Hey guys,
Sorry for the later-than-usual post, it's been a busy week. First thing's first, there is some question of when we'll do our mid-review jury. Nights and weekends are bad times for professors to come in so George and Carlos have said that the best times for them are Tuesday mornings. I've heard back from a few of you on this topic and it sounds like we may need to play around with times. Please e-mail me with any free daytime that you have open that you could have this jury. Also, I am thinking that for the jury, you should have 2 24x24 Photoshop boards, one for your architectural design and its progress, and one for the game design and its progress. I would also like you to bring your models.
For this week, the homework is:
Modification: Describe a game you have played (video or non-video, it may work better with non-video). Insert or change a rule of the game so that it integrates punishments or rewards for player actions. Describe the outcome and how your change should affect the player's behavior. Alternatively, look at a building or urban environment you regularly inhabit: how does its spatial layout encourage you or discourage you to enter certain spaces? How could the space be changed to better draw occupants towards major destinations?
Here are the concepts:
1. Operant Conditioning - The use of consequences to change or modify behavior. More specifically, it's the use of rewards or punishments to instill in a subject whether or not a behavior is right or wrong.
2. Behavior Theory - A philosophy conceived by psychologist B.F. Skinner that refers to all human actions as "behaviors" and treats them as actions that are not free, but instead derived from one's environment.
3. Positive Reinforcement - When a subject performs a positive action and are rewarded.
4. Negative Reinforcement - When a subject performs a negative action and are punished.
5. Entrainment - When rewards are applied on particular schedules, this causes the subject to strive for the next reward and expect when it is coming.
6. Long term goal - A macro-scaled goal that will be achieved far in the future. Short-term goals work toward the long-term goal. These goals are often hinted at or shown to the player throughout the course of a game.
7. Short term goal - Micro-scaled goals that are often immediately accessible to players.
8. The above concepts can and should be used in architectural or urban spaces to channel paths and initiate exploration. In Half-Life 2, for example, the early part of the game features architectural and urban structures that appear complete and have many different rooms, but only one way to proceed through the level. Instead of making disembodied closed doors, Valve designers chose to show spaces outside of the player path but block them off with encounters with dangerous enemy guards that act as architectural boundaries.
9. Flow - Emotional and psychological state of focused and engaged happiness that is brought about by a sense of achievement and accomplishment.
10. Flow channel - A channel of comfort between challenge and player skill.
11. Flow is analogous of spatial comfort levels with visual complexity and environmental conditions. Buildings should be complex enough to be visually engaging, but simple enough to be understandable.
12. Cybernetic feedback system - One that measures aspects of a system or environment, compares the measurements to a set value, and decides whether or not to take action to adjust the system or environment to fit in with the set value.
13. Positive feedback system - A system that acts cumulatively to make a system unstable.
14. Negative feedback system - Stabilizes the system and brings it back to a steady state.
15. These systems are similar to the concepts of architecture dynamically transforming to surroundings, user inputs, and environmental conditions. Some of these concepts involve kinetic structures and mechanical devices. Simpler versions of this concept exist, however, when designers plan how spaces change based on the amount of people in them, the event happening there, or even the time of day, as in the case of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
9/18 lecture news
Bad news guys,
Rafael Vargas has to postpone his lecture another week due to a few difficulties in the development of Fallout 3. They are developing the game for 3 platforms at once and releasing them all at the same time, so that complicates the process quite a bit.
We will, therefore, forge on with the planned class lectures, so as a result I'm going to post the homework and information from the next lecture, entitled "Not Now, I'm Busy" - Behavior Theory, Goals, Desire, and Exploration
Journal Prompt - Spatial Literacy - Describe a game that you have played that utilizes the spatial principles we discussed today to draw a player through a space. Did the game use these as clever hints or did it limit your exploration and become too linear? When you reached rewarding areas, how were you rewarded? Was the spatial layout made in a way that you became procedurally literate and began to expect when you were going to find the next reward or challenge? Next, discuss an architectural or urban space where you have found the same spatial principles in the same way you described the game, or describe a place (again in the same way as the game) where you find that they were sorely lacking and should be implemented. If you decide to make changes, use appropriate drawings or diagrams and describe exactly what changes you would make, and what kind of experience you want to create for your occupant with them.
