Game Design as a Writing Course in the Liberal Arts

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Game Design as a Writing Course in the Liberal
Arts

• Amber Settle
• DePaul University
• joint work with Robin Burke and Lucia Dettori
• International Conference on Frontiers in
  Education Computer Science and Computer
  Engineering (FECS)
• June 26, 2007

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Student writing

• A conflict
• Writing is important for all students
• Employers desire good communication skills
• Writing is crucial for graduate work
• Many students, particularly those in technical
  areas, do not enjoy writing
• Particular challenge in technical courses
• Abstract and quantitative material
• Writing is poorly integrated with other
  assessments and/or course material
• E.g. Introductory programming

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Institution

• DePaul is a liberal arts university
• Liberal Studies Program (general education)
  courses account for up to 45 of student
  requirements
• Particular focus on writing
• Center for Writing-Based Learning created in 2006
• School of CTI
• Technical school founded in 1996
• 14 bachelors degree programs, including
• Computer science, telecommunications, information
  assurance and security engineering
• Information systems, e-commerce technology
• Computer games development, computer graphics and
  motion technology
• Digital cinema, interactive media

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Game design as a writing course

• GAM 224 Introduction to Game Design
• Course context
• Required for the B.S. in Computer Games
  Development
• Carries credit in the Liberal Studies Program
  under Arts and Literature
• No prerequisites and no coding
• Students study principles of game design to
• Analyze existing games
• Develop original game ideas
• Writing is a primary part of the course

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The Liberal Studies Program

• General education courses required of (nearly)
  all DePaul undergraduates
• Two types of requirements
• Common core (required of all)
• Composition and rhetoric, math and technology
  literacy, First-Year Program courses, sophomore
  seminar, experiential learning, capstone
• Domain courses (some student choice)
• Arts and Literature Philosophical Inquiry
  Religious Dimensions Scientific Inquiry Self,
  Society, and the Modern World Understanding the
  Past
• Almost half of undergraduate requirements

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Arts and Literature domain

• Expand knowledge of arts
• While developing critical and reflective
  abilities
• Interpret and analyze creative works
• Investigate relationship between form and meaning
• Focus on works of art or literature
• May include social and cultural issues
• Courses include animation, art, English, digital
  cinema, modern languages, music, theater
• Writing requirements 5-7 pages per quarter

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GAM 224 text and topics

• Rules of Play by Salen and Zimmerman
• Game design from three angles
• Formal aspects (rules)
• Experiential aspects (play)
• Cultural aspects (culture)
• Roughly 3 weeks per section
• 17 schemas, not all of which are covered
• E.g. Rules Emergence, Uncertainty, Information
  Theory, Systems of Information, Cybernetic
  Systems, Game Theory, Conflict, Breaking the Rules

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GAM 224 requirements

• Reading requirements
• 600 page textbook
• Weekly articles in The Escapist
• Online gaming magazine written by (many) game
  designers
• Assessments
• Papers of several types
• Design projects
• When possible, full development, e.g. card games
• Deliverables include written documentation
• Quizzes
• Overall knowledge of schemas
• Short answer questions
• In-class activities
• E.g. Alteration of existing game and play testing

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GAM 224 writing requirements

• Minimum of 20 pages per quarter
• Reaction papers
• 1-2 pages
• Games chosen from a common syllabus
• Relate games to schemas
• Analysis project
• One game played throughout the quarter
• Two or three 5-page papers
• Argue a point about the game using the schemas
• Different from writing in other CTI courses
• Interpretative writing
• A variety of writing (papers, design projects,
  quizzes)
• Strongly integrated into the course structure
• A challenging class for students

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Enrollments
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Attracting non-majors

• Original purpose of course
• Teach basic game design to majors
• Hone writing skills for gaming students
• Growth in sections/students
• Partially due to growth in game development major
• 133 students in Spring 2007
• Large percentage of non-majors
• Games are appealing
• Reading Shakespeare or playing Legend of Zelda?
• Workload is mentioned by students on evaluations
• Relatively low withdrawal rate
• Games may provide sufficient incentive
• New purpose Attracting students to CTI?

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Future work

• New assessments in course
• Collaborative writing
• Quarter-long group writing assignment facilitated
  by a wiki
• Assessment of preparation for majors
• Are students doing better in more advanced gaming
  courses
• Anecdotal evidence that they create better design
  documents
• Impact of course on majors/minors
• Are more students minoring/majoring in computer
  game development as a result of the class?
• Anecdotal support