Syllabus

Class 1 (3/5/2007)

In class

• Introduction
  • workshop format: syllabus overview
  • info-sharing and communication tools: wiki, listserv, del.icio.us

• Why BUGs?
• Presentation of BUG case studies
  • Big Urban Game, PacManhattan, Conqwest, Superstar Tokyo, Mogi-Mogi, Cruel 2 B Kind, Identity, Uncle Roy All Around You
  • game context (what occasion, what location)
  • gameplay (rules, who played, objective)
  • implementation (technology, infrastructure, additional components)

Assignments

1. GAME 1: NROG (New Rules, Old Games)

• 4 teams of 4
• You will remix a game; create a new rule set for an old game
• choose from Scrabble, Chess, Chinese Checkers, Go, Risk

• Quick one-page analysis of the existing game vis-a-vis its
  • Rules - What are the rules? What components (game board, pieces) are used?
  • Gameplay - How do you play it? What are you supposed to do? What types of strategies, offensive/defensive/etc., are developed?
  • Experience - What do you feel playing it? Does it encourage conflict/tension? Or cooperation? Why is the game fun (or not)? What are key dramatic, pivotal moments in the game?

• Create a new game based on the existing game
  • How are the above criteria altered after your intervention?
• Prepare a short presentation that includes
  • your analyses of the new game you've created
  • a concise, one-page documentation of your NROG (see examples)
  • be prepared to play the game in the following class (we'll set aside 20 minutes for presentation and play).

Resources

• Make Magazine Issue 8: Toys and Games, 'Homebrew Game Design', pp.50-53

• Rules of Play, Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman
  • Ironclad (p. 286-297), commissioned game by Frank Lantz
  • Chapter 9: The Magic Circle, p.93-99
• General Suggested Reading/Reference:
  • Unit 1: Core Concepts, pp.28-105
  • Unit 2: Rules, pp.116-285
  • Unit 3: Play, pp.298-487

• The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology, Salen and Zimmerman, eds.
  • Tools for Creating Dramatic Game Dynamics (pp.438-459), Marc Leblanc
  • Game Design as Narrative Architecture (pp.670-689), Henry Jenkins

• Gamasutra interview with Frank Lantz

• New Rules for Classic Games, R. Wayne Schmittberger
  • Chess remixes, p.185
  • Go remixes, p.58
  • Scrabble remixes, p.87
  • Chinese Checkers remixes, p.8
  • Risk remixes, p.48

Class 2 (3/19/2007)

In class

• Recap of Class 1
• Play / critique NROGs
• Discussion of Urban Site Analysis
• Discussion of GAME 2: SSUG (small somewhat urban game)

Assignments

URBAN ANALYSIS

• Each group will pick a urban feature of New York to analyze
• Scale of the 'site' can vary: a particular block, blocks, landmark, neighborhood, street, one borough, all five boroughs, etc.
• Focus on a set of salient data points of your site, for example:
  • S (block): location of mailboxes or phone booths, pedestrian behavior, traffic patterns
  • M (neighborhood): arrangement of streets, deployment of bldg numbers, building heights
  • L (Manhattan): locations of Starbucks, a particular subway line, real estate values, zoning patterns
  • XL (metropolitan New York): MTA subway routes, interborough traffic patterns, borough/ethnic identities, zip codes
• Record/map/examine the the data you find: How does the urban infrastructure influence behavior around the site? What dynamic systems (rules, forces, and movement patterns) are at work? How is your site physically defined?
• Diagram and record this information into a single drawing or physical model
  • documentation should be abstract and diagrammatic
  • this will be presented in class 3

Resources

• The Good Life, roundtable discussions
  • 'The Fun City,' p.49
  • 'The Connected City,' p.65

• Image of the City, Kevin Lynch. "The City Image and its Elements," pp.46-90

• Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents, Tom McDonough ed. "Situationist Space," Tom McDonough
  • 'Architecture and Play,' by Libero Andreotti, p.213-240
  • 'Situationist Space,' by Tom McDonough, p. 241-265

Class 3 (3/26/2007)

In class

• Technology / media survey presentation
  • tools, the state of the art
  • techniques
  • GPS, ubiquitous computing, mobile tech, open mapping protocols (google/yahoo maps)

• Presentation of Urban Site Analysis

Assignments GAME 2: SSUG (small somewhat urban game)

• Create a game by distilling the Urban Site Analysis into a gameboard
  • design a game around what you have learned in your site analysis, using scale, data points, dynamic systems
  • outline the gameplay using symbolic pieces for players and for key urban elements used in the game
  • test, to the greatest extent possible, the gameplay out on the gameboard
  • prepare a basic outline of the incomplete game for presentation - overview, rules, gameplay, pieces, open questions

Resources

Class 4 (4/2/2007)

In class

• Guest presentation: Frank Lantz

"Play/critique/evaluate BUGs

Assignments

• Continue to design / develop / playtest / refine BUG

Resources

Class 5 (4/9/2007)

In class

• Guest presentation: Carlos Gomez de Llarrenna
• Guest presentation: Come Out and Play kids

• Play/critique/evaluate BUGs

Assignments

• Continue to design / develop / playtest / refine BUG

Resources

Class 6 (4/16/2007)

In class

• Guest presentation: Midnight Madness crew

Assignments

• Continue to design / develop / playtest / refine BUG
  • final review will be played by members of Columbia GSAPP community, not by BUG class students

Resources