Ludicidal Tendencies

I was invited a couple weeks ago to give a workshop at the Games and Storytelling Workshop at the HyperMedia Lab. While there, I met a bunch of great people and we made some interesting game prototypes. Here are pix from the trip and workshop: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kinojabber/sets/72057594066067704/

During the first day, we played Werewolf and a bunch of Surrealist games. On day two, we played New Games and theatre games, including a great set of improv scenes that I wasn't able to pix of, because I was too involved. On day three we worked on a game modding project and on day four, we created several storytelling games.

The final day was for playtesting with Frans Mayra and a number of other people from the HyperMedia Lab. Frans played the storytelling games with spirit, and no one who was there will soon forget the character of the "ketchup heiress, Cleopatra Heinz" who was the downfall of our weak-willed hero in "The Final Voyage of the Albatross" Game. :)

Posted by at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Janey Murray will be speaking at the ZML next week on the topic:
"Making Steven Cry: on knowing what to ask of game experience and game design"

At the opening of the USC program, Steven Spielberg echoed the EA pioneers in setting the goal of making games that could make us cry. Is this an appropriate expectation of games? If so, how would you design to best produce a tearful experience? This talk examines this question, and related issues of immersion and of the cognitive origins of gameplay and story-making.

Though I'm sure everyone is very familiar with Janet's work, here is her bio nevertheless:

Professor Janet H. Murray is an internationally recognized interactive designer, the director of Georgia Tech's Masters Degree Program in Information Design and Technology and Ph.D. in Digital Media, and a member of Georgia Tech's interdisciplinary GVU Center. She is the author of Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace (Free Press, 1997; MIT Press 1998), which has been translated into 5 languages, and is widely used as a roadmap to the coming broadband art, information, and entertainment environments. She is currently working on a textbook for MIT Press, Inventing the Medium: A Principled Approach to Interactive Design and on a digital edition of the Warner Brothers classic, Casablanca, funded by NEH and in collaboration with the American Film Institute. In addition, she directs an eTV Prototyping Group, which has worked on interactive television applications for PBS, ABC, and other networks. She is also a member Georgia Tech's Experimental Game Lab.

Murray has played an active role in the development of two new degree programs at Georgia Tech, both 0f which were launched in Fall 2004: the Ph.D. in Digital Media, and the B.S. in Computational Media.

In spring 2000 Janet Murray was named a Trustee of the American Film Institute, where she has alsoserved as a mentor in the Enhanced TV Workshop a program of the AFI Digital Content Lab. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Harvard University, and before coming to Georgia Tech in 1999 taught humanities and led advanced interactive design projects at MIT.

Murray’s primary fields of interest are digital media curricula, interactive narrative, story/games, interactive television, and large-scale multimedia information spaces. Her projects have been funded by IBM, Apple Computer, the Annenberg-CPB Project, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Posted by at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Alex Porter at MTV games sent me an email inquiring about students who might be interested in an editorial assistant position at his "small but growing department at mtv.com devoted to games."

He says, "I'm looking for an editorial assistant that can help develop features, edit, maintain steady contact with publishers to collect assets/go to industry event and demos, and keep a blog. We're also developing some video content for multi-platform use that we'd need some help on. Web and video production skills are pluses, but most important are strong writing skills and passion for and deep knowledge of games and popular culture in general. We're in New York, so they've have to be willing to move here."

If anyone is interested, you can contact Alex directly at: Alex.PorterATmtvn.com (obviously, you need to replace the AT with an @ sign ...).

Posted by at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The 484 Intermediate Games class will be holding playtests of their rough digital prototypes on Monday 2/13 and Wednesday 2/15 from 4-6PM in the GIL usability lab. We're looking for patient playtesters to come in and help us test the core mechanics of these early-stage games. If you're interested and available for a half-hour slot in the time frame mentioned above, please email Tracy and let me know what time works best for you.

We really hope you can particiapte, it will be a big help!

Posted by at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)