Schedule
Because this course depends so much on the particular interests and backgrounds of those participating, this schedule is necessarily incomplete. We will fill it out as we go along and make changes to what’s already there. Nevertheless, this first draft of the schedule should give you an idea of the themes and activities we will participate in. In the beginning, we will dive into the subject matter, and as we become comfortable, each of you will prototype a local “game”. You will then make pitches to the other students, the shark tank, to try to gain coworkers to realize your vision. Once teams are set, the goal is to produce the most powerful experience you can, putting together mobile media to dive into the city. You will produce a working prototype of this idea, run it through public playtests, and produce two pieces of writing about your game (a Kickstarter-type page, and a mock conference proposal). In addition to these post-mortems, various other supplemental materials may be warranted on a case by case basis. The idea is to finish the semester with enough preliminary results to make specific plans for pursuing your vision, whether that be community organizing, publication, conference proposals, or seeking funding to develop your project further.
Notice that the proposed schedule below only includes 12 weeks. This allows us 4 weeks in which to schedule trips off campus and work with community members and experts. We will work together in the first couple weeks to determine these other opportunities. Notice that the assigned readings and other media are somewhat sparse. This is to give us a bare minimum of shared experience across a number of disciplines and knowledge bases relevant to our field of inquiry. It is not sufficient to produce expertise. It is expected that you will use this partial reading list as a jumping off point to finding other relevant work to inform your thinking and designs.
Week 1 - Everything is a Remix
In Class
- Official Business (course, overview, expectations, etc.).
- Off site work
- Media Permissions
- Going with the flow
- Calm down. One step at a time.
- Play Rupee Collector.
- Play It’s Dangerous to Go Alone.
For Next Week
Watch
Kirby Ferguson
More (optional) on Everything is a Remix
Listen
Hacking IKEA - 99% Invisible Episode 128
Make
A Remix of Rupee Collector (just the design, not an actual game).
Read
Users as Agents of Technological Change by Kline & Pinch
Write (the top two you will need to do at least once a week because they are in response to scheduled activities, the bottom two you will need to work out on your own as time allows)
- Fill out the Concept/Theme Template for at least one concept or theory you come across.
- Fill out the “Reading” template for one of the media you read/listened to/watched
- If you can, begin to fill out Place/Issue/Theme Templates to share and describe your local interests.
- You may also wish to begin looking into games, apps, and design tools and document this research using the Game/App/Design Tool Template.
Week 2 - From Games to Place
In Class
- In small groups, we will compare redesigns for Rupee Collector.
- I will show both designs in ARIS so we can begin to see how it works to actually make them.
- Play Los Duendes.
- We will discuss, again in small groups, the actual gameplay of Los Duendes and as depicted in the chapters you read.
For Next Week
Read
- Introduction and one chapter from Albuquerque in Our Time by Debra Hughes
- One chapter in Mobile Media Learning: Amazing Stories… or Mobile Media Learning: Innovation and Inspiration.
Week 3 - Off to the ABQ Museum
In Class
We’re having class at the ABQ Museum on Sep. 3. Meet there at 2:30 (for those who aren’t free until 2). My advice is to take the bus there. UNM hands out free passes for the year. Treat it as part of class. It may be a fun, new experience.
We will be meeting with Tom Antreasian, the Museum’s lead graphic designer. He’s a great guy and happy to share some of his experiences and the Museum with you all personally. He’s going to show us an exhibit that is currently being put together and talk to us about the roles the museum serves in the community, how curators and exhibit designers communicate history to their audiences, and how an exhibit comes together through the workings of a group of people.
For Next Week
This week you are largely on your own, but you need to build momentum and start looking into relevant content (and reflecting publicly on it) to get a feeling for what you want to really get done this semester.
- Read another chapter from Albuquerque in Our Time.
- Add to your and others’ documentation of important places, events, and themes. Ask questions, share stories, etc.
- Fill in “readings” responses from content we all read earler but no one has written anything about.
