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
