Schedule

Week 1

  • Tuesday, April 4th: Discussion of how we will use class time. Students bring ideas for proposed things to read, play, or do together for a course on games and fiction. These could be new or old, that you've read/played/done or that you simply want to read/play/do. Syllabus discussion.
  • Thursday, April 6th: Discussion of the crafting of play: read A Game Design Vocabulary by Anna Anthropy and Naomi Clark. Bring first agenda items. Discussion of agenda items. Further syllabus discussion. Group play of Betrayal at the House on the Hill (by Rob Daviau, Bruce Glassco, Bill McQuillan, Mike Selinker, and Teeuwynn Woodruffor).

Week 2

  • Tuesday, April 11th: Canceled due to illness.
  • Thursday, April 13th: Group gameplay of murder mystery game.

Week 3

  • Tuesday, April 18th: Discussion of mainstream fiction practices: read excerpts from Robert McKee's Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting. Discussion of excerpts from three takes on fiction and creative writing as art and personal practice: read from Break Every Rule by Carole Maso, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, and The Art of Fiction by John Gardner. The excerpts are available from the Readings page..
  • Thursday, April 20th: Small project critique and large project progress presentations. Prompt: either "Genre" or "Character."

Week 4

  • Tuesday, April 25th: Read Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald (except “The Masculine and the Feminine”). Play 2-3 hours of Undertale by Toby Fox, Temmie Chang, et al.
  • Thursday, April 27th: Begin group play of De Profundis, by Michał Oracz. Noah will bring in writing exercises.

Week 5

  • Tuesday, May 2nd: Seminar discussion:
    • Read chapters from Computers as Theater, 2nd Ed by Brenda Laurel (chapters 2, 3, and 4)
    • Play interactive fiction examples:
  • Thursday, May 4th: In-class critique of Raquel's project 

Week 6

  • Tuesday, May 9th: Seminar discussion:
    • Read chapters from Hamlet on the Holodeck, Updated Edition by Janet Murray (chapters 4, 5, and 6, including updates)
    • Play The Beginner's Guide by Davey Wreden
  • Thursday, May 11th: Small project critique and large project progress presentations. Prompt: either "Emotions/Feelings" or "Puzzles." (Large project distribution by Sarah.)

Week 7

  • Tuesday, May 16th: Seminar discussion:
    • Cybertext, by Espen Aarseth (chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6)
    • Play Gone Home by Steve Gaynor, Johnnemann Nordhagen, Karla Zimonja, Kate Craig, Emily Carroll, et al
  • Thursday, May 18th: Large project critique for Sarah. De Profundis stage two.

Week 8

  • Tuesday, May 23rd: Seminar discussion:
    • "Ice-Bound: Combining Richly-Realized Story with Expressive Gameplay," by Aaron A. Reed, Jacob Garbe, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, and Michael Mateas (in Readings)
    • "Prom Week: Designing past the game/story dilemma," by Josh McCoy, Mike Treanor, Ben Samuel, Aaron A. Reed, Michael Mateas, and Noah Wardrip-Fruin (in Readings)
    • "Procedural Rhetoric," by Ian Bogost (in Readings)
    • The Ice-Bound Concordance by Aaron Reed, Jacob Garbe, and N.J. Apostol (you must buy the book in time for it to be delivered for you to play through the game)
  • Thursday, May 25th: Large project critique for Jacob, in class.

Week 9

  • Tuesday, May 30th: Seminar discussion:
    • Chapters 1–5 of Expressive Processing
    • Play The Secret World (current version, not Secret World Legends) by Ragnar Tørnquist, Anne Lise Waal, Martin Bruusgaard, Joel Bylos, Øystein Eftevaag, Christer Sveen, Dag Scheve, et al
  • Thursday, June 1st: Small project critique and large project progress presentations. Prompt: either "Procedural Rhetoric" or "Generation." 

Week 10

  • Tuesday, June 6th: Seminar discussion:
    • Chapters 6, 7, 8, & 10 of Expressive Processing
    • Play game TBD (continue with The Secret World?)
  • Thursday, June 8th: Large project critique for Jared and Jimmy, in class.

Finals Week

  • Tuesday, June 13th (4:00–7:00 p.m.): Final presentations