GDG this Thursday

The Game Deconstruction Group is meeting this Thursday night. All welcome.

Ass 3: Postmortem

It seems I haven’t really told you clearly enough what I expect for the post-mortem, so I’ve made the design diary and post-mortem from the Great Big Rescue project available for you to download as examples of what I am looking for.

Note that you only have to submit one diary and one post-mortem for your group (unless you have had a major falling out and want to have your own say).

I’ll also give you 3 days extension in case anyone suddenly realises they’ve done the wrong thing. No marks will be deducted until after Wed 11:59pm.

Ass 3: Post-mortem submission

I’ve set up give to accept submissions for the post-mortem (and design diary) with by the usual methods.

Game Connect Asia Pacific

As I mentioned during the seminar today, the Game Connect Asia Pacific conference is holding independent games competition. A “beta” of the game needs to be submitted (in 3 hard copies) by October 30, so you don’t have much time left, but some of you should serious consider submitted the games you made for the course. There are (unspecified) prizes for Best Gameplay, Best Graphics and Best Unsigned Game, and all finalists get free entry to the GCAP Expo.

Prize Winners + Big World Tour

Congratulations to “Brotherhood of Awesome” (Sam, Sasha, Jimmy and Priscilla) winners of the Micro Forte prize for most innovative game design for their game Nightlight.

And thankyou to everyone who demo’ed today. Steve always tells me how impressed with the creativity you exhibit and the remarkable things you manage to build in such limited time. If any of you are interested in pursuing a career in game development, he told me that he’d be happy to hear from you. I won’t post his email here, but if you do want to get in touch with him let me know and I’ll send you his address privately.

In connection to this, some of you expressed an interest in taking a tour of the Big World offices and seeing a tech demo. Steve has graciously agreed to do this as long as we give him sufficient warning. Can I have a show of hands (by email) who would be interested in doing this and what times you might be available? Would sometime next week be good, or will you all be too busy studying?

Two more games about drugs

Two games that include interesting drug-addiction mechanics:

• Addicsjon, by Arvi Teikari
• Insomnia, by William Saunders

IE2009 Volunteers

UNSW is hosting the Interactive Entertainment conference this December 17-19. This is an academic conference about games. I’m looking for people who are interested to help out as volunteers – stuffing bags, welcoming participants, moving things and any other general dogs-body jobs that come to hand. In return you get free registration to the conference (usually $300) and my undying gratitude.

If you’re interested, please email me.

Taking it further

If anyone is interested in taking game design further, I would be happy to supervise you in a longer project. CSE offers two ‘Special Project’ subjects COMP3901 (6 UoC) and COMP3902 (12 UoC). To enrol as a CSE student you need a permission email from me which you then forward to the School Office. For non-CSE students, you could possibly do it as a General Education subject, but you will need to consult with your own School Office to make sure. For a longer project there is also the option of doing an Honours thesis — although negotiating that for non-CSE students could be tricky.

If you are going to one of these projects we will need to negotiate a topic and an appropriate set of milestones. I have posted a list of potential topics on the blog, but if you have a different idea I am happy to negotiate it with you. The only conditions are:

1. It has to be somehow innovative, either in the topic, design or implementation.
2. I would expect you to do the full design process, researching your topic/audience, pitching ideas, prototyping and playtesting.

My main areas of interest are: serious games, innovative interface devices and game AI.

Of course this offer is not made automatically and I reserve the right to pick and choose. You will need to convince me that I am not wasting my time.

Tut Wk 12: Serious game

Okay, today’s tutorial is a tough one. We’re going to design a game with a message. I want you to brainstorm a game about drugs and drug addiction (based on the drug of your choice including alcohol, tobacco or caffeine). The message you present is up to you, but I want you to take the topic seriously, not frivolously.

First of all, we’ll analyse the “game” that comprises all the people and activities that are connected with drug use. Imagine you are doing your game analysis assignment, but the game is the real world. Brainstorm the following:

1. Who are the players in the ‘drug use’ game? Think beyond just the users and consider all the other people involved.
2. What are the defining qualities of the experience for each player (i.e. the aesthetics)? Try doing an 8-kinds of fun analysis.
3. What are the goals of the different players?
4. What are the resource economies? What are the rules?
5. What constitutes ‘winning’ or ‘losing’? What are the rewards and penalties for different players?
6. What are the meaningful choices?
7. What is the game dynamics of drug use? Are there any feedback loops? How do they operate?

Discuss what you have found with the class.

Based on this analysis, come up with a game idea that provides the player with an understanding of some aspect of the system you have uncovered. Consider:

1. What kind of experience do you want them to have?
2. How will your game entertain?
3. What message will you provide?
4. What kinds of mechanics/dynamics will you use?

Discuss you game ideas with the class.

Play Arkasia (a student game from the MIT Gambit Lab). What does it mean?

After you have played and discussed the game, read the author’s statement. Does the game convery what they were intending?

For those interested in taking this further, the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre has approached us with an interest in using computer games as a tool for teaching high-school students about drugs. I would be happy to supervise a longer term project in this area.

Journal Wk12: Serious games

Play and comment on the following ’serious’ games:

• Dafur is Dying
• DriverSeat
• Super Columbine Massacre RPG
• Oiligarchy

What is are the messages of these games? How well does the gameplay convey the message?

You can find a lot more discussion of serious games at Ian Bogost’s Water Cooler Games.