Readings

This section presents readings by session after a complete list of citations, as well as additional readings for the course.

Assigned Readings

Bateman, Chris, and Richard Boon. 21st Century Game Design. Boston, MA: Charles River Media, 2005. ISBN: 9781584504290.

Callois, Roger. Man, Play, and Games. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780252070334.

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop. 2nd ed. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann, 2008. ISBN: 9780240809748.

Gygax, Gary, and Dave Arneson. Dungeons and Dragons. Lake Geneva, WI: Tactical Studies Rules, 1974.

Hunicke, Robin, Marc LeBlanc, and Robert Zubek. "MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research." In Proceedings of the Challenges in Game AI Workshop at the 19th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence. San Jose, CA: AAAI Press, 2004. ( This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader. PDF)

Juul, Jesper. "Swap Adjacent Gems to Make Sets of Three: A History of Matching Tile Games." Artifact 1 (2007): 205-216.

———. "The Open and the Closed: Games of Emergence and Games of Progression." In Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings. Edited by Frans Mäyrä. Tampere, Finland: Tampere University Press, 2002, pp. 323-329.

Mezrich, Ben. "Hacking Las Vegas." Wired, no. 10.09 (September 2002).

Parlett, David. Oxford History of Board Games. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780192129987.

———. A History of Card Games. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780192829054.

Piccione, Peter A. "In Search of the Meaning of Senet." Archaeology 33 (July/August 1980): 55-58.

Salen, Katie, and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780262240451.

———. The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780262195362.

Wells, H. G. Little Wars. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2004. ISBN: 9781419130908.

Zimmerman, Eric. "Play as Research: The Iterative Design Process." In Design Research: Methods and Perspectives. Edited by Brenda Laurel. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003, p. 176. ISBN: 9780262122634.

Readings by Session

Course readings.
SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Lecture: class and syllabus introduction What games and sports do the students/instructors play? Introduction to first reading, syllabus, writing expectations. [PT]
2	Lecture: design [JJ]	Rules of Play, Ch. 3. Zimmerman, Eric. "Play as Research: The Iterative Design Process."
3	Workshop: introduction to playtesting [DR]	Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop, Ch. 8. Wells, H. G. Little Wars.
4	Lecture: types of fun and game history [JJ]	Hunicke, LeBlanc, and Zubek. "MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research." (PDF) Juul, Jesper. "Swap Adjacent Gems to Make Sets of Three: A History of Matching Tile Games."
5	Lecture: game design patterns and twenty formal game questions [DR, CFV]	Björk, and Holopainen. "Games and Design Patterns." Game Design Reader, p. 410.
6	Guest workshop, Scot Osterweil: playtesting exercise – poker variants	Rules of Play, Ch. 11 and 12.
7	Guest lecture, Barry Kudrowitz: toys	Background Reading: Rules of Play, Ch. 5, 7, 9, and 10.
8	Workshop: fortunetelling, games of chance and dice (Roulette, Bingo, Tarot) [CFV]	Parlett, David. A History of Card Games, Ch. 1-2 and 18. ———. Oxford History of Board Games, Ch. 2.
9	Lecture: competition and chance [PT]	Callois, Roger. Man, Play, and Games, Ch. 8. Rules of Play, Ch. 15.
10	Lecture: the player [CFV]	Bartle, Richard. "Players Who Suit MUDs." Bateman, Chris, and Boon, Richard. 21st Century Game Design, Ch. 3.
11	Workshop: Doris' 1000 blank cards [DR]	Rules of Play, Ch. 14.
12	Lecture: card and guessing games [PT]	(none)
13	Lecture: information [PT]	Rules of Play, Ch. 16 and 17.
14	Workshop: initial presentation poker deck game, playtest to get feedback, and suggest changes [all]	Parlett, David. A History of Card Games, Ch. 3-4 and 6.
15	Workshop: racing games (Parcheesi, Life, Goose, Mille Bournes) [CFV]	Parlett, David. Oxford History of Board Games, Ch. 1.
16	Lecture: racing games [CFV]	Parlett, David. Oxford History of Board Games, Ch. 3 and 5.
17	Guest lecture, Dennis Loo: gambling and probability	Mezrich, Ben. "Hacking Las Vegas."
18	Lecture: space games [CFV]	Parlett, David. Oxford History of Board Games, Ch. 11, 12, and 16.
19	Guest lecture, Denis Dyack	(none)
20	Workshop: Go, Chess, Xiangqi, Hasami Shogi, Draughts [PT]	(none)
21	Lecture: possibility space [PT]	Rules of Play, Ch. 19. Poundstone, William. "Game Theory." Game Design Reader, p. 382.
22	Lecture: feedback and emergence [JJ]	Rules of Play, Ch. 18. Juul, Jesper. "The Open and the Closed: Games of Emergence and Games of Progression."
23	Workshop: board game playtest	(none)
24	Lecture: bending and breaking [JJ]	Rules of Play, Ch. 21. Callois, Roger. Man, Play, and Games, Ch. 4. Sniderman, Stephen. "Unwritten Rules," and DeKoven, Bernard. "Changing the Game." Game Design Reader, pp. 476 and 518.
25	Guest lecture, Marc LeBlanc	Piccione, Peter A. "In Search of the Meaning of Senet."
26	Workshop: LAN party (conflict, competition, and cooperation) [PT]	Rules of Play, Ch. 20.
27	Lecture: digital games [JJ]	Rules of Play, Ch. 8 and 13. The 400 Project
28	Lecture: abstraction and simulation [all]	Rules of Play, Ch. 27.
29	Lecture: social play [JJ]	Rules of Play, Ch. 28. Callois, Roger. Man, Play, and Games, Ch. 3.
30	Workshop: narrative play (riddles, puzzles, and word games) [DR, CFV]	Rules of Play, Ch. 26. Optional Gygax, Gary, and Dave Arneson. Dungeon Master's Guide, 1st ed.
31	Guest lecture, Sam Ford: wrestling, meaning, and symbols	Rules of Play, Ch. 25.
32	Guest lecture, Joshua Green: That's Just Not Cricket!	(none)
33	Guest workshop, Stephen Balzac: live-action roleplaying game	(none)
34	Guest lecture, Stephen Balzac: exploiting the constraints	(none)
35	Guest lecture, Jason Haas: improv games	(none)
36	Workshop: playtest for the final project	(none)
37	Guest lecture, Chris Weaver	(none)
38	Lecture: course evaluations and postmortem [PT]	(none)

Additional Readings

Church, Ben. "Formal Abstract Design Tools." Game Developer 3 (August 1999): 28.

Halpern, Charna, et al. Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation. Colorado Springs, CO: Meriwether Publishing, 1994, pp. 59-63. ISBN: 9781566080033.

Kim, Scott. "What is a Puzzle?"

Orbanes, Philip E. "Learning the Game: 1898-1910." Chapter 2 in The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers, from Tiddledy Winks to Trivial Pursuit. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2003. ISBN: 9781591392699.

Stewart, Sean. "Alternate Reality Games."

Game Ontology