508v3

What’s in a Game? (Tabletop Edition)

DRAFT (without course policies and whatnot)

Jentery Sayers

English

University of Victoria

Digital Studies Seminar (Fall 2018)

CONTENT

• Epigraphs
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Aims
• Assignments
• Materials
• Schedule
• Games
• Keywords

EPIGRAPHS

Get off the internet! – Le Tigre (2001)

Games are expanding so much in terms of subject matter, in terms of what they’re about and who they are able to be about, but let’s also expand how they play, what they value, what they expect from the player, what they give back. – Anna Anthropy, “Passing Notes” (2015)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The University of Victoria’s Department of English acknowledges with respect the Lkwungen-speaking peoples on whose traditional territory the university stands and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

Thanks to Herbert Blau, Kevin Brock, Ed Chang, Mary Flanagan, Justin Foran, Garnet Hertz, Patrick Jagoda, Matthew Kirschenbaum, Carly Kocurek, Kari Kraus, Elizabeth LaPensée, Hector Lopez, Tara McPherson, Lisa Nakamura, Anastasia Salter, and Gillian Smith for pointing me to teaching and research materials that inform this seminar.

INTRODUCTION

Tabletop games are “paper computers,” says Matthew Kirschenbaum. They are centuries old. They are designed. They enact systems of rules and procedures. And, most important, you don’t have to charge or program them.

This seminar follows that low-tech disposition. We’ll survey the interminable history of games and their entanglements with literature. Then you’ll select a movement or “-ism” (between 1870 and 1970) and use it to prototype and share your own tabletop game. We’ll discuss the material dynamics that bridge aesthetics with mechanics, including how games routinely rehearse legacies of colonialism and capital accumulation. What alternatives exist, and how are they imagined? We’ll study and play some games as we go, and read a smidgen of media theory and fiction, too. From week to week, we’ll ground it all in design practices, such as bookmaking, 3D modelling, fabricating, and playtesting. Various guest speakers will join us. By the end, you should develop a palpable sense of how this becomes that with a computer—but without running culture in the background.

AIMS

• Examine the entanglements of game studies with literary studies through A-D-M and M-D-A frameworks that foreground the material dynamics (“D”) between aesthetics (“A”) and mechanics (“M”);
• Understand digital studies as a centuries-old design practice and approach it through “low-tech” techniques anchored in gaming, prototyping, and playtesting;
• Learn how speculative design and game prototyping apply (and are arguably foundational) to digital humanities project design and development, with particular attention to paradigms for labour, speculation, access, exchange, and negotiation;
• Prototype an offline tabletop game informed by the politics and aesthetics of an “-ism” (dated between 1870 and 1970) and document the prototyping process;
• Share and test your tabletop game with people in and beyond this seminar; and
• Communicate (via a presentation and in writing) the relevance of your game prototype to literary and digital studies.

ASSIGNMENTS

• Design Document (20% x 2): documentation of the iterative design and development of your game, including game components and drafts as well as responses to related readings, games, and playtests
• Prototype (25%): an offline tabletop game complete with a manual and components (such as a board, tiles, and cards) enacting the game’s world (including theme), system (including rules), and dynamics (including interface and relations)
• Talk + Paper (20%): a five- to seven-minute talk (delivered at the end of term) revised into a final paper (submitted one or two weeks after the talk)
• Participation (15%): such as preparing for seminar, bringing prototypes to meetings, contributing to discussions, and participating in workshops and playtests

Please note that I encourage you to avoid prototyping the following types of games (during seminar I’ll explain why): trivia, quiz/word, old school revival, roll-and-move, tactical war, sequels, expansions, educational, and mods.

