Understanding Game Design and Culture

The Webby Awards and General Assembly Present: Understanding Game Design and Culture (Online Class)

We will be watching this webinar and holding a discussion group at LaunchHouse. If you would like to watch this webinar from your location, register here (http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6529699507/?invite=&err=29&referrer=&discount=&affiliate=&eventpassword=)

Students will learn:

• Familiarity with basic game design principles like rules and play

• Understanding what a game designer does and how it relates to other forms of design

• Knowledge of how games create meaningful experiences for players

Eric Zimmerman, Game Designer & Founding Faculty, NYU Game Center

The structures used in creating fun and unique gaming experiences — dynamic systems, active participation, playful improvisation — aren't relegated solely to the realm of the game. They also give us interesting insight into our broader world. Using examples of digital games and some live participation, this class looks at how game design principles can help us understand media, design, and culture.

Eric Zimmerman is a veteran game designer with 2 decades of industry experience. For nine years, he co-founded and ran award-winning NYC-based studio Gamelab, which helped invent casual games with hit titles like Diner Dash. Gamelab also garnered the MacArthur Foundation's first game-related grant for Gamestar Mechanic, an online community that lets players create games. In recent years, Eric has created game installations with architect Nathalie Pozzi for museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He creates game experiments with independent collaboratives Local No. 12 and The Leisure Collective. Eric is the co-author of Rules of Play, the standard textbook on game design and he co-founded The Institute of Play, a nonprofit that has opened public schools in NYC and Chicago based on games and play as the model for learning. He is a founding faculty at the NYU Game Center.