Games for Social Change
IDM 111
Union College
Spring 2010
Homework to prepare for class on Tuesday of week 7
Game Maker vignettes presentations and critiques
What to bring:
- Your game. We will ask you to copy it onto one computer in the lab so that other students in the class can play it. That means, if you developed your game using Game Maker 7, you can just bring the .gmk file. If you developed your game using Game Maker 8, you have to create an executable from your game. (There is an choice for saving an executable in the File menu.)
- Written instructions on how to play your game, if needed.
- Write up a description of your vignette, including what your social issue was, what emotion or situation you wanted to capture in your vignette and how you intended to create this user experience through your game design. That is, what was your rationale for choosing particular game mechanics, aesthetics, story. Be prepared to briefly present your game in class.
What you are going to do in class:
- In groups of four, you are going to play each others' games.
- Then (after you have played all games), each of you is going to briefly present his/her game and the others in the group are going to give feedback and critique.
- Write up a self-critique. Summarizing your own thoughts and the feedback you got from the rest of your group.
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Select one game from your group to present to the whole class.
What to hand in:
- Your game. (Try to upload on Blackboard - Assignments - first. If Blackboard doesn't accept the file, email it to us.
- The instructions on how to play it.
- The description of your game.
- Your self-critique.
What we are going to look for:
- Does the situation experienced by the player of the vignette relate to your social issue? Does it appropriately capture an aspect of the problems related to this issue?
- How creative is your approach to the social issue? For example, does the player take an interesting or unusual perspective? Or: are you depicting an aspect of the problem that is not commonly talked about?
- How well do your mechanics and aesthetics support the player experience?