- Follow up on a place or theme of interest connected to the city by doing research online or in a library, observation, identifying and/or interviewing relevant persons. Document this within relevant templates or update existing ones and send reminders to Slack to let others know. Do this by Sunday night.
- By Tuesday night, look at other students’ submissions regarding their themes and places. Comment or remix where appropriate. Try to help at least one person get a bit further in their research, or consolidate existing content.
- Since our intro to ARIS is next weekend, I’d be especially interested in reports on other tools people are interested in, especially ones that can make use of the Android platform (ARIS is iOS only).
Week 4 - Introduction to Burque and ARIS
In Class
- Discuss chapters from Albuquerque in Our Time in small groups. Combine lists of places and themes and present to the other groups. Consider how these stories do and don’t relate to your own experiences and interests concerning the city.
- Brainstorm research techniques for looking further into these issues, find resources, and begin to document our process.
- ARIS Workshop. We will switch gears and learn how to use ARIS to make games/tours/stories.
- If we have time, we will list and discuss other design and augmented reality platforms that can be used.
For Next Week
Watch
- Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
- Jim Gee (pronounced like the letter “g”): Games and Education
Read
* Reality is Broken: Introduction through Chapter 6.
Week 5 - Walking Tours On Your Own
- Neighborhood Walk: In a small group, take one of the Neighborhood Walks (except Nob Hill, that’s too easy), or the Plaza-to-Plaza walk. actually go there and take the tour. Take notes, pictures, and conduct interviews about what/who you find there.
- Find and summarize at least three resources for some of the identified topics.
- Start talking about what you’d like to dig deep into. Use shared notes about Albuquerque in our time, the book chapters, and the places and themes previously identified. This is an informal assignment, but it needs to be attended to if you are going to find a project in time to work on it.
Week 6 - Recreating Walks with Scrum, Learning about Games for Homework
In Class
- I will introduce you to Scrum as a means of working in groups to accomplish projects. Our project for the day will be to interpret the 5 neighborhood walks in ARIS. Part of this will be incorporating what you found during your visits.
For Next Week
Read
- How to do Things with Videogames Introduction and any 1 chapter.
- Hello and In the Beginning, There is the Designer in The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell
- The Experience Rises out of a Game in The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell
Make
- Document your chapter in How to do Things with Videogames as you did with the Albuquerque book, not the intro.
- Make something for fun in ARIS or with another tool. It should relate to a local place or a theme you have identified, and be playable in 10 minutes or less.
Week 7 - Reconciling Place and Moving to Games
At this point, we have looked at Burque through several lenses, and it is time to take stock of what we’re interested in and how we can find out more. It is also time to switch gears and think about what makes games work and what they’re good for.
In Class
- Discuss some uses of games and how they might fit a local context.
- Present your design, have it playtested, and get feedback.
For Next Week
Watch
The Game Layer on Top of the World by Seth Priebatsch
Listen
- 99% Reality (1% Augmented) - 99% Invisible Episode 3
- Maps, they don’t love you like I love you - 99% Invisible Episode 13
Do
Find a map of Burque or a portion of it that is intended for a specific rather than general audience. Document how this map abstracts and emphasizes different aspects of life to reach and inform its audience.
Week 8
In Class
- Share maps. Discuss what maps do not yet exist but which seem useful.
- Discuss the concept of augmented reality as a strategy to help people find what they need.
- Work in small groups to iterate your designs. Find places in your design that require more information. Iterate based on the feedback you received last week.
For Next Week
- Produce a pitch for the Shark Tank. Your proposal form should be online by Friday night. Comments and questions by Monday night.
- Practice your talk. You only get 3 minutes.
Week 9 - Shark Tank
In Class
Each design will get 3 minutes to present and two minutes for Q&A. We will take a break after the first 9. At the end, each student will vote for his/her top choice to work on. We will eventually arrive at a small number of designs to continue with, each with three to five team members. This is a messy process, hence the name.
For Next Week
- Begin to figure out how your new team is going to work together. Meet at least once outside class and make a list of elements necessary to complete your design.
