Game Design Workshop Notes

Today, we cram our snowed-out 2-hour discussion of the first 4 chapters of Game Design Workshop into a 50-minute class, and try not to think of the snow piling up outside.

KEY CONCEPTS FROM CHAPTERS 1-3:

Game structure

Salen & Zimmerman's definition of play: "free movement within a more rigid structure"

Anaylzing & thinking through formal elements

FOCUS ON CH. 4:

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's theory of flow

THE PARADOX OF CONTROL

PREMISE

CHARACTER (and avatar --character spectrum)

STORY

WORLD-BUILDING

DRAMATIC ARC (imagine me yelling "conflict" in your ear!)

Jesse Schell's 2 myths of interactive storytelling:

Myth #1: Interactive storytelling has little to do with traditional storytelling

Myth #2: Interactive storytelling has little to do with traditional game design

FOR THURSDAY: exercises 4.9, 4.10, 4.11