Lecture 4: (9/13) Games and Flocking

by Mike Gleicher on September 13, 2012

Goals for today:

  1. What is a game?
  2. Basics of flocking (didn’t get to it last time)

Basic of Games (your project must be a game)

  • What is fun?
  • What is play?
  • What is a toy? (what is a good toy?)
  • What is a game?
  • What is a good game?

Why do we care?

  • don’t need real definitions – know it when we see it
  • understanding the diversity of fun can help us create different kinds of experiences
  • understanding what makes a toy can help with making a game
  • a lot of making a good game lies in succeeding at its "gameness"
  • understanding how games can be designed to create experiences is a good way to get at experience engineering in general

Experience Engineering: The craft of designing things so that people have (good/the desired) experiences.

Why do we care:

  • Designer vs. Participant (player)
  • Designer may have goals (sell games, change perceptions, teach, …)
    • desired outcome for designer and participant
    • not always the same: but designer can use control over the participants goals
  • Can improve the likelihood of desired outcomes
  • Can improve the uniformity of the outcomes
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