Over the last few years we have seen the rise of "serious games" to promote understanding of complex social and ecological challenges, and to create passion for solving them. This project-based course provides an introduction to game design principals while applying them to games that teach. Run as a hands-on studio class, students will design and prototype games for social change and civic engagement. We will learn the fundamentals of games design via lecture and extensive reading in order to make effective games to explore issues facing society today. The course culminates in an end-of- quarter open house to showcase our games. Prerequisite: CS147 or equivalent. 247G recommended, but not required.
I really enjoy the basic game loop of Apex Legends. On a game-to-game level, there’s the loop of dropping in, experiencing a point of interest on the map and learning from the game, and then coming into the next one with a little more knowledge for the next time around.
Within the game, however, there’s also a very satisfying set of chained arcs. You start out with low resources, scavenge, then run into another team and fight them. You use up resources in combat, but if you win you can then loot them, replenish your resources, and come out stronger for the next fight. Along with this, you’re rewarded for fighting – your armor comes stronger – but have to balance it with maintaining map position and consumable resources like health and shields.
I find that it builds in strong incentives to fight, and rewards for doing so, while still leaving a strong element of macro maneuvering in place.