Course Home | Course Assignments

Note:  Dates for assignments and mid-terms below are fixed and will not change.  The schedule for specific lecture content, however, is subject to change.  Changes to lecture content will be announced in class.  

This course is based on a course originally developed by Professor Jim Whitehead at UC Santa Cruz.

Week 1: Key Game Design Issues, Definition of Game

August 19:
Course overview, key issues in video game design.
Read: Preface (pp. xii-xv), About This Book (pp. 1-9) of Rules of Play.
Read: Adventure as a Video Game: Adventure for the Atari 2600, Warren Robinett
Slides: pdf here

August 21:
Blogging about game play sessions (gamelogs). What is play, what is a game. The magic circle.
Read: Chapter 7 (Defining Games, pp. 71-83), Chapter 8 (Defining Digital Games, pp. 85-91), Chapter 9 (The Magic Circle, pp. 93-99) in Rules of Play.
Read: Chapter 2, pp. 36-43 only, in Half-Real, Jesper Juul.
Slides: pdf here

Week 2: Game Rules, Organization of Time in Games

August 24:
Role played by rules in a game (rules as limitations or affordances)
Qualities of rules, rules on three levels (operational, constituative, implicit)
Gameplay rules & gameworld rules
Read: Chapter 11 (Defining Rules, pp. 119-125), Chapter 12 (Rules on Three Levels, pp. 127-139) of Rules of Play.
Read: Chapter 3, pages 55-61 of Half-Real, Jesper Juul.
Due: Assignment One: Game session log: game of your choice.
Slides: pdf here

August 26:
Rules of digital games, emergent complexity in rule systems,
Games of emergence and progression, state machines,
Finite state automata, Conway's game of "Life"
Read: Chapter 13 (The Rules of Digital Games, pp. 141-149), Chapter 14 (Games as Emergent Systems, pp. 151-171) of Rules of Play.
Read: Chapter 3, pages 61-83, of Half-Real, Jesper Juul
Slides: pdf here

August 28:
No class
Due: Assignment Two: Team selection for game design project one

Week 3: Temporal Aspects of Games

August 31:

No class

September 2:
No class (canceled, instructor sick)

September 4:

Temporal aspects of games: Game exhaustion, segmentation of gameplay
Read: Game ontology website, www.gameontology.org
Slides: pdf here

Week 4: Creating Games with Game Maker

September 7:
Labor Day.  No class.

September 9:

Continuation of segmentation of gameplay, Introduction to Game Maker.

Read: Game ontology website, www.gameontology.org , Designing Games with Game Maker, pages 7-14
Slides: pdf here

Due: Assignment Four: Game concept document for project one

September 11:

Introduction to Game Maker, sprites, objects, events, rooms, keypresses

Read: Designing Games with Game Maker, pages 14-37
Slides: no slides -- all content demonstrated in Game Maker

Week 5: More Game Maker Background

Game examples from UCSC, Potential exam topics

Read: no assigned reading for today
Slides: pdf here.

September 16:

Exam #1

Due: Assignment Five: Work breakdown and schedule for game project one

September 18:

Overview of World of Warcraft Development, Introduction to Game Maker score, lives and health

Read: Gamasutra article on Blizzard and WoW

The Game Maker's Apprentice

Slides: PDF here

Week 6: Mid-Term Review

September 21:

No lecture.  Class canceled (instructor sick)

Read: None

September 23:

Review of midterm

Read: None

Due: Assignment Six: First playable for project one

Due: Assignment Seven: Progress report for game project one

September 25:

No lecture.  Class canceled (instructor sick)

Read: None

Week 7: Challenge, Conflict, Interactivity and Flow

September 28:

Challenge and conflict
Read: Chapter 20 (Games as Systems of Conflict, pp. 249-265) in Rules of Play
Read: Chapter 4 & Chapter 5, pages 37-70 of Chris Crawford on Game Design

Slides:  PDF here 

Due: Assignment Eight: Game session log, game of your choice

September 30:

Interactivity, core game mechanic
Read: Chapter 6, pages 71-92 of Chris Crawford on Game Design

Slides:  PDF here 

October 2:

Game flow, games as systems of pleasure, goals, rewards, reinforcement schedules, fictional elements of game worlds
Read: Chapter 24 (Games as the Play of Pleasure, pp. 329-361) in Rules of Play.
Read: Chapter 25 (Games as the Play of Meaning, pp. 363-373) in Rules of Play.

Slides: PDF here

Week 8: Narrative

October 5:

Narrative, telling stories in games
Read: Chapter 26 (Games as Narrative Play, pp. 377-419) in Rules of Play,
Read: Interaction and Narrative, Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern

Slides: PDF here

Due: Assignment Nine: Game session log: game from classics list

October 7:

Design history and level design for Platformers

October 9:
Fall Break, no class

Week 9: Games and Culture:  History

October 12:

Level Design for Platformers (continued), discussion of potential exam topics,

Slides: PDF here

Exam #2

October 16:

Week 10: Shoot-em Ups

October 19:

Due: Assignment Ten: Game session log: game of your choice

October 21:

Design history and level design for Shmups (Shoot-em-ups, also known at STG (shooting))

Slides: PDF here 

Design history and level design for Shmups (Shoot-em-ups, also known at STG (shooting))

Slides:  PDF here 

Due: Assignment Eleven: first game project

Week 11: Demos

October 26:
Project one in-class demos

October 28:

No class.  Instructor out sick.

October 30:

Project one in-class demos

Week 12: MMOs, Kodu, Flow Charting

November 2:

Persuasive Games

Slides: PDF here   

November  4:

Guest speaker, John O'Neill, CEO of Sparkplug Games

November 6:

Games and Gender

Slides: PDF here  

Read: Chapter 29 (Defining Culture, pp. 505-513) in Rules of Play
Read: An Interview with Brendal Laurel (Purple Moon) Chapter 5 in From Barbie to Mortal Kombat, pp. 118-135.

Due: Assignment Twelve: Game concept document due for project two

Week 13: Violence in games

November 9:

Violence in games

Slides: PDF here 

Due: Assignment Thirteen: Game work breakdown document due for project two

November 11:

Exam pre-view and discussion

Slides: PDF here

November 13:

Exam #3

Week 14: Interactive Fiction and Future Directions

November 16:

Guest Speaker:  Juan Benito

Due: Assignment Fourteen: Game analysis: multi-game analysis (genre evolution, compare/contrast)

November 20:

Mid-term review

History of the computer games industry and of the North Carolina computer game industry

see http://www.stanford.edu/class/sts145/html/Syllabus.htm

Week 15: Future Directions

November 23:
Interactive Fiction. Future directions for computer games

Due: Assignment Fifteen: Final computer game project

November 25:
Thanksgiving Break, no class

November 27:
Thanksgiving Break, no class

Week 16: Project Demonstrations

November 30:

details on the final exams, project demos

December 2:
project demos

December 4:
Game project demonstration of best games in class