Designing News Games

Course Description

Students will learn how journalists can use games to tell complex stories. The class will focus on the fundamentals of game design theory, analyzing existing games that tackle serious topics, and creating newsgame prototypes to be played and tested by the entire class. Students will be creating their own non-digital games, which may include card, dice and board games, all in the service of journalistic storytelling.

Course Objectives

By the end of the semester, students will be able to:

• Understand the fundamental concepts behind all games, regardless of the medium.
• Create multiple types of games and have experience in the iterative design process and how to playtest games for further development.
• Evaluate games critically and be able to analyze what makes a game effective
• Understand what games have to offer journalism and what differs news games from other forms of storytelling, and create their own news game.

---

Course Readings and Materials

There is one required textbook and three required games for this course.

Textbook

Rules of Play, by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman

Games

• Blackbar (iOS and Android)
• Lifeline (iOS and Android)
• Paper’s Please (iPad or Desktop (http://papersplea.se/) )

GRADING

Line item	% of grade
Participation + Peer Grades	20%
Modification Game	5%
Abstract Game	10%
Social Game	10%
Story Game	15%
Intervention Game	5%
Game Analysis and Critique Paper	15%
Final Newsgame Project	20%

Time Commitment

Expect to spend on average, 10 hours per week outside of class on your readings and homework. Additionally, since this is a seminar course, we may take one or two field trips outside of class together, depending on the gaming events that occur this fall. I’ll schedule those with all of you as they come up.

Participation

Your participation grade will be composed of your participation during in-class discussions, playtesting and game critiques. Additionally, since most of your work in this class will be in a group, your participation grade will also be influenced by confidential peer grades.

Peer Grades and Feedback

There are two parts to this: giving your peers grades (which will happen in private) and giving your peers feedback (which will be public).

Grades: After each group assignment, use the Assignments section in Canvas to submit peer grades for each member of your group. If you grade someone at a C or below, make sure to give an explanation. Otherwise, explanations are optional. Use the following rubric for your peer grades:

A = Fully participated and contributed ideas, worked hard and was a great teammate

B = Participated and had valuable contributions. No complaints.

C = Participated somewhat, but could have contributed more

D = Barely participated, or was counter-productive in some way F = Did not participate, no contributions whatsoever

Feedback: In addition to grades submitted through Canvas, also write an email to everyone on your team and CC me. Feedback doesn’t have to be long, but it should be thoughtful. The format is below:

For each member of your team, point out two positive observations from working together. For example, this can be about how s/he positively contributed to the team, particular responsibilities s/he volunteered to take on, or how s/he helped other members of the group. Similarly, for each member of your team, point out two areas that s/he can improve upon. These points should be constructive. For example, this can be suggestions on how a team member can better collaborate with everyone next time, or suggestions for a better workflow or processes that would help this team member better organize his/her time

Rubric

All of the Game assignments will be grading on the same rubric: (originally created by Eric Zimmerman, who also wrote your textbook!)

Functionality. Has the student made a playable, enjoyable game that can be completed and does not have any obvious structural problems?

Balance. Beyond basic playability, are the systems of the game well-balanced and does the game provide multiple, meaningful choices for players?

Creativity. Does the project evince innovation and uniqueness? Does it show a creative imagination that does not solve the given design problem in an ordinary way?

Appropriate for the assignment. Each project is a response to constraints given by the instructor. Has the project properly a ddressed these constraints?

Presentation. Each game is presented in material form, along with its rules and a written process statement. Are these materials well-written, well-organized, and easy to use?

Throughout the course, you’ll be creating five different games. You’ll always be working collaboratively with others and this will make up the majority of the work for the class. Generally, you’ll get two weeks to create a game. After the first week, a prototype and version of the rules is due in class, and then after the second week, we do a playtest and group critique in class.

When turning in your games on the due date, please print out and turn in the following:

Basic Information:

• The name of the game itself.
• Names of everyone in your group, listed as the creators of the game.
• The semester and class number
• Abstract: A 200-300 word summary of the game
• Rules: A complete list of all the rules in the game
• Physical Materials: A complete list of all materials required to play the game
• Images: Up to five images of the game itself, after setup
• Design Process Statement: In one page or less, describe your design process. When creating and iterating on the game, what are some of the obstacles or struggles you encountered, and how did you overcome them?