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Post #4: Discussing Your Game Design Experience

A major change in this semester will be that, while I want you to try to actually make the game you plan in the third blog post a reality (and in a normal version of this class, we’d work toward that, specifically), the lack of in-class time to help you troubleshoot presents a notable challenge. 

With this in mind, I’d like you to spend some time trying to actually make your game happen this semester— I only ever expected a VERY basic prototype in the first place, but I’m alleviating that concern, given everything going on.

In this post, I’d like you to either link to your early prototype, or explain how the process of getting it to work went—so, if you can’t make a prototype, what did you try, and why/how did it fail you?

This can essentially be a mini dev diary, where you detail progress (or the lack thereof) with your idea.

Depending on how the process goes, feel free to make this into multiple entries—I’d love to see you writing periodically about how your game design experience is going!

REMINDER: having a functioning prototype will be considered “extra credit” for our purposes, since it’s incredibly hard to provide support for this sort of work from a distance (though, I’m happy to help anyone who wants to make that happen!).

As an additional reminder, when assessing your work on this post, I'll be considering the following questions:
  • Does this post contain at least 300-500 words?
  • Does this post respond to all questions/elements of the prompt?
  • Does this post bring in examples (from the writer’s own experiences, outside sources, and/or games)?

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Post # 1: Shifts in Our Understanding of Computer Games

After our readings from Bogost and Schell this semester, how has your understanding of computer games shifted?  Write a blog post that reflects on your own experience with games before this course, and how things like procedural rhetoric and the Elemental Tetrad have shifted that (if at all).  Feel free to bring in, discuss, and analyze any specific examples from the texts and/or the games we’ve played to emphasize this. As a reminder, when assessing your work on this post, I'll be considering the following questions: Does this post contain at least 300-500 words? Does this post respond to all questions/elements of the prompt? Does this post bring in examples (from the writer’s own experiences, outside sources, and/or games)?

Post #5: End of Semester Reflection

Finally, I’d like you to create a post that serves as a sort of reflection on this whole process, and brings everything we’ve been discussing together. So, I’d love to see answers to the following questions: After everything we’ve done this semester, how has your understanding of rhetoric been established and/or shifted? What have you learned from/about making digital texts? Put simply, how do you see the differences between written and digital expression/arguments? What have you learned about games and game design throughout this whole process—playing games, analyzing them, and attempting to design and/or make your own? As a reminder, when assessing your work on this post, I'll be considering the following questions: Does this post contain at least 300-500 words? Does this post respond to all questions/elements of the prompt? Does this post bring in examples (from the writer’s own experiences, outside sources, and/or games)?

Post #3: Planning Out a Game Design

For this post, I’d like you to apply Schell’s Elemental Tetrad. So, like I’d asked you to do for Project 3, I want you to elaborate on how you would like to design a computer game of your choosing. Naturally, I want you to include the following: What is your theme? What aesthetics make sense for that theme? What mechanics make sense for that theme? What narrative makes sense for that theme? What technology do you think could help you accomplish the goals outlined above? As a reminder, when assessing your work on this post, I'll be considering the following questions: Does this post contain at least 300-500 words? Does this post respond to all questions/elements of the prompt? Does this post bring in examples (from the writer’s own experiences, outside sources, and/or games)?