MATERIALS

• Access to a computer (all assigned readings will be circulated in PDF via a passcode-protected reader)
• Access to materials for prototyping (such as graph paper, cardboard, cutting mats, rotary cutters, rulers, printers, markers, pens, pencils, plasticine, scissors, rulers, cameras, tape, glue, dice, tokens, and design and editing software)
• Recommended: Tabletop Simulator, by Berserk Games; and Challenges for Game Designers, by Romero and Schreiber
• Encouraged: $10-20 to play games at a local board game cafe, and another $10-30 for games available via Steam

Please note that we may be able to use facilities on campus to fabricate components for your prototypes. These facilities contain 3D printers, routers, and laser-cutters, but some of the equipment may only be used with permission, or is subject to restricted use. Details coming soon.

SCHEDULE

Here’s the weekly schedule. Please note that I always over-plan. I will inevitably cut material, including workshops, readings, and/or exercises. Please also note we will be joined by several guest speakers, who do not (yet) appear on this schedule.

Week 1: DISCUSS FRAMEWORKS.

quote

Question

Prior to seminar, please:

• Read Kari Kraus, “Finding Faultlines: An Approach to Speculative Design.”
• Review the website for the course.

During seminar, we will:

• Introduce ourselves, share motivations for the course, and talk about the assignments, with an emphasis on the design document (~1 hour).
• Review keywords and debates related to game prototyping (including the A-D-M and M-D-A frameworks) and then discuss Kraus, “subjunctive knowledge,” “speculative design,” and “design as inquiry” (see Daniela Rosner) (~1 hour).
• Paper-prototype a “game state” for a game about . . . ack! . . . grad school (~1 hour). Please log and save this work in your design doc.
• Submit exit cards.

Guest speakers:

Keywords:

Week 2: SELECT AN -ISM AND PRIMARY TEXT.

quote

Question

Prior to seminar, please:

• Read Mary Ann Caws, “The Poetics of the Manifesto: Nowness and Newness.”
• Survey some -isms between 1870 and 1970 (e.g., symbolism, absurdism, feminism, futurism) and select one to study this term.
• Pick a primary text (fiction or poetry) that represents the -ism (you will use this text to inform your game prototyping this term).
• Describe (~250 words, plus figures) your -ism and primary text in your design doc, including bibliographic metadata and considerations of your -ism’s history, politics, and aesthetics. Be as specific and exact as possible yet avoid rehearsing information already found in encyclopedias and other such reference materials.
• Optional: Play Skull (party, bidding, elimination, 3-6 players), Monikers (party, drafting, role-playing, 4-20 players), and/or Codenames (party, memory, partnership, 2-8 players)

During seminar, we will:

• Share your selected -isms and primary texts (~1 hour).
• Discuss your -isms as forms of “action writing” (see Steven Marcus), from aesthetics to mechanics (~1 hour).
• Scenario-prototype possible “contexts of use” (see Andrea Botero) for your -isms in the present moment (~1 hour). Please log and save this work in your design doc.

Guest speaker:

Keywords:

Week 3: PLAY SOME GAMES.

quote

Question

Prior to seminar, please:

• Read Bethany Nowviskie, “Ludic Algorithms.”
• Play at least two different genres of tabletop games with someone else in seminar. (You’re welcome to include other people, too.)
• Describe (~300 words total, plus photographs) in your design doc the genres, states, views, spaces, dynamics, goals, and themes of two tabletop games you played. No need to review or analyze the games. Just describe them.

During seminar, we will:

• Share your experiences playing tabletop games (~30 minutes).
• Discuss Nowviskie, “ludic algorithms,” and procedural experimentation/literacy/authors (see Michael Mateas, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Anastasia Salter, Janet Murray, and Annette Vee) (~30 minutes).
• Paper-prototype your -isms as grid-based tabletop games (~1 hour). Please log and save this work in your design doc.
• Outline issues involved in prototyping your -isms (as games) via an A-D-M framework (~1 hour). Please log and save this work in your design doc.

