SAIC
Spring 2014
Friday 9-4
MI 819
Instructor: Jake Elliott - jake@dai5ychain.net
Artgames considers computer based games as New Media artworks and art as a game-like system. Computer-based games constitute a significant form of new screen media and cultural activity. Artists work with game-like structures and approaches to create New Media projects. Students will play, discuss and develop art games that share relationships to forms of gameplay from text-based adventure games to first-person shooters, strategy games and simulators to conceptual games of chance. This advanced level studio course enables students to hack, modify, and critique existing games, and independently author games as New Media artworks.
This semester, we'll focus on discussing and developing multiplayer games and new media projects that can benefit from being approached as multiplayer games. Our focus will be on games with a digital component, but we'll also play some non-digital games (board/card games, "playground" games, etc). We'll cover a variety of technologies and tools, including: the Twine and Unity game engines, the Oculus Rift VR headset, the MaKey MaKey hardware input kit, and the PS Move controller.
We'll be working a lot with Unity. In order to streamline our learning process and stay focused on artgame design, we'll use a Unity add-on called "Playmaker," which greatly simplifies many common game development tasks, especially for folks without prior programming experience. Playmaker is a commercial add-on available here -- ordering with your student email address will give you a 50% discount, putting the price at $47.50.