Day 5 Lesson Plan

Day 5 Lesson Plan

Continue working on the Sprint: Test, Observe, Evaluate, Learn.

Finish projects, playtest, prepare slides for presentation using the defined structure, crits, groups present, grading, finish...

Friday morning is set aside for you evaluate and play-test prototypes with volunteering by members from other teams acting as test subjects.

The studio examination, display and presentation of work takes place on Friday afternoon commencing at 2.30pm.

The studio examination consists of the examiner(s) spending time with each group in turn asking questions and referring to the design traces (artifacts, postits, sketches etc.).

The presentation and demo will consist of each group presenting 7 slides: 1 title slide containing team code name and team member names; 1 slide for each day of the workshop; followed by a single slide that introduces your prototype at which point you demonstrate your prototype to the whole audience.

The 5 day slides are to focus on the process not the design itself. The sequence of slides as follows. You should also post your slides to the assessment in Blackboard.

Title slide:
Day 1: Imagine the goal
Day 2: Explore the possibilities
Day 3: Decide the design
Day 4: Build, make, tinker, learn
Day 5: Test, observe, evaluate
Our prototype

Day 4 Lesson Plan

Early starters can continue working on day 4 of the Sprint "Build, Make, Tinker, Learn".

Edmund and Tommy, Phil Fish, Jonathan Blow; Game design is really really hard...

The class watches Indie Game: The Movie

Discussion on the movie. 

Game design is...

Adding to our concepts

Game designing (Shane Whelan)

Guest lecture by Shane Whelan

Sessions on Research Paper topics - Post to the discussion board

End the day working on the Sprint "Build, Make, Tinker, Learn".

Day 3 Lesson Plan

Spend the morning on "Day 3 - Decide the Design"

Game Café - choose a set of shared genré

Run another Game Café
Smaller groups of 5, 6, 7, or more.
Hidden identity games - Resistance, Cluedo, Coup, Bang, Love Letter
After one or two plays, mix the groups up: half stay, half move table.

The magic circle

LSP "What makes a game good/bad..."
Talk through the models (group exercise).

Our growing concept map

Build up concepts - word/concept map.

Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design: a Deck of Lenses
(load the app from iTunes or for Android)

Spend more time on the Sprint - Decide the Design 

Day 2 Lesson Plan

Prompts for 'talking through' your chosen precis...

Precis presentations ~2h
Each person selects by annotation-highlighting the shared PDF of "The Gameful World: Approaches, Issues, Applications".
Displayed on the projectors.
Read out your quotation.
Explain why you feel it is worthy; why you'd use the article, its importance/contribution/ etc? In that way we'll be able to form an opinion on why and how you'd use it.

Might need to reorganise the room so that each table has a workable space.
Also need to set aside a separate space for the Game Café.

The first Game Café

Game Café

For a group of 30 - arrange three tables.
Play three games for 10+ people each.
WordAround
MathDice
Double

The game votes

Vote for the game you'd like to play again:

Debriefing - good questions:
How did you feel at the end of the first game?
How did you feel at the end of the second game?
How did you feel at the end of the third game?
How quick was each to learn? 1 try? 2 tries? Didn't learn?
Describe the atmosphere?
Was the game fun?

LSP "a game is..."
Talk through the models (group exercise).
Build up concepts - word/concept map.

Time spent on the Sprint
The second day "explore the possibilities" using the industry-game-genre exercise:

Imagine the future

"Imagine the future" with the industry-game-genre exercise:

Day 1 lesson plan...

Class size ~ 30. Group size ~5 max.

Human Scrabble to form random groups which then take separate table areas.

Personal writing prompt exercise

Personal writing prompt exercise -> group discussion -> room discussion
Prompt: "The last time I played a game I.."
(the discussions are intended to open up authentic reflection - perhaps surprising insights)

Lego Serious Play - introduction, practice, apply
I set the rules, only I can break the rules
Bags and ownership
Introduce the bricks:
Sorting exercise
Duck exercise (yellow and red) - group level introduction/story
Shark exercise (blue, grey, black) -
A bridge (all the rest of the bricks) - surprise test with hand beneath
All the bricks - "the biggest challenge my organisation faces is..."

Notes on the protocol:
The story reveals that you can spontaneously find something meaningful to say.
You use your own eyes to the others' direct attention.
Your hands the audience's direct attention too but also engages your own authorial focus, pointing out details and features, even discovering new ones on-the-fly.
The conversation becomes focused on the object (rather than the author).
Suggestions are inspired or excited from the object, it acts as a catalyst or prompt.
The conversations involve careful turn taking, tending to be more balanced, with more to and fro.

Prof. Donncha Kavanagh on the themes of work, play, and games.

A lecture by Prof. Donncha Kavanagh on the themes of work, play, and games. Donncha talks about these perspectives and how they have changed; a thumbnail sketch of a history of ideas and cultural traditions.

The week as a GV Sprint

Explain the Sprint to provide a thumbnail sketch of the remainder of the week.
Spend time on the first day "imagining future" using the industry-game-genre exercise: