Teaching Game Design to Teach Interaction Design
Let’s Play
@cwodtke | [email protected] www.eleganthack.com
CHRISTINA WODTKE
I teach at CCA
I use game design to teach Interaction design
You may think Game design is all about fancy equipment and softare
Let’s make a game
Exercise via Brenda Romero
Draw a path
Create a way to move
• Dice roll• Answer a trivia question• Everyone moves• Person behind moves• Roshambo• Card draw• Pass, but gain currency• Physical skill
Design Conflict• Speed people up• Slow people down• Extra turn• Lose a turn• Swap places• Block
Add anything you need to make it playable
3 minutes
Playtest
You won!You made a game. Was that so hard?
Was it fun?
Sure I worked at Zynga… but I worked on platform! I was nerveous teaching game design too…
It all started with Story
Time Studio 1: Story that is….
Students made pop-up books, exploring how to use interaction for emotional effect…
Students made Interactive Fiction, exploring dystopias
IF software will teach you about interaction flows
And IF teaches you how to consider story in space over time
Interaction Design and Game Design are Fraternal twins
First video game 1958
Shared KnowledgeYou need the same skills for both
AFFORDANCES (signifiers)Things that look pushable, get pushed. Things that look pullable, get pulled.
AFFORDANCES
Buttons that look pushable, get pushed
But check out these affordances
Feedback
Alphabear won’t embarrass me socially
Direct Manipulation
Harry Potter Years 1-4 on IpadDirect Manipulation
Harry Potter Years 5-7 on IpadVirtual Controller
Concept Models to Communicate to team
Architecture concept model
Architecture concept model
How areas of site interlock
Via Andrew Hinton@inkblurt
Consider conceptual models over sitemaps
Stone Librande’s One Page Designs are concept models(Spore)
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-information-architecture
The IA of Minecraft
The IA of Kingdom Rush
Same but betterPlaytesting, Prototyping, and RITE done Right
A game is unknowable until it is played
Board games are HUGE!
Paper prototyping
More iteration
Different & New Ideas
Look to Game Design to stretch us in new directions and explore difficult topics
MDAMechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics
CAMPContext, Architecture, Mechanics, Poetics
Luck and skill
Irregular Reward Schedules
Irregular Reward Schedules
continuums
Art?
Culture
Ecology
Craft
Empathy
You learn when you care
They will save the world
And have fun doing it
Required Reading for Educators