Guest speaker:

Keywords:

Week 4: REMEDIATE A VIDEOGAME FOR TABLETOPS.

quote

Question

Prior to seminar, please:

• Read Lisa Samuels and Jerome McGann, “Deformance and Interpretation.”
• Select and play an indie videogame that you will remediate into a tabletop game.
• Describe (~250 words, plus screengrabs, GIFS, or video) in your design doc the setup mechanics, completion or victory conditions, progression type, verbs (or actions), view(s), interface(s), and player expectations of the videogame you played.
• Optional: Play Patchwork (abstract, time track, tile placement, 2 players), Carcassonne (medieval, area influence, tile placement, 2-5 players), and/or Galaxy Trucker (sci fi, partnership, tile placement, 2-4 players)

During seminar, we will:

• Discuss Samuels and McGann, “deformance,” and “remediation” (see Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin) (~30 minutes).
• Review and outline game genres (~30 minutes).
• Paper-prototype tabletop versions of your videogames. You will choose between thematic- and mechanic-based remediations (~2 hours), and you will note what changes when this (the videogame) becomes that (the tabletop game). Please log and save this work in your design doc.
• Rapid-prototype your concept doc to prep for next week (~5 minutes).

Guest speaker:

Keywords:

Week 5: MAKE YOUR TEXT A CONCEPT DOC.

quote

Question

Prior to seminar, please:

• Read Elizabeth W. Bruss, “The Games of Literature and Some Literary Games.”
• Draft and print a concept doc (~400 words, plus figures) for your prototype. It should explain your game, identify its genre, speak to the intended audience, provide a working feature list, and be informed by your -ism and primary text.

During seminar, we will:

• Discuss Bruss, “games of literature,” and “literary games” (~30 minutes).
• Workshop your concept docs (~1.5 hours).
• Paper-prototype collection mechanics for your -isms and prototypes (~1 hour). Please log and save this work in your design doc.
• Rapid-prototype your world to prep for next week (~5 minutes).

Guest speaker:

Keywords:

Week 6: MAKE YOUR TEXT A WORLD.

quote

Question

Prior to seminar, please:

• Read Samuel R. Delany, “The Necessity of Tomorrows.”
• Paper-prototype the setting and theme of your game. Experiment with boards and tiles, for instance. Think about landscapes, themes, territories, atmospheres, physics, and the assumptions and habits associated with them. You should bring this prototype to seminar.
• Describe (~250 words, plus photographs or the like) in your design doc the setting, theme, story, and context of your game. Be exact. Speak to the associations and activities the world evokes. Where possible and relevant, note how your concept doc changed during the prototyping process.

During seminar, we will:

• Discuss Delany, “images of tomorrow,” and the relationships (both political and aesthetic) between games, speculation, and science fiction (~30 minutes).
• Workshop your worlds (~1.5 hours). Please log and save this work in your design doc.
• Review and outline the shift from A-D-M (-ism to mechanic) to M-D-A (mechanic to game experience) (~1 hour).
• Rapid-prototype your system to prep for next week (~5 minutes).

Your design document is due this week, too.

Guest speaker:

Keywords:

Week 7: MAKE YOUR TEXT A SYSTEM.

quote

Question

Prior to seminar, please:

• Read Matthew Kirschenbaum, “Contests for Meaning: Playing King Philip’s War in the Twenty-First Century.”
• Prototype the goals, rules, and mechanics of your game, or how actions will unfold in your world. Experiment with different rules. See which ones are easiest to memorize and rehearse. Consider play to be a form of labour and how process becomes work that is exchanged or negotiated. Please bring the rules to seminar. (It may be easiest to print them.)
• Describe (~250 words, plus photographs, video, or the like) your game’s system. Speak to the negotiations, exchanges, frustrations, and/or narratives it affords. In addition to this description, provide a working draft of your rules. Where possible and relevant, note how your concept doc changed during the prototyping process.

During seminar, we will:

• Workshop your rules and systems (~1.5 hours) along with your worlds. Please log and save this work in your design doc.
• Discuss Kirschenbaum, “contest,” and “meaning” (~30 minutes).
• Return to your -isms + primary texts and review the state of your prototypes (~1 hour.)
• Rapid-prototype some game components to prep for next week (~5 minutes).

