Game Design Advance

Unless you were living in New York City this past Spring it’s unlikely that you were able to attend any of the series of lectures by game industry luminaries hosted at NYU’s new Game Center and moderated by the Center’s Director Frank Lantz. Well now each of the lectures are available as a podcast through iTunes, which you can find by simply searching ‘NYU Game Center’.

The lecture series included:

• Dr. Ian Bogost, author of Persuasive Games
• Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid
• Warren Spector, creator of Ultima: Underworld, the Thief series, and Deus Ex
• Marc LeBlanc, creator of the MDA framework
• Eric Zimmerman + Katie Salen, co-authors of Rules of Play

 
Highlights from the series include Ian Bogost literally speaking Greek (which is hilarious when you think about it), Jon Blow confessing that he doesn’t really play test his games, and Warren Spector saying that the most important story in a game is the player’s and then saying that he’s more interested in making games with authored stories. Also, if you want to know what I sound like, I’m the guy that asks a question in almost every Q&A session (and isn’t Eric Zimmerman).

The lecture series will be returning in the Fall and those will also be made available in podcast form!

Update: You can also download all the podcasts at the Game Center’s website here.

4 Comments »

An interesting conversation is going on in the world of Chess, where rules modifications, including something called a “slight win”, are being proposed to address issues like too many draws and general watchability/playability issues. It’s interesting to watch how this “authorless” game undergoes design evolution through a process of player activism and institutional policy.

I found out about this via Tyler Cowen’s blog. Tyler is a well-known economist. His angle on the proposed changes, and the econ-centric comments on his post, are fascinating.

One commentator put it: “Great. Having screwed up finance and economics beyond rescue, you guys now want to screw up chess too.”

No Comments »

As some of you may already know New York University has recently begun organizing a new department that focuses on game design and development called the Game Center. To kick things off NYU has been hosting a series of lectures by game industry luminaries such as Ian Bogost and Jonathan Blow, hosted by friend and founder of Game Design Advance, Frank Lantz.

So far the talks have been very interesting, with a good back-and-forth between the speakers, Frank, and the audience. The talks are open to the public and there are a few heavy-hitters coming up that would be a shame to miss:

Thursday, April 16th from 6 – 8PM
Warren Spector, influential game designer presently working with Disney Interactive.

Thursday, April 23rd from 6 – 8PM
Marc “Mahk” LeBlanc, creator of the MDA framework, a powerful conceptual approach to game design.

Thursday, April 30th from 6:30 – 8PM
Eric Zimmerman & Katie Salen, co-authors of the groundbreaking book on game design, Rules of Play.

Friday, May 8th from 6 – 8PM
Clint Hocking, pioneering game designer whose work explores new directions for blending narrative and gameplay.

The talks are being held in the Tisch Building, 721 Broadway, in Room 006.

No Comments »

There are a couple of interesting things happening in New York City soon:

Frank Lantz, the founder of Game Design Advance, among other things, is giving a talk this Friday in Tribeca. This is a great opportunity in that Frank rarely gives long, solo talks, especially on some of the more esoteric things that go on in his head. The talk starts at 8pm this Friday, March 20th; tickets are $10 and can be ordered online or purchased at the door.  More info is here:

Frank Lantz – How Games Mean

Another upcoming event is The New Museum of Contemporary Art’s first triennial exhibition, which is going to feature Mark Essen’s brilliant game Flywrench. I’ve sung my praises for the game and am happy that it’s getting some great exposure. The exhibition is featuring a range of artists and will be mounted sometime next month. You can read about the event in The New York Times here:

Art of the Computer Generation

I’ll post an update when a start date gets pinned down.

No Comments »

From Noopur Agarwal, a friend who works at mtvU:

Hey guys — I would really appreciate if you could help me spread the word about a contest we are doing. It’s for Indebted, our new campaign about the fiscal crisis.

We are asking young people (ages 18-28) to propose an idea for an online video game to help raise awareness and encourage action.  The winner will receive $10K and be credited in the game.  It’s a pretty easy way to make some extra cash.  The details on the contest can be found here: http://indebted.mtvu.com/the-challenge/.  Please spread the word to anyone you know under age 29 — they do NOT need to have any gaming experience.

And for a quick sense of what the campaign is all about, watch the 30 minute version of the documentary IOUSA (the 90 minute version has just been shortlisted for an Oscar nom!).  Here is the link: http://indebted.mtvu.com/iousa-video/

Thanks, in advance, for your help!

Well, I’m technically too old to apply, but sounds like a great opportunity!

No Comments »

You may enjoy this write-up of a panel I was on at Austin GDC.

3 Comments »

If any of you all find yourself in New York City this Friday you might want to drop by The New Museum around 7:30pm. It’ll be hosting a talk with Mark ‘messhof’ Essen, Jason Rohrer, and Greg Costikyan. The entry fee is $8 for the general public and $6 dollars if you happen to be a member of the museum.

Both Essen and Rohrer are the creators of two of my favorite independent games (Flywrench and Passage, respectively) and Greg Costikyan is a vetran game designer who started indie game publisher Manifesto Games. I’ve been to a talk with Costikyan before and he’s always entertainingly misanthropic. I’ve never heard either Essen or Rohrer speak, so I’m looking forward to this very much.

I hope to see some of you there!

No Comments »

A specter is haunting the world: the specter of my newest game!

However, there’s another old ghost that’s been haunting my mind, lately. When the news of the Fed’s proposed plan to bail out Wall Street was announced last week, I was reminded of an old line I always attributed to Ronald Reagan, though I’m not sure he was the one who said it. “The problem with communism,” as the Gipper might’ve said, “is that it takes away your freedom to fail.”

Now, I’m no fan of Reagan (warning to anybody else who watches TMC regularly: “Knute Rockne, All-American” sucks) and I’m smart enough not to consider myself a Marxist-Leninist (at least not openly; more on that later) but there’s always been something about that line that struck me as interesting, from a purely non-political angle. Since this is a game design blog, it stands to reason that the freedom to fail must have some relevance to how we design games, particularly when it comes to the losing.

Continue Reading »

15 Comments »

Was just reading the latest issue of Seed while doing my laundry on this lazy Saturday… a great issue dedicated to all things evolving. There’s three articles related to Spore, including a one-on-one with Will Wright about the future (not the future of games, but THE future). Just as I was thinking I should write a post about this enjoyable magazine and the gaming related content, along comes Frank Lantz and his take on Spore:

“Here’s a game — supposedly about evolution — in which sexual reproduction is tastefully absent… and then as soon as the [Spore] editor comes out, there’s this enormous Cambrian Explosion, a Burgess Shale of digital erotica. And then those images were realy good at reproducing themselves as players sent links and images around to each other. So, it turns out that sex is good at reproducing itself. How funny and ironic is that?”

Not as ironic as the fact this article/quote appeared in a magazine called Seed.

1 Comment »

Some of you may remember when Frank Lantz, founder and friend of Game Design Advance, was listed as an ‘eminent game designer‘ over on Play This Thing. Now area/code, Frank’s company, has been profiled on Gamasutra as one of 2008′s Breakthrough Developers.

I interned at ‘a/c’ and consider myself very lucky to have had the experience of working beside the folks over there. Congratulations to all of them!

1 Comment »