Playable Media, Spring 10

CMPS 290J / DANM 250D
Spring 2010
Meetings: T 4:00-5:45pm, Th 4:00-7:00pm, Crown Classroom 105
Website: http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/classes/cmps290j/Spring10/

Last modified: 22 April 2010

Faculty

Noah Wardrip-Fruin
office: E2 271
office hours: TBA
email: nwf /at/ soe.ucsc

Books

• Hamlet on the Holodeck by Janet Murray
• Cybertext by Espen Aarseth
• First Person edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan
• Twisty Little Passages by Nick Montfort
• Second Person edited by Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin
• Expressive Processing by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
• Game Design Workshop (2nd ed) by Tracy Fullerton

General Course Notes

Course structure:

• Meeting types. We will meet twice a week. Once will be a workshop meeting and once will be a seminar meeting. During the workshop meeting 2 or 3 students (depending on course size) will each present a playable prototype, which the class will then play and critique (more on this below). Seminar meetings will be discussions of major texts in the discussion of games and fiction.
• Grading. 40% of each student's grade is determined by participation in group critiques and discussions. Beyond this, work on prototypes is worth 60%.

Assignments:

• Playable prototypes. Each student will present one or two playable prototypes, depending on group size, which the group will play and critique. If possible, prototypes should allow all course members to play (e.g., by distributing software before class and asking us to bring laptops, by creating multiple copies of a paper prototype, etc).
  • Prototypes may be in any medium -- whatever is best for the ideas your prototype explores. This includes live actors and "Wizard of Oz" interfaces, software for desktop or handheld devices, interactive installations, or board/card game elements.
  • Prototypes that will be particularly time consuming to play should be made available one week before the meeting at which they will be discussed, with a request to the class to play before the class meeting.
  • Prototypes must engage the course focus (the relationship between games and fiction) meaningfully.
  • If your work on your prototype is less effort than it would take for you to write a research paper, you need to do more before presenting it to the course. This could mean developing more elements, developing a series of prototypes, doing more playtesting and revision, etc.
  • In addition to the prototype itself, each student must submit a ~500 word summary of the steps undertaken to produce it. This should be submitted by email before the class meeting at which the prototype will be discussed.
• Agenda items. At the beginning of each seminar meeting we will build an agenda, which will drive the discussion for the remainder of our meeting. Each student will bring at least one "agenda item" -- a particular idea they wish to discuss. This idea must be grounded in at least one specific page reference (to a reading for that week), should be expressed in a few words during the agenda-building process, and should be expanded into a larger idea when it becomes the active topic in the seminar discussion. Agenda items form an important part of the participation requirement, while also broadening who determines what we will discuss.

Week 1

30 March:
Introducing ourselves and the course. Bring laptops -- will play (in pairs) and discuss (as a group) freely-downloadable games

1 April:
Read: Hamlet on the Holodeck (full book)
Will play and discuss board and card games: Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Tales of Arabian Nights, Once Upon a Time, and others

Week 2

6 & 8 April:
Read: Game Design Workshop (at least chapters on prototyping and playtesting, read more the less you know about games)
No class meetings -- work on prototypes

Week 3

13 April:
Read: Cybertext (full book)

15 April:
Prototypes from: Aaron and Peter

Week 4

20 April:
Read: First Person (sections on Cyberdrama, Ludology, and Critical Simulation, plus Jenkins and Walker essays)

22 April:
Prototype from: Martin (plus Life in the Garden and Once Upon a Time)

Week 5

27 April:
Read: Twisty Little Passages (chapters 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, and others of your choice)

29 April:
Games: TBA

Week 6

4 May:
Read: Second Person (chapters from Costikyan x2, Hite, Herber, Hindmarch, Wallis x2, Mechner, Sheldon, Douglass, Meretzky, Short, Moulthrop, Crawford, Harrell, Mateas & Stern, Tynes x2, and McGonigal)

6 May:
Prototypes from: Meredith and Brandon

Week 7

11 May:
Read: Expressive Processing (chapters 1-5)

13 May:
Prototypes from: Ben and James

Week 8

18 May:
Read: Expressive Processing (chapters 6-7)

20 May:
Prototypes from: Chris and Mike

Week 9

25 May:
Read: Expressive Processing (chapters 8-afterword)

27 May:
Prototypes from: Teale and Andre

Week 10

1 June:
Revisions demos of all prototypes, revised