Game Design Advance

So what games are you people currently playing — or have played recently — of note?

I wrapped Rockstar’s “Bully” a couple of days ago. Good game. Basically the same concept and structure as the GTA series, but set in a somewhat smaller world and which substantially less complicated games and puzzles (only twice or thrice did I have to repeat a challenge because I failed it — as opposed to the last couple GTA games which both had some major difficulty points). It did, though, have plenty of the snarky cultural parodies that the GTA series was also known for (as Charles put it, sort of parodying the video game genre and even player themselves). Anyway, I enjoyed it. But it didn’t really break any new ground. GTA with slingshots rather than guns.

I also dipped my feet into “World of Warcraft” over the winter holiday. Which was… disappointing? I hesitate to call it, in my limited two-week experience, even an MMORPG. It’s a classic questing-kill-the-monster-get-the-trinket game except on a huge scale and with other human-played characters rushing around. Only on a couple of occasions did it feel substantially different than, say, the GTA series: Once when I happened upon another human character that happened to be on the same quest and we teams up for a bit and kicked some ass. Second when a group of human-played baddies raided my town and everyone fritzed out and got into a big kerfuffle. That was cool, except my sad little 14th level dude (or whatever) just got raked by the level 60 raiders. Oh, and my character was a Night Elf. Which, I gather from Chris P., is sort of the equivalent of posting whatever Cure song you happen to be listening to at the end of each of your LiveJournal posts. Or something. My free trial ran out, and I’m not particularly compelled to continue playing WoW. But it was worth trying out.

Anyway. Enough about me…

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Hey guys,

So here is a recap of the Slamdance Controversy:
Official Site: http://slamdance.com/games/

The Game: http://www.columbinegame.com/

Eurogamer Article: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=72062
and http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=72081

NYTimes article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/arts/28chap.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

And finally, I am not the only person to have not played Final Fantasy: http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72579-0.html?tw=wn_index_5

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I was going to start a Jelly site for Game Play impressions of games with screenshots and text and what not, But I didn’t want to make anything external to this blog, because no one would check it.

I’m never backing down on my belief that games need to be experienced to be understood, not watched. This was very evident in class as you could clearly hear the misconceptions of those who had never played FFXII versus those had glanced at it. In that example, the game mechanic of scripting and distributing AI to your party members and plowing through game fields areas is a radical step in gameplay. The essence of FFXII is tweaking your AI for your environment, the pleasure is in discovering the effects of simple rules you changed as you let them play out. This is not something you can watch and understand. To see it as another narrative driven RPG speaks only about its genre, and speaks nothing about the heart of its gameplay.

On the other hand, If Frank was suggesting that we should be learned enough to understand the larger structures at a glance, I think he’s definitely right. But I think of it this way: that we maybe, with experience, we can be learned enough to play a game somewhat briefly, and from that glance of a gameplay experience, we might be able to understand what the game design might be driving at. I wouldn’t bet on it, because a lot of games have a sort of progressive narrative of gameplay rules themselves that you can only understand by putting the time in. But a glance is still worth a glance.

Anyway, the next best thing to playing a game to me is to hear or read someone’s impressions of gameplay experience rather than to watch a video of the gameplay. So I’m hoping a bunch of us will be able to play, even briefly, some of the slamdance games and describe our experience in words.

How should we do it? Does that belong on this blog? Should all game impression write-ups be in the comments to this post ? Should they be individual posts , with comments being other people’s impressions on the same game? Should I set up a new site to meet this structure better? Let me know.

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class advanced game:

What is wanted for the class

- long term commitment perspective
- Not about making a game for this class specifically nor analysis per se but fueling current and future projects.
- no particular “homework” but indeed personal involvment and proposition of work.

Prerequisites

- Importance of terminology: not really, most of the vocabulary is common one.
- game knowledge: being literate (see list of games to know about what a literate person is)

Goal?

- Notion of Deep play (don’t accuse me, I wasn’t the one saying that)
- jonathan blow? game ‘Braid‘ , his webPage link!
- what can video games can explain and tell us… or something, I didn’t catch the name (book by him according to his majesty Charles the First)

People and what they want to do

- Josh Knowles, fell in love with games during ITP.
- Chris Paretti worked in games.
- Thomas Duc was interested in games and finally found a place to (try) to talk about it seriously.
- jury big screens public space phone.
- huinong yang?(sorry for butchering a name) text games. game theory interest (journey to wild devine, brainball)
- fusrine?(sorry for butchering a name) flash games + interest in theory
- Ming sun lee(sorry for butchering a name) also known as James Bond Sam. Interested in designing small games.
- sinan(sorry for butchering a name) Interest in user experience designer, how game are compelling.
- Mat Fargo : peripheral stuff for game companies. Took classes in game in berkeley.
- Charles (also known as his majesty Charles the first), game and interactive art.
- charly, (also known as his majesty Charles the second)future of games, pushing the enveloppe. Experimental work
- Rob: interest in play for short term, casual games.
- Robert: research project , games and learning : game designer research.
Domain of game design for kids, Game behaviors
- Oren Ross, undergrade in games. thesis??? game, serious game?
- Tikva (sorry didn’t catch this one Tikva).
- Lea period piece game.
- Kunal game design experience and got sick of it because bad experiences. social game and rules.
- Franky. Interaction design
- Bob trying to get to game templates
- Derek, Gamer. tries to be taken seriously.

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From the syllabus:

The games industry is in the midst of a creative, technical, and commercial explosion, and games are poised to become the defining art form of the 21st century. Or are they disposable pop culture stuck in a rut of adolescent power fantasies and mindless escapism? Is it possible that both of these things are true, or neither?

This seminar is designed for students who have had some experience creating games and are familiar with the basic principles of game design and interested in tackling more advanced topics in this emerging discipline.

The structure of the class will be dynamic and student-led, with a focus on discussion and analysis. We will look at examples of existing games in depth. Students will be encouraged to share the game projects they are working on outside the class for feedback and critique. Each session will revolve around a specific game design issue or problem. Some of these issues will be brought to the class by the instructor and some will emerge through discussion and debate.

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