COMPUTER GAME DESIGN
Winter 2005 - IT University, Copenhagen
Teacher: Gonzalo Frasca (frasca (at) itu (dot) dk)
T.A.: Laust Juul Christensen (ljc (at) itu (dot) dk)
Here's the link to last semester's games.
February 3rd - Introduction
Please read this article for the first class.
*Shelley, Bruce: "Guidelines for Developing Successful Games". Gamasutra
(free registration required), 2001.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20010815/shelley_01.htm
February 10th - Design
*Donald Norman. Affordances and Design.
http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/affordances_and_desi.html
*Donald Norman. Emotions and design
http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/emotion_design_at.html
*Donald Norman. People and things
http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/emotional_design_pe.html
Group #1 Game Presentation
February 17th - Toys, Toy Design
*Clive Thompson. Phenomenon: The Play’s the Thing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/magazine/28PHENOM.html?ei=5090&en=2331603dc0efbf47&ex=1259384400&partner=rssuserland&pagewanted=print&position=
*Kid
Robot
http://kidrobot.com/gallery.php?view_start=0&view_limit=0&keyword=&list_category=&list_manufacturer=&list_artist=
Group #2 Game Presentation
February 24th - Game Design / Gameplay
*Noah Falstein: "The 400 project". 2001-2004.
http://www.theinspiracy.com/GD1ShortTermGoals.htm
http://www.theinspiracy.com/400_so_far.htm
*Tracy Fullerton, Christopher Swain, Steven Hoffman: "Improving Player Choices".
Gamasutra 2004.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040310/fullerton_01.shtml
Group #3 Game Presentation
March 3rd - Game Document
*Mark Cerny & Michael John: Myth vs. Method. Game Developer June 2002
See also its audiovisual presentation at http://www.gamasutra.com/features/slides/cerny/index.htm
* Tim Ryan: "The Anatomy of a Design Document, Part 1: Documentation Guidelines
for the Game Concept and Proposal". Gamasutra 1999.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19991019/ryan_01.htm
*Tim Ryan: "The Anatomy of a Design Document, Part 2: Documentation Guidelines
for the Functional and Technical Specifications". Gamasutra 1999.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19991217/ryan_01.htm
Group #4 Game Presentation ( Lisa, Luise, Mads and Peter)
March 10th - Genres - Platforms
Games galore!
*Keita Takahashi. The Singular Design of Katamari Damacy.
Postmortem. Game
Developer Magazine. December 2004.
Group #5 Game Presentation - Susanne M¯ller Nielsen /Jonas Koop / Rasmus
Wind / Roman Spycher
March 17th - Storytelling
*Jesper Juul. Games telling stories? A brief note on games and narratives.
Game Studies. http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/juul-gts/
* Don Carson: "Environmental Storytelling: Creating Immersive 3D Worlds Using
Lessons Learned from the Theme Park Industry". Gamasutra 2000.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000301/carson_01.htm
Group #6 Game Presentation - Anna and Sissel and Jeppe
March 24th
Easter Holiday
March 31st - Production - Testing
*Bill Fulton: "Beyond Psychological Theory: Getting Data that Improve Games".
Gamasutra 2002.
http://www.gamasutra.com/gdc2002/features/fulton/fulton_01.htm
* Medlock, Wixon, Terrano, Romero, Fulton: "Using the RITE method to improve
products; a definition and a case study". 2003.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/c/c/5cc406a0-0f87-4b94-bf80-dbc707db4fe1/mgsut_MWTRF02.doc.doc
Group #7 Game Presentation - Ole Toubro, Jakob Nielsen and Frederik Hermund.
Extra reading:
* http://www.microsoft.com/playtest/publications.htm
April 7th - Serious Games
*Stewart Woods. Loading the
Dice: the challenge of Serious Games. Game Studies,
2004.
*Gonzalo Frasca. Videogames
of the Oppressed: critical thinking, education, tolerance and other trivial
issues. in First Person: New Media as Story,
Performance, and
Game Pat Harrington and Noah Wardrip-Fruin (Eds.) MIT Press, 2004.
Recommended reading: Augusto Boal. Games for Actors and non-actors. Routledge.
Group #8 Game Presentation - Hakan / Peter Josef / Martin
April 14th - Games as communication / Advergaming
*Gonzalo Frasca. Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology
in The Video Game Theory Reader, Edited by Mark J.P. Wolf & Bernard
Perron. Routledge, 2003.
*Gonzalo Frasca. Playing
for the White House: videogames in the curent US Presidential Campaign, Interact Magazine
Group #9 Game Presentation - Mads Hansen / Sune Matras / Joseph Philip
April 21th - Game Marketing / The workplace
*Ian MacInnes. Internet Business Models:
New Options for Game Developers. http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000605/macinnes_01.htm
*Candy packaging
http://www.jasonzada.com/special/japanesedesign/
*ArmchairArcade. Game Packaging
http://www.armchairarcade.com/aamain/content.php?article.20
*
EA Spouse. http://www.livejournal.com/users/ea_spouse/274.html
April 29th
Hand-in of exam (oral examination dates will be set later)
Details on Presentations/Exam
Click here to view ideas/brainstorms
Game Presentations: They will be held by groups of 4 students, based on a
game or videogame that they selected (we need to agree on a list so there
is no
overlapping). The presentations will need to answer most of the following
questions: why the
game is relevant, how they relate to other games, positives and negative
aspects, possible modifications, information about the designer(s), design
constraints.
The group will hand in a short document (2-4 pages) describing the game.
Presentations can be done through any form that the presenters consider
to be pertinent.
The duration of the presentation will not exceed 30 minutes, including
questions.
Exam: The final exam requires that groups submit a game design, a design
document, a production report and a prototype. The defense will be done
individually and orally.
You can use this example as a template of design document (use only the design document within that zip file). Remember that this is a template. You may need to add or remove sections depending on your design. Remember also to include at least the description of one game session that goes through the most relevant aspects of your game.
The production report should include a schedule and a post-production section (aka postmortem) where you describe what went right and wrong with your production.