Festival2012/Submit/NonGraphicalGames
Contents
Games without Graphics
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- Title of session: Games without Graphics
- Your name and affiliation: Dan Schultz, OpenNews
- Session format: Design Challenge
What will your session or activity allow people to make, learn or do?
When you think of a "Video Game" you might think of Angry Birds, or StarCraft, Call of Duty, or Dwarf Fortress. These games use graphics, and the player uses inputs to modify and control the way those graphics interact. What would your game look like if you removed all that? What could a non-graphical game look like in our networked world? What might fill the void of graphics to create a compelling experience?
This session asks people to think outside the bitmap to design and create games and rule sets that engage people without using any sort of visual flair. Text based games, place based games, or maybe even games involving the navigation of cyberspace! There are tons of creative and addictive experiences that engage imagination and critical thought without using vectors and animation.
Participants will learn:
- About exiting non-graphical games (and games of the past).
- How to think through the process of ruleset design.
- How to set up NodeJS and SocketIO.
Participants will make:
- A ruleset for a non-graphical game
- A prototype of their non-graphical game.
How do you see that working?
- We will start off with a very short explanation of what the heck we mean by "non graphical game."
- People will be welcome to break into groups of whatever size they prefer to brainstorm.
- Then we'll test the concepts and iterate.
How will you deal with 5, 15, 50 participants?
This session is imagination-driven. The more people, the more imagination potential! For the first 15 minutes people will be asked to either form groups or work alone, depending on their personal preferences / vibe. After that they will be asked to join into groups of about 5 to share their thoughts and ideas. From there they will have a chance to flesh out some of their projects by breaking into code.
How long within your session before someone else can teach this?
About 10 mins. Once the basic concept is explained the rest of the process is ideation.
What do you see as outcomes after the festival?
The ideal situation would be to have a nice set of ideas for games with clear paths about how those games could become a reality without too much effort, using and building on tools that already exist.
In the best realistic case the participant will leave with a prototyped rule set.
We will provide these follow-up opportunities:
- Join our mailing list and IRC channel to stay in touch and share progress
- Upload their code to GitHub and follow one another's projects.
- Join a "NonGraphicalGame" Code Force -- people interested in turning some of these things into fleshed out realities over the next few months.