Guest speaker:

Keywords:

Week 8: MAKE YOUR TEXT SOME COMPONENTS.

quote

Question

Prior to seminar, please:

• Read Elizabeth LaPensée, “Self-Determination in Indigenous Games.”
• Prototype the components of your game: tokens, avatars, meeples, tiles, cards, and dice, for instance. Use existing materials where helpful. You should bring the components to seminar.
• Describe (~250 words, plus photographs and the like) the components of your game. Speak to how they create correspondences with, e.g., people, history, art, environments, and rituals. Where possible and relevant, note how your concept doc changed during the prototyping process.

During seminar, we will:

• Workshop the game components with their world and system (~1.5 hours). Please log and save this work in your design doc.
• Discuss LaPensée and issues of agency, power, and self-determination (~30 minutes).
• Begin planning the end-of-term event (~1 hour).
• Rapid-prototype some dynamics and interfaces to prep for next week (~5 minutes).

Guest speaker:

Keywords:

Week 9: MAKE YOUR TEXT A DYNAMIC.

quote

Question

Prior to seminar, please:

• Read Mary Flanagan, “Critical Play and Responsible Design.”
• Scenario-prototype and playtest dynamics and interfaces for your game. Experiment with balances and settings, such as difficulty and the number of players, and also document people’s embodied interactions and responses to playing your prototype. Determine what sort of graphics or other interface components your game needs. You should bring the results (or documentation) to seminar.
• Describe (~250 words, plus photographs and the like) the dynamics and interface(s) of your game. Speak to the social, affective, and economic relations it affords. Where possible and relevant, note how your concept doc changed during the prototyping process.

During seminar we will:

• Discuss Flanagan, “critical play,” and “responsible design” (30 minutes).
• Workshop your dynamics (~1.5 hours). Please log and save this work in your design doc.
• Review software and other technologies to prep for next week (~30 minutes). Time permitting, we will experiment with Tabletop Simulator.

Guest speaker:

Keywords:

Week 10: REFINE, DIGITIZE, AND FABRICATE THE PARTS.

quote

Question

Prior to seminar, please:

• Read Nicole Clouston and Jentery Sayers, “Fabrication and Research-Creation in the Arts and Humanities.”
• Review materials to prepare for workshops in the Digital Scholarship Commons.
• Refine your prototype where necessary and log the changes in your design doc.
• Determine which components of your prototype you want to (re)produce manually and automatically.

During seminar, we will:

• Conduct workshops on 3D digitization, modelling, and fabrication, including printing, papercutting, lasercutting, and routing (~2.5 hours). Please log and save this work in your design doc.
• Discuss the importance of self-care (see Sara Ahmed).

Guest speaker:

Keywords:

Week 11: TAKE A BREAK.

Step away from it all.

Week 12: MAKE YOUR TEXT A MANUAL.

quote

Question

Prior to seminar, please:

• Draft and print five copies of a manual for your game. It should include a description of your game and the setup, conditions, and components. It should also include and describe all of the rules. Consider including images, such as diagrams, alongside the text. Finally, make sure the manual is available in PDF and tactile form. While the manual need not explain its relationship to your -ism and primary text (that is, the relationship can be implicit), you should come to seminar prepared to discuss that relationship.
• Refine your prototype where necessary and log the changes in your design doc.

During seminar, we will:

• Finalize the details for the end-of-term event, including the location, approach/style, content, and communications (~30 minutes).
• Workshop your manual along with your prototype’s world, system, components, and dynamics (~1.5 hours). Please log and save this work in your design doc.
• Review the relevance of prototyping your -ism and primary text to literary, cultural, and digital studies (~1 hour).

Guest speaker:

Keywords:

Week 13: REFINE, PACKAGE, AND ARCHIVE THE PARTS.

quote

Question

Prior to seminar, please:

• Polish your prototype in tactile and digital form.
• Gather all the parts in digital form and place them in a single folder, which will become a repository.