Here are a few concepts from this lecture:
1. Coin drop - A concept that describes designing a game in such a way that the player is rewarded enough so they will strive for the next reward, but hard enough that they will need to pay to continue playing. This is the principle behind boardwalk games, slot machines, and arcade video games.
2. Reward - An item, event, or space that creates a sense of satisfaction for the player upon completing a task. The different types of rewards in gaming are:
3. In architecture, most of the rewards that we use are rewards of access, glory, and sustenance, when we give resting spaces.
4. Denial - By withholding a reward from a player, the game designer makes earning that reward much more rewarding.
5. Typical denial methods in architecture include changes in height, views, intervening screens and foliage, partial reveals, layered walls with views, creating spaces that slow one's progress, enticing corners, and Zen views.
6. Oku - A Japanese urban design principle that describes space similar to the way an onion is structured. Spaces are laid out in a twisting, folding pattern with rewarding spaces or rest areas laid along the path. Eventually the sequence reaches an end point.
7. The 7 Persuasive Technology Tools - 7 components of computer programs, also utilized by game designers, that describe different ways that users interact with the program and vice versa. They are:
9. Suggestion is the first tool for tunneling. It describes placing visual cues, forms, and other hints that guides a player or occupant through a space.
10. Architectural Weenies - A term coined by Walt Disney after the hot dogs that his crew used to entice dogs to run across the set in a movie. He used the same ideas in the architecture of his amusement parks to entice visitors to them and allow the person to orient themselves.
11. The concepts of Kevin Lynch are useful when describing suggestion in urban spaces. In his book, The Image of the City, he lays out 5 concepts that can be useful for describing how to move through space.
13. Procedural Literacy - The concept of engaging a game or other interactive program, critically analyzing the "rules" and procedures by which it operates, and learning how to interact with it.
14. Montessori Method - A method of teaching that focuses on the senses as a medium for absorbing information, then having that sensory information interpreted by the intellect. Through this method, students learn to solve problems based on an evaluation of their surroundings or data presented to them and interpret an answer based on the information given.
Rafael Vargas has to postpone his lecture another week due to a few difficulties in the development of Fallout 3. They are developing the game for 3 platforms at once and releasing them all at the same time, so that complicates the process quite a bit.
We will, therefore, forge on with the planned class lectures, so as a result I'm going to post the homework and information from the next lecture, entitled "Not Now, I'm Busy" - Behavior Theory, Goals, Desire, and Exploration
Journal Prompt - Spatial Literacy - Describe a game that you have played that utilizes the spatial principles we discussed today to draw a player through a space. Did the game use these as clever hints or did it limit your exploration and become too linear? When you reached rewarding areas, how were you rewarded? Was the spatial layout made in a way that you became procedurally literate and began to expect when you were going to find the next reward or challenge? Next, discuss an architectural or urban space where you have found the same spatial principles in the same way you described the game, or describe a place (again in the same way as the game) where you find that they were sorely lacking and should be implemented. If you decide to make changes, use appropriate drawings or diagrams and describe exactly what changes you would make, and what kind of experience you want to create for your occupant with them.
Here are a few concepts from this lecture:
1. Coin drop - A concept that describes designing a game in such a way that the player is rewarded enough so they will strive for the next reward, but hard enough that they will need to pay to continue playing. This is the principle behind boardwalk games, slot machines, and arcade video games.
2. Reward - An item, event, or space that creates a sense of satisfaction for the player upon completing a task. The different types of rewards in gaming are:
- Rewards of Glory - Have no impact on the gameplay itself but are things that will be taken away from the experience. This reward is based solely on the sense of achievement felt for overcoming challenges.
- Rewards of Sustenance - Given so players can maintain their character's "status quo" and continue playing. These include things such as health and extra lives.
- Rewards of Access - These have 3 features - they allow access to new locations that were previously inaccessible, they are generally used only once, and they have no value to the player once they've been used. These include keys and passwords. Another way of viewing these rewards is newfound access to new characters or experiences that were not available before.
- Rewards of Facility - Enable the player's character to do things they could not before or enhance abilities they already possess. These increase the number of strategies available to the player in the game.
3. In architecture, most of the rewards that we use are rewards of access, glory, and sustenance, when we give resting spaces.
4. Denial - By withholding a reward from a player, the game designer makes earning that reward much more rewarding.
5. Typical denial methods in architecture include changes in height, views, intervening screens and foliage, partial reveals, layered walls with views, creating spaces that slow one's progress, enticing corners, and Zen views.
