Monday, April 2 (Week 11)
- No Class (Easter Break)
Wednesday, April 4
- Nick Dyer-Witheford and Grieg de Peuter, “Cognitive Surplus: Electronic Arts” from Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games (2009), pp. 35-68
- The Valve Handbook for New Employees
Friday, April 6
- Casey O’Donnell, “World 5: Leeroy Jenkins, Autoplay, and Crunch” from The Developer’s Dilemma: The Secret World of Videogame Creators (2014), pp. 135-165
Monday, April 9 (Week 12)
- Jon Sharp, “Independent Games” from Debugging Game History (2016), pp. 259-267
- Case Study: Interactive Fiction
- In class: Sam Barlow, Aisle (1998), Will Crowther and Don Woods, Adventure (1976), Joseph Weizenbaum, Eliza (1968), and Marc Blank and Dave Lebling, Zork I (1980)
Wednesday, April 11
Friday, April 13
- Demonstration of what interactive fiction looks like behind-the-scenes using Ryan Veeder’s Nautilisia
- Interested in more indie interactive fiction? Some suggestions: for rich NPC interactions, play Emily Short’s Galatea (2000); if you need a comedic break, play Admiral Jota’s charming Lost Pig (2007); for a game about obsession with a deeper game tucked away inside it, try Ryan Veeder’s The Ascent of the Gothic Tower (2014)
- Third round of game log entries due
Monday, April 16 (Week 13)
- Galloway, “Countergaming” from Gaming, pp. 107-126
- In class: Jason Nelson’s Game, Game, Game, and Again Game, Nothing You Have Done Deserves Such Praise and I made This. You Play This. We Are Enemies.
Wednesday, April 18
- Play one of Jason Nelson’s games and submit a response on Moodle before class
Friday, April 20
- Katie Salen Tekinbaş, “Game Development” from Debugging Game History (2016), pp. 195-201
- Bobby Schweizer, “Difficulty” from Debugging Game History (2016), pp. 109-117
- David Sirlin, “Game Balance” from Debugging Game History (2016), pp. 169-175
Monday, April 23 (Week 14)
- Game Design Workshop
- Reflective Game Log Entry due
Wednesday, April 25
- Game Design Workshop
Friday, April 27
- Game Design Workshop
Monday, April 30 (Week 15)
- Game Presentation
Wednesday, May 2
- Game Presentation
Friday, May 4
- Game Presentation
Monday, May 7 (Week 16)
- Polishing up games
Wednesday, May 9
- Share games at Alenda Lux
Header: Marta Manso, No, This Is Not (2006) via Flickr / CC-BY Creative Commons License