During seminar, we will:

• Workshop your prototype one more time, with an emphasis on lingering issues and concerns (~30 minutes).
• Structure digital versions of your prototype as a repository of files and then review techniques for circulating them online (via GitHub and Itch, e.g.). We will also discuss how access relates to these techniques. (~1 hour).
• Rapid-prototype packages or containers for your game and its parts (~1 hour).
• Complete course experience surveys (~30 minutes).

Your design document is due this week, too.

Guest speaker:

Keywords:

Weeks 14 and 15: SHARE AND SUBMIT YOUR PROTOTYPE.

quote

Question

During the end-of-term event, you will:

• Present your prototype and its relation to your -ism and primary text (5-7 minutes).
• Invite people to play the prototype of your game, which should be packaged in some way and accompanied by your manual.
• Document (with written permission) how people play and respond to your prototype.

After the event, you will:

• Submit your prototype in tactile and digital form (as a thing and repository of files). The prototype should include your manual and all game components. The tactile version should be packaged.
• Submit your talk in polished form, as a paper (1500-2000 words, plus figures, notes, and references).

GAMES

• Carcassonne (medieval, area influence, tile placement, 2-5 players)
• Codenames (party, memory, partnership, 2-8 players)
• Galaxy Trucker (sci fi, partnership, tile placement, 2-4 players)
• Monikers (party, drafting, role-playing, 4-20 players)
• Patchwork (abstract, time track, tile placement, 2 players)
• Skull (party, bidding, elimination, 3-6 players)

Tabletop games you might want to play, especially during Week 3 (soon I’ll categorize these according to genre):

• Agricola
• Alchemists
• Android: Netrunner
• Antiquity
• Archipelago
• Arkham Horror
• Azul
• Battlestar Galactica
• Betrayal at House on the Hill
• Carcassonne
• Cards against Humanity
• Castles of Burgundy
• Catacombs
• Caverna
• Civilization
• Codenames
• Concordia
• Consulting Detective (Sherlock Holmes)
• Cosmic Encounter
• Coup
• Crokinole
• Cyclades
• Descent
• Discount Salmon
• Dominion
• El Dorado
• El Grande
• Eldritch Horror
• Euphoria
• Ex Libris
• Exit: The Game
• Feast for Odin
• Fields of Arle
• Flamme Rouge
• Fog of Love
• Funemployed
• Fury of Dracula
• Galaxy Trucker
• Gloomhaven
• Go
• Hive Pocket
• I’m the Boss!
• Inis
• Jaipur
• Kingdomino
• Love Letter
• Machi Koro
• Magic Maze
• Mancala
• Memoir ‘44
• Mintworks
• Monikers
• Munchkin Shakespeare
• Mysterium
• One Night Ultimate Werefolk Daybreak
• Orléans
• Pandemic
• Pandemic Legacy
• Patchwork
• Penny Press
• Photosythesis
• Power Grid
• Puerto Rico
• Queendomino
• Race for the Galaxy
• The Resistance: Avalon
• The Royal Game of Ur
• Sagrada
• Scythe
• Senet
• 7 Wonders
• Skull
• Space Alert
• Splendor
• Spyfall
• Suburbia
• Survive: Escape from Atlantis
• Takenoko
• Tales of the Arabian Nights
• Terra Mystica
• Terraforming Mars
• Ticket to Ride
• Troyes
• Twilight Imperium
• Two Rooms and a Boom
• When I Dream
• Witness
• Yokohama

Indie videogames you might want to remediate during Week 4:

• Fidel Dungeon Rescue
• A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build
• Gorogoa
• LIM
• Limbo
• Overcooked
• Papers, Please
• Stardew Valley
• Topsoil
• Undertale
• Universal Paperclips
• West of Loathing

KEYWORDS

A list of keywords related to game prototyping. We should return to this list throughout the seminar.

