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.
Stardew Valley has both loops and arcs, so it probably best fits under “Micro Parallel Arcs.” The loops in the game includes actions like farming, foraging, fishing, and mining. Relationship building with the NPCs involves both loops and arcs, with the loops being talking with them and giving them gifts, and the arcs being stories about the characters that unfold as your relationships with them level up.