Lecture 2: 11Mar2010 The Essence of Games and Quick'n'Dirty Implementation

Today you have learned about that you can design hardware for a game very cheap, very easily, very fast, as long as you are creative. This should not be a problem, as you are artists!

Secondly, you learned that in order to create better games it helps if you get to the essence of things. How do you get there? An easy way for you is to ask the 'sports' person in your team to take you along to his team/club/class and interview people what they feel when they are participating. You can then go back and design for this 'feeling'.

Example: You interview surfers, and they might tell you they get a high when they have only seconds to decide what to do, after minutes of calmness waiting for the next wave. Then you can design for this high, as you know you need the calmness to get there, and you'll add a timer so that the time pressure is also there. And then you use this as a guide for every decision you make: "Do we need X in our design?""Well, does it help to support the high? Does it support the calmness?"Does it support the time pressure?".
Because during your design (and real life), you will have to make compromises, and its important to have a guide to make the right decisions. So think about your essence of your game first before you think about implementation.

Thanks again for the first 2 presentations! You have seen how quickly time runs, so, next week's teams, focus on only a few (1-2) points in the paper (skip what you do not think is important), it's okay if different presenters get the same message across in different ways. And bring your key message on a big piece of paper!


Homework for next week:

• Prepare Madness!
• 1 min presentation
• 2 min feedback
• Read the two papers under schedule for next week
• If you are presenting next week, practice timing!
• Read also: Tips to working successfully in a group

Class 8: How it all comes together

Hi,

Today you hopefully saw how all the individual pieces of the "exertion game puzzle" can come together: each conceptual theory piece you were introduced along the way formed the larger puzzle of what it means to design such exertion games.

And on this journey, you might have gained some insights on presentation skills, teamwork, arguing, discussing, etc.

I hope this was all useful.

Homework
Powerpoint slide of your project by midnight!
Enter project URLs into blog
Enter comments on blog before next Thursday
Enter grades before next Thursday
Next Thursday: in Stefan’s office: 4.30-7.30: feedback
1 week later: grades

For your comments below, here is a suggestion:

You all seemed to like the Nike+, and there was a good question from Michele what aspect of it is a game. Now think of all the concepts on the whiteboard: using any of these concepts, how could Nike+ be improved, and why?

Thanks again for a great opportunity to interact with your bright minds.

Thanks,
Floyd

Class 5: Difference between a good and a very good game

Today you have learned about how a mindset on the design themes for exertion games can make a difference between a good game and a very good game.

You have also practiced presenting an elevator pitch, and received feedback from the entire class on your project.

You have also learned that you can easily extend your game to the physical world with Arduinos and the Wiimote, please refer to the groups' members if you have any questions.

Please make sure you check the project presentation page that you know your team's letter and when to present your final project.

Homework

Use today’s feedback in your project
Your project needs a webpage!
Prepare a 5 min presentation of your project
Enter your blog comment
Read presentationzen.com

Class 4: designing exertion games

Today you've learned about the process of designing exertion games, and the themes

• social
• emotion
• mind-body loop
• mind body conflict?
• performance

when it comes to designing for the body. These themes should help you in creating your project, and they should also help you in arguing why your game is any good!

(This differentiates you from those clever 14 year-olds: they might also create a great game, but they cannot argue why it is any good, and hence cannot tell their future employees how to make another great game. By understanding why your game is great, you will be able to do it again!)

Homework:

Prepare for "Projects Madness": 1 min presentation + 2 min feedback from class
Use today’s design knowledge in your project
Enter your blog comment (and don't forget to comment on today's presentation styles!)

Homework for Pranee: reply to Ian Bogost

Comment to Michele's comment on the brain-interface:

Think about the theme "mind-body loop" when designing exertion games: what does it mean to design for the mind-body loop? Focusing on the brain alone does not seem to be the best approach with that in mind. (I understand for some it might be the only way to communicate, so there is a space for that). But do you think you can create better games if you would have such an interface?

Further thought: Anton Nijholt (NL) has done experiments where he measured brain activity: he asked people to IMAGINE moving a box: the brain activity in certain parts was X volts. Then he asked the same people to imagine moving a box WHILE moving their hands as if they are moving a box. The brain activity was >X Volts.

The question for us is not WHY?, but WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOUR GAME DESIGN?

Can you see that this is what Guitar Hero does? It does not only make you THINK (see imagining moving the box) you are a rockstar by putting up all the graphics & sound etc, it ALSO strengthens these emotions that make you think you are a rockstar by encouraging you to do the associated MOVEMENTS: they give you a guitar, so you stand like a rockstar, but they also reward tilting it upwards in the gameplay (even though it does not add anything the way you play (regular) guitar), making it a much more emotional game (through imagining fantasy play) than if they would have just giving you the buttons and the strum bar.

Comments appreciated on what does this mean for YOUR game.

Social play chapter

Hi,

I've just emailed the reading material: chapter "social play" for the presentation, as this was the only one i could not get online. Here it is again:

http://digital.lib.rmit.edu.au/ereserve/notes09/math2130/31259007731198.pdf

Cheers,
Floyd

Class 3: Guest lecture

Today you had a guest lecture from Gerard who talked to you about different types of physical games and gave you ideas about how to implement your project ideas. Furthermore, you received feedback on your ideas in order to be able to refine them.

Slides are here.


Please post any comments on the class from 30 Apr 09 in the comments below.

Homework:

• Enter your blog comment
• Read the two papers under schedule for next week
  
• If you are presenting next week, practice timing!
• Watch: Time management

Thanks for the 'Magnificent 7' to post the pictures!

We still need a group to present paper 4!!!

Class 2: Exertion Games

Today you have learned about how physicality plays out when interacting with the Wii, and as you have seen, this is a heated debate! However, as all presenters have pointed out, there is room for improvement, so with your project is your chance to demonstrate how a perfect physical game could look like!

I feel like I did not answer the question on the project properly (sorry!), so I would like to clarify it here:

I would like to see you come up with a physical game. This means NOT a mouse/keyboard/gamepad game. (Simply because you have plenty of opportunities to do them in other classes).
You CAN do a physical (not exertion) games, but you might need to argue that it is physical (see for example a tabletop game). Considering the topic of the class, you should try to make it very physical and utilize exertion: this is your chance to try out something new and challenging, so you should take it!

I hope this is a bit more focused than my previous answer, and I apologize if I have not been clear enough earlier, but I hope it helps you to create something unique for this class.


Please post any comments on the class from 23 Apr 09 in the comments below. In particular comments and praise about the second presentation, as we ran out of time to give much feedback for Michele and Rhys, sorry!

Homework:

• Agree on an idea for your project, but be prepared to change it!
• Enter your blog comment
• Read the two papers under schedule for week after next
  
• If you are presenting week after next, practice timing!
• Watch for week after next: Time management

To the 2 teams who presented: could you please upload your slides and photographs to the blog please? And your comments could include advice for the upcoming teams on how to prepare for the presentation!

We still need a group to present paper 4!!!

And just in case you have missed the video that was shown during class or want to watch it again: