Game Design: an introduction for researchers [remote delivery]

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Emma Reay is a third-year PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge and an associate lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University. Her current project explores depictions of children in videogames, and her research interests include representation studies, children's digital media, gaming and education, and playful activism.

Adam Dixon is a game designer and writer who makes both physical and digital games. He has worked on everything from big public games that involve running around cities to narrative video games about learning scientific skills. Much of his work has involved working with museums and research organisations such as the Wellcome Trust, Science Museum, Nottingham Trent University and the V&A. This has included designing games, using play for public research engagement and most recently, teaching teenagers to create digital games for Wellcome Collection’s Play Well exhibition. Outside of that he works and releases his own games including roleplaying games, LARPs and interactive fiction.

Applications https://www.cdh.cam.ac.uk/file/cdhgamedesign201920applicationdocx-0 should be returned to CDH Learning (learning@cdh.cam.ac.uk) by Wednesday 10 June 2020. Successful applicants will be notified by 15 June 2020.

This online course will introduce participants to the practice of game design. It will explore the different ways that digital and analogue games are designed, particularly how you can design with intent to communicate a mood, theme or message. Participants will learn game design skills - such as boxing-in, design documents and prototyping – alongside opportunities to test them out by creating their own short games. Examples will focus on game design in research-related contexts, including using games as part of your research process and to communicate research outcomes to diverse audiences.

The sessions focus on game design, how to shape mechanics and play experiences, so no technical skills are needed. Participants will create their short games using both non-digital tools and simple, free software that will be taught in the sessions.

Topics covered:

• Game design basics
• A chance to play and consider thoughtful games
• Boxing in
• Planning games
• Making games
• Bitsy and Twine
• Playtesting and iteration

Format

The course will be delivered online, with live teaching sessions taking place on Zoom.

• Weds 17 June, 4pm BST: Introduction (45 minutes)
• Weds 24 June, 4pm BST: Game play feedback (45 minutes)
• Weds 1 July, 4pm BST: Game design seminar (45 minutes)
• Weds 15 July, 4pm BST: Final session (60 minutes with break)

A CRASSH blog post was created for the originally scheduled session which may be of interest to read and can be found here: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/blog/post/Play-as-Research-Practice

This programme is open to graduate students and staff at the University of Cambridge. Participants who applied to the Game Design workshop which was previously scheduled for December 2019 have priority for rebooking on this course, but we welcome other applications.

Number of sessions: 4