CMS.300/CMS.841  Intro to Videogame Theory

Game Jam, Lecture Series, and Workshops for IAP: Push Button - Examining the Culture, Plat

This IAP the MIT Game Lab is challenging our students to make arcade games for 2 cabinets we have installed on MIT campus (at the MIT Museum and in our department, Comparative Media Studies | Writing)!

This is a month long event starting with a week of lectures & workshops on January 6th at 1pm. We'll explore the culture of the arcade and how the arcade influences the design of the games that are played there. A special guest lecture on Wednesday will be Steve Golson, one of the MIT alumni who created Ms. Pac-Man (originally a hacked board called 'Crazy Otto'). More details about these lectures can be found here:
http://gamelab.mit.edu/pushbutton/

The game development itself starts with a game jam on Saturday, January 11 at which students will form teams and have working code by the end of the night. The rest of the month, teams will work on their own, but the Game Lab will provide scheduled user test sessions at CMSW and the MIT Museum so teams can test their games on the cabinets.

Register for the Game Jam today!
http://gamelab.mit.edu/event/push-button-game-jam/

Announced on 04 December 2013  5:06  p.m. by Mikael Jakobsson

Meaningful Gamification: Motivating through Play instead of Manipulating through Rewards

The MIT Game Lab is hosting a guest lecture next Thursday (December 12 @ 10:00 am - 11:30 pm) in E15-335. Feel free to spread this note around! We'll also livestream it to http://Twitch.TV/mitgamelab.

Gamification is the use of game design concepts to create a layer on a real world setting. Typical gamification focuses on the use of rewards like points and badges to change the behavior of users, which can cause long-term damage to intrinsic motivation. Meaningful gamification is the use of design concepts from games and play to help people find personal connections to a real-world setting. Attendees will learn about the basics of gamification, the ways that reward-based gamification can do harm, and Nicholson’s RECIPE for meaningful gamification.

About the Speaker:
Dr. Scott Nicholson is an Associate Professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and the Director of the Because Play Matters game lab and the Game Designers’ Guild of Syracuse. He was a visiting professor in 2011-2012 at MIT in Comparative Media Studies and the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. He focuses on the development of transformative games and play for informal learning and training. Dr. Nicholson is a published recreational board game designer, was the host of Board Games with Scott, and wrote the book Everyone Plays at the Library.

More about Dr. Nicholson’s work can be found at http://becauseplaymatters.com.
http://gamelab.mit.edu/event/guest-lecture-scott-nicholson/

Announced on 04 December 2013  2:01  p.m. by Mikael Jakobsson

Presentation Order

Here's the order you will present in:

Mon 12/2
---------
Lamia, Louis M.
Aranda-Michel, Edgar C.
Sparano-Huiban, Christopher M.
Brown, Julian A.
Torgerson, Nicholas J.
Delgado, Christopher M.
Goins, Alex
Nicolai Nobrega de Azevedo, Nicola

Wed 12/4
---------
Phillips, Alan K.
Borja, Neil J.
Stingley, David W.
Cortez, Priscila
Tasman, Ory
Jensen, Victoria M.
Lin, Jenny H.

Mon 12/9
---------
Yakhina, Asiya
Brettin, Jorrie M.
Tambasco, Bruno D.
Corzo, Jonathan R.
Wang, Alex C.
Budzichowski, Katherine
Greenberg, Benjamin S.

Announced on 27 November 2013  5:15  p.m. by Mikael Jakobsson

Playtesters Wanted

A local game company needs playtesters for a project-in-progress. Game Lab staff and students are all invited, as long as you're 18 or older.

I guess it's a secret project because we're not supposed to say which company this is. But if you're intrigued, please fill out the survey below.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PlaytestSurvey

Note: The survey has last week's dates on it, but they will do tests in mid-December and mid-January as well, so if you're interested in play testing and will be in Boston over the winter break, you should fill out the form.

Announced on 21 November 2013  1:06  p.m. by Mikael Jakobsson

Game Industry Alumni Panel Udated

We've updated the panelists for Monday's jobs panel with MIT Alumni in the Game Industry, @ 5pm in 32-155:

Ethan Fenn, Programmer/Composer/Designer at Fire Hose Games
Naomi Hinchen, Programmer at Learning Games Network
Damián Isla, President & co-founder of Moonshot Games
Patrick Rodriguez, Game Designer at Muzzy Lane Software
Rob Stokes, Senior Level Designer at Harmonix Music Systems
Mark Sullivan, Gameplay Programmer at Harmonix Music Systems

More info about these panelists are at the event page:
http://gamelab.mit.edu/event/mit-alumni-in-the-game-industry/

MIT Game Lab Creative Director (and fellow MIT Alum) Philip Tan will be moderating.

This is an excellent opportunity to find out how you can get a job in game development for either entertainment or serious/educational games!

Rik Eberhardt
Studio Manager / MIT Game Lab
Comparative Media Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
http://gamelab.mit.edu
Twitter: @MITGameLab

Announced on 21 November 2013  1:00  p.m. by Mikael Jakobsson