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.
One of my favorite games, Final Fantasy XIV, is an MMORPG with many different systems for obtaining more powerful gear for one’s character. This takes the form of many nested loops in its game architecture, with frequencies ranging from less than half an hour (the time it takes to complete a raid or dungeon which can drop gear), to a week (the time it takes to gain more of a limited currency), to over 8 weeks (the time it takes to obtain all of the pieces of gear from the various, time-gated loot tables).