• A-D-M (see Weeks 1 and 3)
• Abstracts (game genre)
• Accumulation (Collection) (game genre)
• Action Point Allowance (game genre)
• Action Writing (see Week 2)
• Affect (see Week 9)
• Algorithm (see Week 3)
• Alignment (game genre)
• Ameritrash (game genre)
• Analysis Paralysis (see Week 9)
• Area Control/Influence/Enclosure (game genre)
• Asymmetric Power (game genre)
• Auction (game genre)
• Avatar (see Week 8)
• Balance (see Weeks 7 and 9)
• Bluffing (game genre)
• Board (game bit)
• Breakout (game genre)
• Broken (see Week 7)
• Building (game genre)
• Capture (game genre)
• Cards (game bit)
• Chance and Skill (see Weeks 1 and 2)
• Character Development (game genre)
• Chasing (game genre)
• Collaborative (see Week 5)
• Collusion (game genre)
• Commodity Speculation (game genre)
• Competitive (see Week 5)
• Concept Document (see Week 5)
• Content Design (seek Weeks 7 and 9)
• Context of Use (see Week 2)
• Cooperative (game genre)
• Critical Play (see Week 9)
• Culling (game genre)
• Deck-building (game genre)
• Deduction (game genre)
• Deformance (seek Week 1)
• Design Document (see every week)
• Design as Inquiry (see Week 1)
• Destruction (game genre)
• Dexterity (game genre)
• Drafting, or Pool Drafting (see Week 7)
• Dry (see Week 7)
• Efficiency (game genre)
• Elegance (see Week 7)
• Elimination (game genre)
• Engine Building (game genre)
• Eurogame (game genre)
• Evading (game genre)
• Eversion (see Week 1)
• Feature List (see Week 5)
• Fiddly (see Weeks 7 and 9)
• Game Space (see Week 3)
• Game State (see Weeks 1 and 3)
• Game View (see Week 3)
• Group Think (see Week 9)
• Hidden Traitor (game genre)
• Incentivization (game genre)
• Induction (game genre)
• Interface (see Week 9)
• Investment (game genre)
• Labour vs. Work (see Weeks 1 and 7)
• Language Independence (see Week 9)
• Legacy (game genre)
• Ludology (see Week 3)
• M-D-A (see Weeks 1 and 5)
• Mechanics vs. Rules (see Week 3)
• Meeple (game bit)
• Melding (game genre)
• Metadata (see Week 2)
• Mixed Motive (see Week 5)
• Multi-use Cards (game genre)
• Narratology (see Weeks 6 and 7)
• Negotiation (game genre)
• Network/Route Building (game genre)
• Old School Revival/Renaissance (game genre)
• Ontological Theatre (see Week 2)
• Pacing/Race/Speed (game genre)
• Party (game genre)
• Pick Up and Deliver (game genre)
• Playtesting (see Weeks 6-13)
• Points Salad (see Week 7)
• Prediction (game genre)
• Procedural Experimentation (see Week 3)
• Programmed Movement (game genre)
• Puzzle (game genre)
• Quarterbacking (see Week 9)
• Random Input Management (game genre)
• Real-time (game genre)
• Remediation (see Week 4)
• Responsible (Values) Design (see Week 9)
• Risk Management and Valuation (game genre)
• Role-Playing Game (game genre)
• Roll-and-Move (game genre)
• Rules Lawyer (see Weeks 7 and 9)
• Secret Identity (game genre)
• Self-determination (see Week 8)
• Shedding (game genre)
• Signaling (game genre)
• Spatial Logic (game genre)
• Speculative Design (see Week 1)
• Steering (game genre)
• Story and Storytelling (see Weeks 6 and 7)
• Strategy and Tactics (see Weeks 1 and 2)
• Subjunctive (see Week 1)
• Supply and Demand (game genre)
• Survival (game genre)
• System Design (see Week 7)
• Territory (game genre)
• Tile laying (game genre)
• Tiles (game bit)
• Time tracks (game genre)
• Trading (game genre)
• Trashing (game genre)
• Turtling (see Week 9)
• Twitch games and mechanics (see Weeks 1 and 2)
• Variable Player Order (game genre)
• Victory Conditions (see Week 7)
• Wargames (game genre)
• Worker Placement (game genre)
• World Design (see Week 6)