6. Oku - A Japanese urban design principle that describes space similar to the way an onion is structured. Spaces are laid out in a twisting, folding pattern with rewarding spaces or rest areas laid along the path. Eventually the sequence reaches an end point.
7. The 7 Persuasive Technology Tools - 7 components of computer programs, also utilized by game designers, that describe different ways that users interact with the program and vice versa. They are:
- Reduction - Reducing complex behaviors to simple tasks
- Tunneling - Leading users through predetermined sets of actions, step by step
- Tailoring - Providing information relevant to individuals to change their attitudes or behaviors
- Suggestion - Suggesting behavior at the most opportune moment
- Self-monitoring - A tool that allows people to monitor their attitudes or behaviors to achieve a predetermined goal or outcome
- Surveillance - Allowing people to monitor each other
- Conditioning - Using principles of operant conditioning to change behavior
9. Suggestion is the first tool for tunneling. It describes placing visual cues, forms, and other hints that guides a player or occupant through a space.
10. Architectural Weenies - A term coined by Walt Disney after the hot dogs that his crew used to entice dogs to run across the set in a movie. He used the same ideas in the architecture of his amusement parks to entice visitors to them and allow the person to orient themselves.
11. The concepts of Kevin Lynch are useful when describing suggestion in urban spaces. In his book, The Image of the City, he lays out 5 concepts that can be useful for describing how to move through space.
- Landmarks - Identifiable objects
- Paths - Channels for travel
- Districts - Distinctive sub-areas with their own character
- Edges - Perceived boundaries
- Nodes - Focal points and intersections
13. Procedural Literacy - The concept of engaging a game or other interactive program, critically analyzing the "rules" and procedures by which it operates, and learning how to interact with it.
14. Montessori Method - A method of teaching that focuses on the senses as a medium for absorbing information, then having that sensory information interpreted by the intellect. Through this method, students learn to solve problems based on an evaluation of their surroundings or data presented to them and interpret an answer based on the information given.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Change of plans for the 9/11 class
Unfortunately, Rafael Vargas will speak next week instead of this one. Bethesda Softworks is currently finishing the development of Fallout 3 and they are doing some extra work tonight.
Don't worry though, because I have all the semester's lectures prepared, so we'll just move through onto the next section, entitled Basic Human Functions and Emotional Responses to Space in Architecture and Games. The homework assignment for this chapter is as follows:
Journal prompt – Real Virtuality: Choose and describe a game you have played that uses the prospect/refuge relationship and the idea of peril in some part of its gameplay. Describe a theoretical building structure of your own design that utilizes concepts specific to this game as though you were designing a real – world version of a level for that game. Feel free to speculate on its potential use. Use diagrams and sketches if you deem necessary.
Here are the concepts from this lecture:
1. Like shelter, food, water, and other things, "play" can be described as a basic human need. According to Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, author of Homo Ludens, play requires imagination and the interpretation of our surroundings. When this is compared with "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs", this definition of play fulfills the needs of "self-actualization" and "esteem."
2. Huizinga also argues that play is not "in culture" but "of culture", meaning that while others regard it as an escape or distraction, he believes that it serves needs outside of itself and is fundamentally important. This idea is illustrated by how the games of various cultures represent important ideas to the cultures they come from. (Chess as military strategy, the cooperative singing and work games of Civil War-era slave children that were a counter to the otherwise oppressive environment, etc.)
3. When games create play, that play creates a dialog with another basic human need, survival, to elicit emotions from players. To survive in a game is to stay in the magic circle of the game and keep playing, losing, dying, or being eliminated is tantamount to being yanked from the world of the game.
4. The Problem of the Protagonist - An element of some games where the player character begins the game in a condition of natural weakness and must upgrade themselves to remain in the game and respond to rising challenge (video games, Checkers, gaining money or tokens in games like Monopoly.)
5. Refuge - An intimate, enclosed space providing the cover of shadows and protection from external hazards, as well as the ability to view these hazards from within the refuge. Humans tend to feel safe in these spaces.
6. Prospect - A wide-open and often well-lit space that is viewable from the refuge that may or may not contain threats. In these spaces, humans often feel unsafe or ill-at-ease.