Watch
- Flow, the Secret to Happiness by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- The Puzzle of Motivation by Dan Pink
Read
- The Designer Creates an Experience in The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell
- A Game Consists of Elements in The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell
Week 10 - First Scrum Together
This is a work week. In your newly formed groups, we will run through two scrum-sprint sessions.
For Next Week
Continue work in your groups. Document your progress for me in this first week of independent work.
Listen
Week 11 - Check In and Work Time
You’ve all had a bit of time to dig into your projects now. Time to think carefully about how we get to the end of the semester. We will make a plan for the last few weeks and get all the ducks in a row about what you need to produce and how you get there.
Here’s the list of all the products you are responsible for in the course of producing your project. More on each of these has been posted to Slack.
- Your design board
- Design docs
- Conference Proposal/Post-Mortem
- Kickstarter
- Press Kit (well, you don’t need to do anything for this. I just need a couple pieces of media from your Kickstarter to use elsewhere)
Read
A bit of formal game design theory. My hope is this will help you think about all the internal pieces of your projects in terms of their outcomes through their use.
- [Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics] by Hunicke,
- Chapter 4 A Game is Made of Elements in Schell.
Note that the following weeks are loosely structured. I will try to give prescient feedback through what you share. It is your responsibility to share early and often with me and the other students in class. Use Slack. Come to office hours. Ask to add agenda to our class meetings ahead of time so we can be prepared to work on specific issues while we are together.
Week 12 - Check-In at the Aquarium
This week you will have the chance to get feedback on your game’s progress from me and from members of other teams. We will meet at the ABQ Biopark Aquarium.
Have a fifteen minute demo ready. We will rotate in groups so that each group gets feedback from another and from me. Since the place is only relevant to one group, the others will need to find more generic ways to demo. If specific places would be helpful for other teams, the following two weeks should provide opportunities, but they should be scheduled in advance.
For Next Week
Create a rough draft of your Kickstarter and Conference Proposals. Make tough decisions about what you have time to work on and what you need to cut out. Use your design docs and design boards to help make and show this work.
Week 13 - No Turning Back Now
In class, we will assess progress and you will get feedback about the work that remains. We will spend the remaining time looking at problems/questions/progress in the necessary details for your auxiliary products.
For Next Week
Get your game demos ready.
Week 14 - Dry Run
You’re never as ready for the public as you think. So this week we will take the time to run through each others’ game demos as you would do on the final day. Take notes on what goes wrong and what shows promise.
For Next Week
Let’s do the Contested Places activity in reverse. Hopefully, I’ll have some devices to share to make this easy to do individually.
One way to look at Place in general and our city in particular is to think in terms of contested places, the conflicts that we have with each other about how a space is to be used or how that use takes place. It’s also appropriate for a holiday week around Thanksgiving, whose window dressing is a fantasy between pilgrims and indians that often serves to hide the real history of this land.
- Look for and document contested places outside UNM and document them within the ARIS game Contested Places in ABQ (by Sunday night).
- Look at others’ notebook entries. Comment and reflect on
- The actual issues, places, and expressions
- The techniques of documentation
You can start the reflection whenever you like, but it may make sense to wait until Monday morning when everyone has their’s up. Finish by Tuesday night.
Week 15 - Turkey and Contested Places
If we don’t find another place to go…let’s take a break from the grind of your projects to get some fresh air and look more closely at our surroundings together.
In Class
Follow up on your solo work over the previous week. Use the ARIS Notebook to document Contested Places in ABQ and nearby.
Regroup and discuss what people have found:
- What themes emerge?
- Which of these involve or could be relevant to the city outside UNM?
- What places, themes, and issues seem likely/important/interesting in investigating the city?
- If we wanted to use the ARIS Notebook to document and discuss contested places more thoroughly, what design considerations arise? Edit existing notes to curate our collection.
- As people who seek to document living culture, what techniques and strategies do we need to work on?
Week 16 - Games Showcase
In this final day, you will show off your completed games. We will invite the general public to play or demo our games. Each group will have 15 minutes followed by 5 minutes for audience Q&A.
Before Finals Week
Finalize your Kickstarter and Conference Proposals.