[game_edu] ESA Foundation Computer and Video Game Scholarship Program

[Ian Schreiber]

I think you could make a case for placing game design just about anywhere. It's one of the most interdisciplinary fields I've ever encountered.
 
You're making the rules that govern a living world. You could argue that this is essentially what is studied in a school of law... or theology.
 
A game designer doesn't build the game, but they make the specs and design docs that other people follow in order to build it. That is essentially what an architect does with buildings, so we could be in the school of architecture (especially when you consider the use of architecture in level design).
 
A game designer is like a party host; we invite the player in to our world and try our best to make sure they have a good time. Game design could grow out of the field of hospitality services.
 
Game design has a huge amount of crossover with education; so much has already been written about flow theory, and how the "fun" of games comes from learning and skill mastery. So we could be in the school of education.
 
Game design is about creating a specific mental state in the player, so an understanding of how the brain works would help greatly. We could be in the department of psychology or neuroscience.
 
Game design involves taking a lot of separate mechanics and putting them together in a way that the whole is more appealing than the sum of the parts. This is essentially what a chef does too, so there is crossover between the skills that make someone great in the kitchen and great on a development team. Game design could arguably be part of the culinary arts.
 
I realize some of these are more of a stretch than others. My point is that it doesn't really matter where it goes, because it can really go anywhere... as long as the people teaching it know what they're doing, and as long as the department can play nice with all the other departments that are dealing with other aspects of game development.
 
- Ian

--- On Sun, 3/1/09, Malcolm Ryan <malcolmr at cse.unsw.edu.au> wrote:

From: Malcolm Ryan <malcolmr at cse.unsw.edu.au>
Subject: Re: [game_edu] ESA Foundation Computer and Video Game Scholarship Program
To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" <game_edu at igda.org>
Date: Sunday, March 1, 2009, 7:34 PM

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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