Demystifying Board Game Design

Module 0- Introduction

About the Course
Course Contents

PHASE 1

Phase 1 Introduction

Module 1- Play & Learn

LEC 1: Why Demystify Game Design?

Resource: Students'work in game design at IDC school of design

LEC 2: Games, Play & Education

Resource ALM 1: Video:  Forest Kindergarten

ALM 2: Video:  Excerpt from Michael Moore's film ‘Where to Invade Next’ (Finland education system)

ALM 3: Video:  Turning trash into toys for learning | Arvind Gupta

LEC 3: First Game design Assignment

Resource: Group Assignment 1

LEC 4: DEMO: Self Play Testing of Zero Cost Games

Resource: On Play Testing

Module 2- Games, Play & Learning

LEC 1: Understanding the Essence of Games

Resource: Why design a zero cost game?

LEC 2: Games & Education

Resource: Why games in education?

Resource: Educational games and learning

Resource: How does learning occur?

Resource: Understanding play

Resource: Play-n-learn and cognitive development

Resource: Facets of playfulness

Resource: Games with a purpose

Resource: Design opportunities

LEC 3: Journey of Game Design Course

Resource: My encounters with game design

Resource: Teaching game design - Second accident

Resource: Practice to teaching to theory

Module 3- What Makes a Game a Game?

LEC 1: Developing a Challenge

Resource: Defining Games

LEC 2: What Makes a Game a Game- Part I

Resource: What makes game a game?

LEC 3: What Makes a Game a Game- Part II

LEC 4: What Makes a Game a Game- Part III (Games, races & puzzles)

Resource: Games, races, puzzles and gamification

Module 4 - Test of the Pudding

LEC 1: Initiating Play Testing of Games

Resource: On play testing

Resource: Links to additional zero cost examples

LEC 2: DEMO 1: Play Testing of Word Building Game

LEC 3: DEMO 2: Play Testing of Game on Geometric Shapes

Resource: Why design a zero cost game?

Resource: Video: Games on Hereditary Traits

LEC 4: Reflecting on Play Testing

Module 5 - Never Leave a Good Game Alone

LEC 1: Design Scope in Redesigning Games

LEC2: DEMO 1: Redesigning Scrabble

LEC 3: DEMO 2: Redesigning Tic Tac Toe

Resource: Video: Redesigning Monopoly

Resource: Video: Redesigning Jenga

Resource: Video: Redesigning Abalon

LEC 4: Reflecting on Student Presentations of Redesigned Games

Resource: Design redesign: Why redesign games?

PHASE 2

A short overview of phase I

Phase 2 Introduction

Module 6- Technicalities of game design

LEC 1: Terminologies- 1

Resources: Terminologies I

LEC 2: Terminologies- 2

Resources: Terminology II

LEC 3: Designing a new game from scratch

Module 7- Play of conflict and uncertainty

LEC 1: Creating conflicts and the role of uncertainty

Resource: From artificial conflict to uncertainty

Resource: Generating a good conflict

Resource: Designing game is designing game mechanics

Resource: Complexity of games

Resource: Why offer choices to players

LEC 2: Uncertainty principles

Resources: Uncertainty as a temporal experience

Resource: Injecting uncertainty

LEC 3: Locating inequality-equality cycle in games

ALM 1: Video: Locate inequality-equality cycle Group 1 (Group –Word formation)

ALM 2: Video: Locate inequality-equality cycle Group 2 (Group- Geometric shapes)

ALM 3: Video: Locate inequality-equality cycle Group 3 (Group- Hereditary traits)

Module 8- How Influencers Manage Uncertainty

LEC 1: Introduction to Influencers

Resource: Glimpses of key influencers in action

LEC 2: Use of Thinking

Resource: Games as a cerebral act 1

LEC 3: Use of Skills

Resource: Games as a corporal act

Resource: Can corporal drive the cerebral?        

LEC 4: Use of Knowledge and Memory

Resource: Games as a cerebral act II

Resource: Awareness of gameplays and players

LEC 5: Use of Chance

Resource: Give chance a chance 

Resource: Influencers in edu-games

Resource: Completing the influencer story 

Module 9- How things fall in place

Lec 1: Introducing game design process

Resource:Game and problem solving

Lec 2: Revisiting educational goals

Lec 3: Design process: Building a game

Lec 4: Revising game dynamics

Resource: On play testing 

Lec 5: Infrastructure

Lec 6: Major project: Discussion and brain storming

Resource: levels of identity

Resource: Redesign and design of games

Module 9 [annex 1] : Play testing of major project

Lec 1: Play testing – Rajneeti

Lec 2: Play testing – Race-cue

Lec 3: Play testing – Oasis

Lec 4: Play testing – Smacklet

Lec 5: Conclusion

Module 9 [annex 2] : Playing with Senior students

Lec 1: Play test with senior students - Rajneeti

Lec 2: Play test with senior students - Smacklet

Lec 3: Play test with senior students – Farmoney & oasis

Module 10 - How things don't fall into place easily

Lec 1: Design process-alternative starts

Lec 2: And the winner is / Forms of conflicts

Lec 3: Chris Crawford _ what makes game a game - Minimum condition to qualify as a game

Lec 4: What makes a good game

Lec 5: Get Set Go

Module 11 - And the winner is ….

Lec 1: The last inning

Lec 2: Final presentation _ Rajneeti

Lec 3: Final presentation – Race-cue