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 / Bot Fighters
  • 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 analysis 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 pre- and post-op games
  • a concise 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).

2. 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.
• data points
• urban analysis of a particular site in the city
• focus on a set of salient data points of your site
• examine the site characteristics: what rules govern its organization? How do functional site elements (traffic light, bus stop, hour of day, building heights etc., influence behavior around the site? what are the rules and forces at work in a particular site? what dynamic systems influence or affect the site?
• diagram and record this information in a single document using any combination of photographs, diagrams, illustrations

Resources

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

• Rules of Play, Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman
  • Rules
  • Ironclad (p. 286-297), commissioned game by Frank Lantz

• 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

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

Class 2 (3/19/2007)

In class

• Play / critique SAGs
• Guest: Ariel Churi
• Discussion of Urban Site Analysis
• Discussion of GAME 2: SSUG (small somewhat urban game)

Assignments GAME 2: SSUG (small somewhat urban game)

• Create a game by distilling the Urban Site Analysis into an abstract, diagrammatic representation
  • aka as a gameboard
  • design a game around what you have learned in your site analysis, using scale, data points, dynamic systems
  • generate a rule set for your game, but is abstract -- played out on gameboard
  • prepare a basic outline of the incomplete game for presentation - overview, rules, gameplay, pieces, open questions

Resources

• "The Good Life, roundtable discussions
  • Fun City, Connected City

• Archigram

• The Situationist International
  • Architecture and Play, p.213
  • Situationist Space, p. 241

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)

• Play/critique SSUGs (20-25 mins each)

Guest: Amit

• Discussion of GAME 2-3: SSUG --> BIG (big urban game)

Assignments

GAME 2-3: SSUG --> BIG (big urban game)

ONE BIG GAME

1. Choose one game in the class to develop further?
2. Begin to concept out a new big game as a class?

SEVERAL BIG GAMES

1. Continue to refine individual SSUGs into BUGs
2. Being to concept out new big games in individual groups

Play/develop game in the real space of the city"

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