Experimental
Game Design

ARTS 4510 sections 01 & 02
Wed 2 - 5:50PM VAST Studio, Sage 2411

Virus Slayer Nitros created in EGD Spring 2011
© 2011 VS Nitros: Mary DeVarney, Jim Dux, Nick Korn, Will Lassen, Matthew Nebel

Instructor:
Kathleen Ruiz
Associate Professor of Integrated Arts
email: ruiz@rpi.edu
phone: 518-276-2539
office: West Hall 314c
office hours: Thursdays 10:30 to 12:30
(please use sign up board on office door WH 314c)

Student Mentor:

Dan Kimball:

email: kimbad@rpi.edu

Assignments
Required Events
Drop Box Information

Details
Requirements
Course Topics

EMAC Thesis Students A B C
Tools
Conferences and Groups

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 as students create various game assignments. 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.
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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 must be functional and must be accompanied by a completed, well-articulated game design document which includes: Model Game Design Document

Rough overview of GDD:
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 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.

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.

4. 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.

5. Students will examine the work of several artists, theoreticians, and institutions who engage in game creation.

6. 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

* GAMES & GUTS

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

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

There are many other titles of interest evolving so please ask me for more.