Last night was the first of five classes titled “Introduction to Game Design”.  It was a reasonably good first start, although I’m still adjusting to how to pace the course material.  Hopefully those who attended enjoyed themselves and learned something new.

I hadn’t made proper handout in time, so here are links to the (optional) readings that I assigned.

Common Game Prototyping Pitfalls
How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days
Iterative Design
Affordances and Design

We ended the class by playing through a round of GameGame 2.0, a card game that aims to teach players what the core elements of a game design are.  It also makes for an interesting brainstorming tool, as over the course of the game you have to take the cards you’ve collected and translate them into a pitch for a new game concept.  It was pretty successful and the students did a great job of making things up on the spot.  I don’t think GameGame alone does a perfect job at outlining the elements that make up a game design, but it’s close enough that it can be used to augment a more detailed discussion.