Assignments
Required
Events
Details
Requirements
Course Topics
Resources
EMAC Thesis Students A
B C
Tools
Methodologies
Conferences
and Groups
Experimental
Game Design
ARTS 4510
Wed 2 - 5:50PM
VAST
Studio, Sage 2411
c. Ian Stead Project Alterius, EGD 2004
Instructor:
Kathleen Ruiz
Associate Professor of Integrated Arts
email: ruiz@rpi.edu
phone: 518-276-2539
office: West Hall 314c
office hours: by appointment (please email a
request)
Student Mentors:
Atira Odhner odhnea@rpi.edu
Justin White whitej5@rpi.edu
James Kane kanej7@rpi.edu
Gregory Lane laneg@rpi.edu
Experimental
Game Design is a studio arts course focusing on the creation
of innovative workable game prototypes using a variety of multimedia
approaches, methodologies and materials. Games are analyzed as cultural
artifacts reflecting behavior, social formation, and the representation of
gender, ethnicity and identity.
Factors
in game design including flow, game theory, and game play gestalt are taken
into consideration. The aesthetics of game design including character
development, level design, game play experience, and delivery systems are
covered. Alternate gaming paradigms such as first person actor type games,
social dynamics simulation, complex scenario planning, non-violent problem solving,
blended reality, abstract play, and emerging forms are encouraged.
Primary to this course is the formation of
interdisciplinary collaborative teams consisting of talents from visual and
sound artists, programmers, cognitive scientists, designers, engineers, IT
professionals and others. Elements of successful collaboration are covered and
camaraderie of invention is encouraged.
________________________________________________________
The final project, which is the main focus of the course, is a purposeful work
which shows depth and quality of ideation, innovation and interaction. The game
prototype must be functional and must be accompanied by a completed, well
articulated game design document which includes:
Title of the Game, Artist Statement/Philosophy/The WHY Factor (why create this
game? why would someone want to play it?), Predecessors or previous games/
distinctive factors in this genre, Target Audience, Introduction & Story,
Immediate and long term projected socio/cultural project impact, Delivery
System & Requirements, Interface, User Interaction, The World Layout, Level
Design, Visualization (characters, flow charts), Music/ Sound Design, Rules and
Game play (Setup, Scoring (if applicable)), Program Structure, Technical Specs
(such as Physics, Rendering Systems, Lighting Models), Implementation,
Production Timeframe, Research, References and other Features Unique to the
Project.
Students entering the course should have a basic general awareness of
contemporary socio-cultural issues, have some exposure to interactive digital
simulation, and possess the ability for personal expression using any one or
combinations of the following: media applications, drawing, music composition,
programming, visual art, design, or narration. Students entering this course
have had varied backgrounds coming from Arts, LL&C, Computer Science,
Cognitive Science, Engineering, IT and other areas.
Technical Skills Covered: concept development and storyboarding, game design,
art, elements of interactivity, multimedia game play experience, and delivery
systems.
Course Objectives/Outcomes:
1. Upon successful completion of the course, students will demonstrate the
ability to work together in trans-disciplinary teams to conceptualize, design,
produce and express ideas through game or virtual environments projects.
2. Students will develop one or more of the
following skills: design, art making,
game programming, or engineering strategies which merge concept, process and
form - encouraging approaches that are at once inquisitive, analytical,
creative, experimental and articulate.
3.
Upon successful completion of the course students
will be able to create an archeological, socio-cultural and ethical overview of
their own history of game and toy preferences.
3. Upon
successful completion of the course students will have the ability to explore
new approaches to the concept of “game” & “play” and start to define
alternate paradigms within this emerging expressive form as demonstrated in the
FPS Paradigm Shift Prototype Game short study project.
4. Students will examine the work of several
artists, theoreticians, and institutions who engage in game creation.
5. Upon successful completion of the course
students will have experience in creating a detailed game design document,
summation overview, and poster.
7. In addition, students will have the ability to
successfully articulate informed ideas relating to the representation of
gender, race, and behavior in games and simulations as demonstrated in class
discussions and critiques and in short written reaction papers to relevant
readings and events.
Some
Previous Student work:
* EXPERIMENTAL
GAME DESIGN Sp09
*
EXPERIMENTAL GAME DESIGN Fall 08
*
EXPERIMENTAL GAME DESIGN Sp 08
*
EXPERIMENTAL GAME DESIGN Sp 04+
*
EXPERIMENTAL GAME DESIGN Fall 03
Suggested
further readings:
Wardrip-Fruin, Noah and Pat
Harrigan, Editors. First Person: New Media as Story, Performance and Game
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=9908
thread to follow: http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson
Laurel, Brenda and Zimmermanm, Eric,
editors. Play as Design
Halter, Ed. From
Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Video Games
Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A study of the Play Element in
Culture
Caillois, Roger. Man, Play, and Games
Lenoir-Lowood. Theaters Of War
Adams, Ernest. Fundamentals of Game Design, Second Edition
Jenkins, Henry. Complete
Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered PlaySpaces
Baudrillard, Jean. Passwords (including the Oxymoron of
Virtual Violence)