7. Secondary refuge - A refuge that lies beyond the prospect, often presented in games as a goal for the player.
8. The buildings of Le Corbusier are often cited as being mostly made of prospect spaces, both in the interior and in some of the exterior spaces. Frank Lloyd Wright on the other hand, utilizes mostly refuge spaces, with houses that are hidden among trees and a focus on the hearth as the center of the house.
9. The articulations of prospects, refuges, and secondary refuges in games are often used in games to lead players through a space. They also build varying degrees of comfort in the enemy encounters of video games, where refuges provide cover and prospects leave the player open, but also give a cinematic feel to combat. Games from the Metal Gear series are well known for using articulations of hiding places and cinematic battle areas to create a tense experience.
10. Shadow - A lack of light in a space caused by the light source being obscured by a physical object, creating a place for something to hide itself.
11. Shade - Sometimes referred to as "mystic light", is an ethereal and transcendental lighting condition that is neither completely light or dark. Commonly used in Gothic structures.
12. Shadowspace - A perceived refuge space within a larger space that is differentiated by a darker lighting condition than the other parts of the same space. This creates the perception that the darker space is a different space altogether and one where someone can hide from enemy view. This term was coined by the team who created Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
13. Shade obscures objects and gives them a ethereal look. Shade is used by game designers to both entice players into a mysterious space, or to create atmospheric ambiguity, a condition where the player is unsure of whether they are in a safe, holy area or about to be attacked. This condition is often used in games from the Zelda series.
14. While shadow and shade have been used to discuss safe conditions, moving from a light condition to a dark one makes the occupant of a space feel uncomfortable, as though they are walking into danger. Games like Half-Life 2 use areas where the player must wander from light to dark to create scary moments such as zombie and alien attacks, and also to hide surprises for the player.
15. Materiality plays a role in human safety as well. Humans feel comfortable when they are exposed to outdoor views and natural settings. This is why people in cubicles hang posters of forests or canyons on their walls. Frank Lloyd Wright understood this and laid many of his house designs in natural wooded areas, and mandated that this tree cover be featured in any perspective drawings. In classic epic literature and video games, the material quality of spaces deteriorates as the player progresses to the final villain's lair and show the hero's level of danger.
16. Height can be used for both refuge and peril. Height can be articulated to give an occupant or player the perception of being able to look out over danger without being in danger, but can also be used to instill a sense of peril from vertigo. This can create dramatic moments in both architecture and games.
17. Another paradigm shift: in architecture, we often try to make the occupant feel safe and comfortable. Game design calls for the designer to create both moments of fear and safety, with the safe spaces serving as rewards for overcoming danger.
18. Challenging space - A built space that creates in an occupant a sense of uneasiness based on varying conditions of: light vs. dark; prospect vs. refuge; height vs. vertigo, etc.
Don't worry though, because I have all the semester's lectures prepared, so we'll just move through onto the next section, entitled Basic Human Functions and Emotional Responses to Space in Architecture and Games. The homework assignment for this chapter is as follows:
Journal prompt – Real Virtuality: Choose and describe a game you have played that uses the prospect/refuge relationship and the idea of peril in some part of its gameplay. Describe a theoretical building structure of your own design that utilizes concepts specific to this game as though you were designing a real – world version of a level for that game. Feel free to speculate on its potential use. Use diagrams and sketches if you deem necessary.
Here are the concepts from this lecture:
1. Like shelter, food, water, and other things, "play" can be described as a basic human need. According to Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, author of Homo Ludens, play requires imagination and the interpretation of our surroundings. When this is compared with "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs", this definition of play fulfills the needs of "self-actualization" and "esteem."
2. Huizinga also argues that play is not "in culture" but "of culture", meaning that while others regard it as an escape or distraction, he believes that it serves needs outside of itself and is fundamentally important. This idea is illustrated by how the games of various cultures represent important ideas to the cultures they come from. (Chess as military strategy, the cooperative singing and work games of Civil War-era slave children that were a counter to the otherwise oppressive environment, etc.)
3. When games create play, that play creates a dialog with another basic human need, survival, to elicit emotions from players. To survive in a game is to stay in the magic circle of the game and keep playing, losing, dying, or being eliminated is tantamount to being yanked from the world of the game.
4. The Problem of the Protagonist - An element of some games where the player character begins the game in a condition of natural weakness and must upgrade themselves to remain in the game and respond to rising challenge (video games, Checkers, gaining money or tokens in games like Monopoly.)
