SCAD Hong Kong Game Design and Development

AnyoneGame raises $1 million for Just Sing It By Matthew Handrahan
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-04-25-anyonegame-raises-USD1-million-for-just-sing-it

“In an interview with TechCrunch at the time of the game’s launch, Anyone Game’s CEO Alec Andronikov outlined his plan to surpass the success of existing Karaoke apps by introducing mechanics from social gaming. Just Sing It’s structure is similar to that of Draw Something, with competing players attempting to guess the song the other is singing.”

High Heavens Board Game Pits Norse Gods vs. Greek Gods

by Ryan Carlson
http://geekdad.com/2013/04/high-heavens/

“Want to play a strategy board game that lets you pit the classic Greek pantheon versus the Norse pantheon for control of earth? For the love of Odin and Zeus, get yourself over to the High Heavens board game Kickstarter page and make sure that it gets funded and printed. (It only has one week left on the Kickstarter at the time of this post and is not yet funded.)”

Obviously, games are more than just “3D fighting”…

Lindsay Holloway (left), Noreen Mir, Melissa Kronenberger

You might need the QuickTime components for Windows to listen to this talk http://www.apple.com/quicktime/resources/components.html

SCAD Game Development students discuss with designers Martin and Alex from Phone Joy Solutions Limited (http://www.phonejoy.us), a start-up company specializing in console quality gameplay experience for mobile phones through innovative controller design and software.  Martin and Alex showcased early concepts of some of their products and also demonstrated compelling gameplay on the iPad and Galaxy devices with their controller for commercial games such as GTA III, Shad­ow­gun, Samurai II, Riptide, Sonic CD and Zeno­nia 4.  It is great to see innovation in this aspect of the industry.  Most studios are focusing on software and accepting somehow that it is ok to hinder the gameplay experience by our thumbs on the screen of mobile devices.  Martin and Alex don’t think we should compromise gameplay experience just because mobile phones are smaller than their console cousins.  I believe that their work opens interesting possibilities for designers and lowers the barriers for great gameplay designs on mobile phone to rival the console experience.

How does one design a transcendental game?  Here is an example of a hugely successful game.  More successful than any Facebook, iPhone, Xbox, PlayStation game combined.  Only time will tell which games will survive for generations.

“References to a game called xiangqi date back to the Warring States Period; according to the first century BC text, Shuo yuan (說宛), it was one of Lord Mengchang of Qi‘s interests.^[7] Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou once wrote a bookXiang Jing in AD 569. It is believed to have described the rules of an astronomically themed game called xiangqi or Xiangxi (象戲). The word Xiàngqí 象棋 is usually translated as “elephant game” or “figure game”, because the Chinese character 象 means “elephant” and “figure”; it originated as a stylized drawing of an elephant, and was used also to write a word meaning “figure”, likely because the two words were pronounced the same. But the name can also be treated as meaning “constellation game”, and sometimes the xiàngqí board’s “river” is called the “heavenly river”, which may mean the Milky Way. For these reasons, Harold James Ruthven Murray, author of A History of Chess, theorized that “in China it [Chess] took over the board and name of a game called 象棋 in the sense of “Constellation Game” (rendered by Murray as “Astronomical Game”), which represented the apparent movements of naked-eye-visible astronomical objects in the night sky, and that the earliest Chinese references to 象棋 meant the Astronomical Game and not Chinese chess”. previous games called xiàngqí may have been based on the movements of sky objects. However, the connection between 象 and astronomy is marginal, and arose from constellations being called merely “figures” in astronomical contexts where other meanings of “figure” were less likely; this usage may have led some ancient Chinese authors to theorize that the game 象棋 started as a simulation of astronomy.” Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangqi)

This game appears to break all the modern rules of game design:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9fG0BkgwEY

We studied it in class and determined the characteristics that make the design so compelling and successful.

http://cancham.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/the-business-case-for-video-game-development-in-hong-kong-by-dr-jose-a-rueda/

In the first week of a third year class, students saw programming for the first time and working with their instructors they completed their first assignment, a challenging one: a demonstration of an Atari game vintage 1980s!!!  Here are screen shots of their work.  The students demonstrated how design thinking and some technical knowledge can recreate work that took months a few years ago. Thank you to graduate student Melissa for the thoughtful and expert advice to the students.  See if you recognize the screen shots.  Students also discussed game design with designer Ingo Lau and discuss his latest augmented reality and card games.

A Mind-Blowing UI That Could Finally Make Group Work Intuitive

by John Pavlus, May 29, 2012

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665252/a-mind-blowing-ui-that-could-finally-make-group-work-intuitive

“THIS EXPERIMENTAL APP FROM THE MIT MEDIA LAB COMBINES GESTURAL INTERFACES, AUGMENTED REALITY, COLLABORATIVE WORKSPACES, AND GENERAL SCI-FI AMAZINGNESS.”

Makey Makey, A Kit for Connecting Everyday Objects to a Computer

By EDW Lynch on May 28, 2012

“Makey Makey is an easy to use kit for converting everyday objects into computer input devices (video). Bananas, Play Doh, people, and other conductive objects can be connected to the Makey Makey board via alligator clips. Once connected, the objects become touch sensitive and can be used to do anything a keyboard or mouse can do. Makey Makey was developed by MIT Media Lab students Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum. They are now raising funds on Kickstarter in order to mass produce Makey Makey.”
http://laughingsquid.com/makey-makey-a-kit-for-connecting-everyday-objects-to-a-computer/

Twitter Games To Make Tweeting Fun
March 29, 2009 by Beb Parr
http://mashable.com/2009/03/28/twitter-games/

10 Real-Time Twitter Games You Can Enjoy With Just a Tweet
October 6, 2010 By Saikat Basu
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-real-time-twitter-games-enjoy-tweet/

This is a remarkable story about Caine Monroy, a 9-year-old game designer.  Notice three key game design principles: Simplicity, consistency, fairness.  Best intentions combined with a believable world that suspends disbelief in which the player understands why things are happening.

See the story by Mark Frauenfelder in boinggoing.net, April 9, 2012, and the short film by Nirvan Mullick, who discovered Caine:

http://boingboing.net/2012/04/09/9-year-olds-diy-cardboard-ar.html

Also see www.CainesArcade.com Caine seems to be raising funds for his education, perhaps he will study Game Design at SCAD Hong Kong!  Like his Facebook page See http://www.facebook.com/cainesarcade

SCAD HK students held an exchange session with games industry executives Michael and Gerry. Visiting from Austin TX, Michael is responsible for the platform for more than two thirds of iPhone games and Gerry had global responsibility for Call of Duty at Activision, among other career experiences.  The exchange of ideas about game design was memorable.  Henry, Julian, Kevin, and Melissa participated in the exchange and added Michael and Gerry to their network of contacts.

(click on the photo to enlarge it)

See the moving photo on Viddy.com

See discussion on TED Conversations:

https://www.ted.com/conversations/8888/which_video_game_has_challenge.html

Please comment on anecdotes, stories, and add your opinions.

Michael Tanenbaum talked about his game design philosophy and how he launched his own studio.  He offers internships to SCAD students!

Remembering his college days, Michael played some games with students.

Thank you to Michelle Mak for coordinating.