Experimental
Heat c. 2010 Mark
Aversa, Evan Slaughter, Jeremy Therrien, Instructor: Student
Mentor: Nate Stedman: email: stedmn2@rpi.edu Assignments
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. 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 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
Adams, Ernest. Fundamentals of Game Design, Second Edition Jenkins, Henry. Complete
Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered PlaySpaces Baudrillard, Jean. Passwords |