5. Refuge - An intimate, enclosed space providing the cover of shadows and protection from external hazards, as well as the ability to view these hazards from within the refuge. Humans tend to feel safe in these spaces.
6. Prospect - A wide-open and often well-lit space that is viewable from the refuge that may or may not contain threats. In these spaces, humans often feel unsafe or ill-at-ease.
7. Secondary refuge - A refuge that lies beyond the prospect, often presented in games as a goal for the player.
8. The buildings of Le Corbusier are often cited as being mostly made of prospect spaces, both in the interior and in some of the exterior spaces. Frank Lloyd Wright on the other hand, utilizes mostly refuge spaces, with houses that are hidden among trees and a focus on the hearth as the center of the house.
9. The articulations of prospects, refuges, and secondary refuges in games are often used in games to lead players through a space. They also build varying degrees of comfort in the enemy encounters of video games, where refuges provide cover and prospects leave the player open, but also give a cinematic feel to combat. Games from the Metal Gear series are well known for using articulations of hiding places and cinematic battle areas to create a tense experience.
10. Shadow - A lack of light in a space caused by the light source being obscured by a physical object, creating a place for something to hide itself.
11. Shade - Sometimes referred to as "mystic light", is an ethereal and transcendental lighting condition that is neither completely light or dark. Commonly used in Gothic structures.
12. Shadowspace - A perceived refuge space within a larger space that is differentiated by a darker lighting condition than the other parts of the same space. This creates the perception that the darker space is a different space altogether and one where someone can hide from enemy view. This term was coined by the team who created Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
13. Shade obscures objects and gives them a ethereal look. Shade is used by game designers to both entice players into a mysterious space, or to create atmospheric ambiguity, a condition where the player is unsure of whether they are in a safe, holy area or about to be attacked. This condition is often used in games from the Zelda series.
14. While shadow and shade have been used to discuss safe conditions, moving from a light condition to a dark one makes the occupant of a space feel uncomfortable, as though they are walking into danger. Games like Half-Life 2 use areas where the player must wander from light to dark to create scary moments such as zombie and alien attacks, and also to hide surprises for the player.
15. Materiality plays a role in human safety as well. Humans feel comfortable when they are exposed to outdoor views and natural settings. This is why people in cubicles hang posters of forests or canyons on their walls. Frank Lloyd Wright understood this and laid many of his house designs in natural wooded areas, and mandated that this tree cover be featured in any perspective drawings. In classic epic literature and video games, the material quality of spaces deteriorates as the player progresses to the final villain's lair and show the hero's level of danger.
16. Height can be used for both refuge and peril. Height can be articulated to give an occupant or player the perception of being able to look out over danger without being in danger, but can also be used to instill a sense of peril from vertigo. This can create dramatic moments in both architecture and games.
17. Another paradigm shift: in architecture, we often try to make the occupant feel safe and comfortable. Game design calls for the designer to create both moments of fear and safety, with the safe spaces serving as rewards for overcoming danger.
18. Challenging space - A built space that creates in an occupant a sense of uneasiness based on varying conditions of: light vs. dark; prospect vs. refuge; height vs. vertigo, etc.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Information for the 9/11 lecture
Don't forget to come to the 9/11 lecture! We will have a guest speaker.
Rafael Vargas, level designer at Bethesda Softworks and teacher of the architectural visualization courses at Catholic University, will come give a talk on his work in both fields and the tools that he uses relevant to each. He plans to display sample images of his work in games like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and others.
Since we will be having a guest lecturer, there will be no journal prompt but there will still be homework due at the 9/18 lecture. The homework for the 9/18 lecture will be a one-page written proposal for your game design. It should include what kind of game you want to create (card game, board game, video game, etc.), what kinds of actions and mechanics the players will be taking part in, the goal of the game, and any other relevant information such as narrative, characters, setting, whatever. Also detail if you are working alone or in a group. For groups, since there are 5 people in the course, please create groups within reason. I hope to have at least 2 or 3 games to show the jurors.
I would also like to see at least one of the more complex games we have been discussing (video game, alternate reality game, pervasive game, etc.) from one of the groups. Part of the grade for the games will be how "daring" you are with your designs.
