agree?
  • what do advergames and anti-advergames have in common, and what principles do they share?

2.6 Week 3 Games for Change

• Discuss:
  • ARGs: A World Without Oil
  • Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed
  • Detroit Become Human
  • Factorio
  • Outer wilds
  • Gris
  • Gone Home
  • The Layoff Game
• Play:
  • Dumb Ways to Die
  • Fake it to Make it
  • Cards Against Calamity
  • Cast Your Vote
• Homework:
  • Post thoughts on what we played in class
  • Generate a list of five game ideas that revolve around the theme of empathy. Wrinkle: Take one of the five ideas and make it an alternate reality game.
  • Read: Chapter 1 and 3 from Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play Radical Game Design, MIT Press, 2009
    • From chapter 1:
      • how does mary flanagan’s definition of game differ from chris crawford’s as well as the definition crafted by katie salen and eric zimmerman? 
      • what is an activist game?
      • From chapter 3 –
• go and chess are examples of games that feature “perfect information”, what other games share that feature?
• why might chance or gambling games hold spiritual or religious importance to ancient cultures?
• when was the earliest battle between government/ religious groups and games? what modern games can you think of that have been banned or demonized?
• what is a fox game, and what would be a modern example?
• what was the purpose or intent of the game: Mansion of Happiness?
• Why do artists from the Fluxus and Surealist movements play games? Why did Surealists believe games might help everyone?
• Changes in what can signal profound changes in games? How were pinball games reskinned during WW2?
• What statements did Fluxus artists make by reskinning games like monopoly and ping pong?
• How are artists like Lilian Ball, Marcel Duchamp, Takako Saito, Yoko Ono, Gabriel Orozco and Ruth Catlowusing war games?
• Why is it important for players to have agency in a critical or serious game?

2.13 Week 4 Serious Games

• Discuss: Train, Crosser & La Migra, Ludoztil, Oregon Trail, Last Resort
• Play: 
  • Crossing the Bridge
  • Observance
• Homework:
  • Post thoughts on what we played in class
  • Prototype one of your ideas from the last 2 weeks
  • give me 5 new ideas for a serious game.
  • Select a game from the games for change site to discuss in a podcast.
• Read:
  • Amy Bruckman “Can Education be Fun?” (1999)
  • Ian Bogost “Gamification is Bullshit” (2011)
  • Matthew Farber, “Why Serious Games Are Not Chocolate-Covered Broccoli” (2014)
  • Questions
    • what learning games have you played? can you categorize them by the theory of learning types: behaviorism, constructivism, constructivism or social nature? if you played more than one which was the most effective?
    • is gamification bullshit, what is ian bogost’s argument and do you agree? where have you encountered it outside of class and what was your experience?
    • What is a serious game and why aren’t they chocolate covered broccoli?

2.20 Week 5 Play test

• Playtest Game 1
• Choose games for podcast
• Play anything you haven’t yet played

2.27 Week 6 Simulation

• Discuss: Doctrine – Cognitive Task Analysis, Full Spectrum Warrior, Medical Simulation
• Play: Keep Talking and No-one Explodes
• Homework:
  • Post thoughts on what we played in class
  • 5 ideas for simulations

3.13 Week 7 Prototype Game 2 / Discuss Podcasts

• Read:
  • Brian Winn, Carrie Heeter, “Resolving Conflicts in Educational Game Design through Playtesting“ Innovate: Journal of Online Education Volume 3, Number 2, December 2006
    • What are the challenges a team faces when working on an educational game?
    • In the case study team members vetoed each others game ideas, what were the scientist’s, pedagogy expert’s and designer’s issues?
    • What did the team learn from play testing their prototypes?
    • How does play testing resolve conflicts among team members?

3.20 Week 8 Playtest Game 2

• Playtest Game 2
• Discuss: Assessment/After Action Review
• Play: Keep Talking and No-one Explodes
• Homework:
• Read: Chen, S. and Michael, D. Proof of Learning: Assessment in Serious Games.

3.27 Week 9 Refine Game 2

4.3 Week 10 Playtest Game 2

4.10 Week 11 Prototype Game 3

4.17 Week 12 Playtest Game 3

4.24 Week 13 Refine Game 3

5.1 Week 14 Playtest Game 3

Final Play Test of fully developed game

5.8 Week 15 Final Presentations between 8:00 to 10:00am

Final Play Test of fully developed game