[game_edu] ESA Foundation Computer and Video Game Scholarship Program

[Malcolm Ryan]

I agree that game development is not game design, and that game design  
doesn't belong in CS (even though, by necessity, that is where I teach  
it). However I'd like to make a case in favour of programmers as game  
designers.

Game design is procedural art. A game is not just a static thing like  
a picture or a fixed sequence like a film, but a process; a collection  
of dynamics that arise from the player's interaction with the rules.  
And in my experience computer programmers are more proficient in this  
kind of procedural thinking than artists who work in non-interactive  
media. They are used to the kind of problem solving which asks "What  
mechanical elements should I use to build processes to produce a  
particular experience?". This is a fundamental problem of game design.  
I might even say _the_ fundamental problem. It is what sets a game  
apart from a collection of animations, music and story.

Of course at the end of the day what we want to foster is a skill set  
that combines elements of all these disciplines taught proudly under  
the banner of "Games" and not making excuses for itself as part of CS  
or drama or animation or whatever. In the meantime, I guess we work in  
whatever corners we can get a foothold and try to throw our arms open  
to as many would-be designers as we can find, whatever they background.

Malcolm

On 28/02/2009, at 10:54 AM, Jim Parker wrote:


> Computer Science? Why there? Many more relevant things in the arts.  

> Frankly, programming is programming, but game design is more about  

> narrative, art, music and design. Many CS departments are not  

> interested in games because they have too many non CS things  

> connected. (sadly)

>

> Push on your drama department ...

>

> Jim

>

> Leo Moreno wrote:

>> It gets even more challenging when you try to integrate it into a  

>> high

>> school level program into Computer Science!

>>

>> Leonard A. Moreno - InfoTech Instructor

>> FalconTech Pathway

>> Regional Occupational Programs

>> Palmdale High School

>> (661) 273-3181 x.362

>> http://infotech.phsfalcons.org

>> "No Child Left Unplugged

> -- 

> --

> Home

> .........................................................................

> One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a  

> tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?"  

> was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the  

> cat, "it doesn't matter."

> .........................................................................

>

> Dr. J. R. Parker,                    Digital Media Laboratory

> Professor of Play                    http://www.ucalgary.ca/~jparker

> Faculty of Fine Arts (Drama)         jparker@ ucalgary. ca

> University of Calgary                403-220-6784      AB606/AB611

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