Special Topics in Game Studies and Design

3 units

How are games developed? How do the principles and strategies of game development shape the way we play, imagine worlds, construct stories, problem-solve, and interact with others socially and politically? This seminar combines hands-on game design with critical study to intensively explore the medium of digital and/or non-digital games. The course teaches students both to design games and to situate and scrutinize design choices within salient trends in game criticism, history, and theory. Through this combination of making and study, students will investigate the means and materials of game development as well as the many complex effects games have on gamers, ultimately serving the illuminate how games have become one of the most influential, powerful, and lucrative forms of art and entertainment in the contemporary media landscape. Emphasis will be placed on how game interfaces, mechanisms, puzzles, worlds, and stories draw inspiration from other media and cultural practices while also contributing novel aesthetic problems and solutions to contemporary art and media through their variability, experimentation, and cultural timeliness. Specific topics courses can take various approaches to integrating game design and study. Hands-on experience with game design might be combined with sustained engagement with a specific game or game franchise; with the study of significant political, economic, technological, social, or cultural contexts for games; or with theoretical and analytical approaches to game aesthetics. Students will inform their exploration through key works from game studies scholarship and game development discourse and produce written research or creative projects. Weekly or biweekly media labs and/or screenings are required.