Schedule

Week 1:

Aug 26/27
Discuss-

* the creative process, the importance studio practice

* overview

* questionairre
definitions.html

Aug 29/30
Look at best works (not a critique)

Read:

Pesce, Mark. The Playful World: How Technology is Transforming Our Imagination, New York: Balantine, 2000. (printed) also links at http://www.playfulworld.com/
Internationale Situationniste:

http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/situationist/si/play.html

Week 2:

Sept 2 Mon OFF Labor Day

Sept 3 Tues class meets:
Discuss -

Topics: Game History, The Importance of Play, Games as Cultural Artifacts
Research sites: see
Game History: http://www.arts.rpi.edu/~ruiz/ArtofGaming/Gamehistory.html

Internationale Situationniste:
In 1957 a few experimental European groups stemming from the radical tradition of dadaism and surrealism, but seeking to avoid the cooption to which those movements succumbed, came together to form the Situationist International. The name came from their aim of liberating everyday life through the creation of open-ended, participatory “situations” (as opposed to fixed works of art) — an aim which naturally ran up against the whole range of material and mental obstacles produced by the present social order. Over the next decade the situationists developed an increasingly incisive critique of the global “spectacle-commodity system” and of its bureaucratic leftist pseudo-opposition, and their new methods of agitation helped trigger the May 1968 revolt in France. Since then — although the SI itself was dissolved in 1972 — situationist theories and tactics have continued to inspire radical currents in dozens of countries all over the world.
Situationist links
http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/situationist/si/definitions.html
BASIC BANALITIES

Sept 5/6
Assignment # 1 due: Personal Game Architecture

Read:
Everything But the Words: A Dramatic Writing Primer for Gamers, Hal Barwood http://www.gdconf.com/archives/proceedings/2000/game_papers.html
Storytelling in Action, Bob Bates http://www.gdconf.com/archives/proceedings/2000/game_papers.html

Week 3:

Sept 9/10
Discuss: Hal Barwood, Bob Bates The Art of Telling a Story
Topics: Transdisciplinary Team building/Scenario Planning/dynamics of collaboration/role playing

Visionaries of the Future:
The 1939 New York World's Fair:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/DISPLAY/39wf/front.htm
The Futurists

Sept 12/13
Studio work with transdisciplinary teams
Comics http://www.salon.com/comics/ (Roy Lichtenstein, John Heartfield, others) the use of comics as cultural barometers – perhaps the most telling of the common person. 

overview: http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html

Game Design Fundamentals

Game Theory
Gaming Paradigms/Types of Games & Delivery Systems

Week 4:

Sept 16/17

review: The Game Design Document: gamedesigndocument.htm

Read: (printed)
Games Grow Up,
A Game Boy in the Cross Hairs,
Beyond Shoot your Friends
http://www.cpandfriends.com/writing/digital-illusion.html
Addictive Technologies http://www.cpandfriends.com/writing/addictiv.html
The Addictiveness of Games, Steve Meretsky Download Document

Sept 19/20
Assignment # 2 due: scenario planning games “Yet to Come”

Discuss readings: Topics: Games Reflecting Culture, Behavior and Ethics (violence issues, gender issues, addiction, etc.)

Research Play: Lone Wolf, a John Paul Bichard game
Alpha demo http://www.liquid-idea.com/wolf/

ABOUT WAR: REALITY: GAMES & GUTS

Week 5:

Sept 23/24
Sublimation

See Video: interview with Lt Col. Grossman
Stop Teaching our Children to Kill

ABOUT WAR: REALITY: GAMES & GUTS Part II

Issues:osma games nytJanuary 10.htm

most current: www.americasarmy.com (absence of blood and gore)
tried and true: www.counter-strike.net (lots of blood)
Tom Clancy based games: http://www.redstorm.com/ (minimal blood)

Sept 26/27
Assignments # 3 due:Game Prototype Phase I – Storyboard

Read: (printed)
The Construction of Experience: Interface as Content David Rokeby

The Art and Science of Level Design Cliff Bleszinski http://www.gdconf.com/archives/proceedings/2000/bleszinski.doc

For Short Study # 5 option: (Motion Capture option)
Game Character Creation Paul Douglas, Toby Gard http://www.gdconf.com/archives/proceedings/2000/gard.doc

Motion Motion Editing: Principles and Practice, Susan Van Baerle http://www.gdconf.com/archives/proceedings/2000/vanbaerle.doc

On the Future of Real-time Characters, Joby Otero
http://www.gdconf.com/archives/proceedings/2000/otero.doc

“Perfect Model: Georgeous, No Complaints”…..,
“Do Androids Long for Mom?”

Week 6:

Sept 30/Oct1
Discuss: Rokeby, Bleszinski/ MOCap readings
Motion Capture:
Synthespian Design: what is a synthespian?
lesson4motion/Motion.htm
http://www.realsimone.com/

Oct 3/4 Guest Artist

Week 7:

Oct 7/8 Guest Artist

Oct 10/ 11 Assignments # 4 due: Dynamic Game Study (or Assignment # 5. (Optional for extra credit or instead of short study #4) Avatar, Synthespian Design and Issues of Synthetic Characters

Week 8:

Oct 14/15 (Mon:NO CLASS/ MON CLASS MEETS ON TUES Oct 15
(Tues Class does not meet))

Reviews of Mid-term Project

Oct 17/18

Reviews of Mid-term Project

Week 9:

Oct 21/22 Studio work & research
Games as Art/ Art as Games
art_game.html

Oct 24/25 Studio work & research

using game engines/ patches: http://www.axisvm.nl/gendergame.html

artist AnneMarie Schleiner: Experimental software

Net and other game artists

Week 10:

Oct 28/29 Game Prototype Phase III – polishing and refinement of methodology, delivery system, etc.

Oct 31/Nov1 Studio work & research

Week 11          

Nov 4/5 Studio work & research

Nov 7/8  Studio work & research

Week 12          

Nov 11/12 Studio work & research

Nov 14/15 Studio work & research

Week 13          

Nov 18/19 Phase IV- Final Project Reviews

Nov 21/22 Phase IV- Final Project Reviews

Week 14          

Nov 25 Mon meets /NO TUES CLASS- Phase V- Final Completed Game Project due

Nov 28/29  OFF for Thanksgiving

Week 15          

Dec 2/3 - Phase V- Final Completed Game Project due

Dec 5/6

End of Semester Review - new developments for the future

AI
http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=/news/news_single.html?id%3D965
Simulation and synthespians (synthetic actors) and future issues)

Antoher Five Years from Now http://www.gdconf.com/archives/proceedings/2002/david_braben.ppt