History of Computer Game Design Course

"The History of Computer Game Design" is part of "How They Got Game: The History and Culture of Interactive Simulations and Videogames," (at Stanford)

This course provides a historical and critical approach to the evolution of computer and video game design from its beginnings to the present. It brings together cultural, business, and technical perspectives. Students should come away from the course with an understanding of the history of this medium, as well as insights into design, production, marketing, and socio-cultural impacts of interactive entertainment and communication.

The course will offer reading, discussion, guest presentations and projects on the developing culture and technology of computer and video game design. Historical contexts include entertainment media, computing technology, applications of gaming technology and business history. Topics include: play in human culture; early computer games from Chess to Spacewar; the role of artificial intelligence research; history of computer graphics and sound technology; the evolution of techniques and genres of computer game design; business competition; games and the microcomputer revolution; networked gaming; gadgets and games as factors in the evolution of software and hardware; marketing; gendering of games and game play; virtual worlds; simulation; video and computer game industries; technology transfer (e.g., military simulations).