Rafael Vargas, level designer at Bethesda Softworks and teacher of the architectural visualization courses at Catholic University, will come give a talk on his work in both fields and the tools that he uses relevant to each. He plans to display sample images of his work in games like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and others.
Since we will be having a guest lecturer, there will be no journal prompt but there will still be homework due at the 9/18 lecture. The homework for the 9/18 lecture will be a one-page written proposal for your game design. It should include what kind of game you want to create (card game, board game, video game, etc.), what kinds of actions and mechanics the players will be taking part in, the goal of the game, and any other relevant information such as narrative, characters, setting, whatever. Also detail if you are working alone or in a group. For groups, since there are 5 people in the course, please create groups within reason. I hope to have at least 2 or 3 games to show the jurors.
I would also like to see at least one of the more complex games we have been discussing (video game, alternate reality game, pervasive game, etc.) from one of the groups. Part of the grade for the games will be how "daring" you are with your designs.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Concepts and journal prompt for the 9/4 class
Hey everyone,
Here are some of the concepts from the second week lecture: Introduction to Game Design. I'll be posting the concepts from each lecture for your own review and designs. Many of these concepts are taken straight from the textbook, Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals and will serve as the foundation of our discussions for the rest of the semester.
First thing's first though, here's this week's journal prompt:
Journal Prompt: Meaningful Play: Play a game, board or video game, and describe its rules (or in the case of a video game, what abilities or movements are allowed in the game), the narrative atmosphere it creates (setting, story, characters, etc.) and the goal of the game. Determine if all of the games elements fit into and affect one another in a meaningful way or if something could be changed or added to make the game more meaningful (example: are the rules reflective of the story of the game or are the narrative elements just a “paint job” applied to a set of rules that could create any game.) Describe any changes or additions you make and how you think they will affect the overall experience. Then think back to a building you have been to or a project you have had where an element of the building did not fit into the overall concept (this part is easier with your own projects and/or ones you have had juries on) and create the same analysis you did with the game. Describe what could have been changed to make the building more meaningful.
With that, here are the summarized versions of the concepts from this lecture:
1. Games communicate with players through 3 very important methods that can inform architecture:
- Adjustment of behavior - creating conditions that get the user to act in a way that the designer wants while simultaneously setting up opportunities for unplanned behaviors.
- Transmission of meaning - Using the structure of the design and symbolism to convey ideas and/or narrative.
- Augmentation of space - Connecting the user to a database of information that can inform their exploration and experience of a place.
2. Game - A system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome. Games are different from the concept of "play" since they are governed by a set of rules that dictate player action and control the movements they can make.
3. Meaningful play - Meaningful play in a game emerges from the relationship between player action and system outcome; it is the process by which a player takes action within the designed system of a game and the system responds to the action. The relationships between actions and outcomes in a game are both discernible and integrated into the larger context of the game.
For architecture, this will mean that the designer is the architect, the context is the building or urban space, the participant is the occupant, and the experience the occupant has in the space is what creates meaning for our architecture.
5. Games are systems of representation, everything within them stands for something else. Games are made up of signs and abstractions of things that exist in the real world or the narrative world that is created within the game.
6. System - A set of objects with individual identities interacting to create meaningful patterns that are different from any of the individual objects, all within the environment. Systems have 4 parts which are important to this definition: the objects in the system, the attributes of those objects, internal relationships between them, and the environment that the system takes place in.
7. There are 4 types of interactivity for working through a game and an architectural space:
Cognitive - Psychological, emotional, and and intellectual participation
Functional - Functional or structural interaction (players using controllers in a game and the function of the building systems and the occupant's interactions with them in a building)
Explicit - Participation in designed choices and procedures
Beyond the object interactivity - Interaction with the culture outside the immediate system
8. The Magic Circle - The space within which the game takes place. It is a special place, marked off from our normal reality, where the rules of the game are law and carry weight.
It takes a commitment to enter the space and an openness to the experience of playing a game. This is called the lusory attitude, the willingness to immerse oneself in a gamespace.
9. Gamespace - The environment created as the setting of a game. This is not to be confused with the Magic Circle.
An element of this lecture is also a design brainstorming game called GameGame. A free copy can be found at http://gamegame.blogs.com/ It can be a useful tool for learning the game design process and coming up with ideas for your final project. It is recommended that you use sticky-backed paper to attach the card print-outs to a set of playing cards so they can be easily shuffled.
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