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 like Journey. Journey has a simple but strong architecture that mixes loops and arcs. The core loop is exploring, moving, and learning how to use the scarf and the environment, while the main arc is the emotional journey from the desert to the mountain. This fits Dan Cook’s idea that games often combine repeated interaction loops with authored arcs that deliver emotional meaning.