USC IMD:

Yes, Another Playtest

Hello, again IMD gang!

We are conducting MORE playtests of Flower in the upcoming weeks. For those wondering why - we are doing some rapid iteration on a level and want to get feedback at frequent intervals! Thanks SO much to the people who have come out already and given such great, open feedback.

Here are the dates for the upcoming playtests:
Tues, Sept 2 7:00pm
Monday, Sept 8 7:00pm (although it might be 7:30pm)

As always, email me at kellee(at)thatgamecompany(dot)com if you are interested. And for those that have come and who will come in the future, I hope you know that if you ever want us to check out your projects, we would be honored.

PS. It is simply awesome to see all of the new posts for this semester.

IML2 goes online in Second Life

The IML's brand new 64-acre parcel of land in Second Life just went online last night in time for the first meeting of CTIN 482: Designing Online Multiplayer Game Environments. The design challenge for the class this semester is to create an innovative learning space and a set of game-based learning objects as part of a virtual campus for the School of Cinematic Arts. The new space is a tabula rasa, waiting to be terraformed, designed, developed and put into practice. From here you can see both the old and new IML spaces. If you have requests for what you'd like to see in a virtual SCA campus, now is the time to make them!

GOOD LUCK THIRD YEARS!

I just wanted to wish the third years an exciting thesis year, and I look forward to seeing your projects in May! :D

Death Star Over San Francisco!

Filmmaker Michael Horn: "I shot everything on my junkie DV camera, did motion-tracking and comping in After Effects, and basic sound design in Final Cut." More in an interview in StarWarsBlog.

Motion tracking, which uses computer vision techniques to track objects in the image, has virtually replaced motion control, which uses expensive mechanical and robotic cameras, for many kinds of composite shots in the past few years. The implications for independent production, new interactive techniques, and general hacking are huge.

By way of Kevin Kelly's blog, in a post called The End of Video as Evidence of Anything, a must read.

Vote

To all of you new to the division, I’m breaking the rules by posting something not related to interactive media. We take the blog seriously in that regard, but I want to say something once.

Register to vote right now.

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm

If you don’t vote for president this November then you are a chump. I will not tell you who to vote for, and please don’t reply to this post about who you’re going to pick. Just do.

IMD Alumni on Trojan Family Magazine Cover.

Link to Article

Kellee and Jenova are mentioned about 3/4 of the way into the article which is mostly about USC Stevens institute. It's a neat feeling to see IMD alumni on the cover of a magazine in my mailbox. Speaking of Kellee and Jenova, check out the next post to see what they are up to.

Oh a-Playtesting we will go....

thatgamecompany is having another friends & family playtest for our current PS3 game, Flower, on next Monday, Aug 25th. If you haven't playtested it yet, or haven't played it in awhile, email me at kellee(at)thatgamecompany(dot)com.

We haven't set a time yet, so let me know what hours of the day/evening you would be available, and I'll try and arrange it around an optimal time for people.

Game Design Workshop Recommended by Designers of Magic

Game Design Workshop got a recommendation from Mark Rosewater and Brian Tinsman, designers of Magic: The Gathering, in Rosewater's fanmail column. Congrats Tracy and Chris, woot!

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr344

Dear Mark Rosewater, I was curious if there are any books on game design you're particularly fond of?

Thanks,
-Matt

Matt,

Believe or not, I haven't actually read many books on game design. Up until the last few years there really weren't many, and having three kids has significantly cut down on my available reading time. So I turned to an R&D member who I consider an expert in this area, Brian Tinsman, R&D's head designer of new games.

Brian recommended the following:

A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Ralph Koster. Brian felt it was pretty theoretical but had a wonderful approach that's relevant to games in all categories.

Game Design Workshop by Tracy Fullerton. This book is mostly focused on video games, but it had the best step-by-step "how to design a good game" approach that Brian had seen. The book draws on principles from many genres.

New Rules For Classic Games by R. Wayne Schmittberger. This isn't a game design book per se, but Brian felt it had some wonderful examples of how to change games to meet different player needs, essentially what Wizards' development process is all about.

And I'll recommend the following:

The Game Inventor's Guidebook by Brian Tinsman. This is one I have read, and since Brian was too humble to peddle his own book, I will. The book is mostly focused on how to get a game published once it's designed but it covers all the fundamentals of the game design process and interviews just about every name game designer (myself included) in the business. The book is currently out of print, but it's due to be reprinted November 1st.

Finally, I'm forced (by the same powers that keep making "Roseanne" references show up) to also mention that my favorite book, A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech, is an excellent book on creative thinking, and also a must for any aspiring game designer.

Mobile Voices project and class

Comm 620: Mobile Phones, On-Line Community, and Social Change, a year-long biweekly multidisciplinary research seminar

Instructors:
François Bar (Communication),
Steve Anderson (Cinematic Arts)
Murali Annavaram (Viterbi School of Engineering)

This seminar explores how mobile phones can serve to build on-line community, even among people who are mostly off-line. It runs in parallel with “Mobile Voices”, an academic-community partnership project to research and design a platform allowing low-wage immigrants in Los Angeles to publish stories about their lives and their communities directly from their mobile phones. The seminar provides a venue where researchers can explore the social, theoretical and technical issues raised by Mobile Voices. Students will engage in year-long research projects, individually or in groups, structured to culminate in publication by the end of the year. Some of these projects will directly be part of Mobile Voices, but there will be room for other research projects exploring the role of mobile phones in fostering community and/or social change.

Information about Mobile Voices can be found at https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/VozMob and a syllabus-in-progress for the class at https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/VozMobClass

Siggraph Stipend (Thanks Microsoft Research)

Everyone should try to make it to SIGGRAPH this year - especially 3rd year students thinking about how to design an interactive media experience for public presentation. 2nd year students would be wise to attend as they think about prior art and their work. 1st year students would benefit. . . well, see, everyone should go.

One day passes and student rates are available to keep costs down, and it is at the LA convention center - a stone's throw (if you have a really good arm) from USC.

Toward this end, the Immersive Lab, using funds from Microsoft Research, is offering 4 $100 stipends. Recipients will be asked to describe a notable exhibit at one of our weekly research meetings. If you are interested, please contact Bryan Jaycox for application details soon.