jpinckard's blog

It's common to refer to narratives in games as "interactive"; while it's true that the player often has to do something to advance the story, many such narratives are not truly interactive in the sense that, say, a physics engine is interactive. In the Expressive Intelligence Studio at the Center for Games and Playable Media, much of the research centers around how one builds a story that is playable; story itself as a core game mechanic.

We will investigate this way of thinking about story and play at our symposium on May 10th, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Our presenters include leading thinkers and creators of interactable stories: Emily Short, with her expertise in interactive fiction and her innovative new game for Linden Lab, Versu; Tawny Schlieski, Research Scientist at Intel who is investigating new forms of narrative enabled by advances in technology; Susan Bonds, of the award-winning immersive storytelling company 42 Entertainment; just to name a few names.

For more information, including how to register, please go to www.ifogevents.com. Hope you are able to join us!

We were thrilled to host Mary Flanagan's visit to UC Santa Cruz this week. Mary is a leader in games as art, as an artist, creative, thinker, and scholar, as well as a fantastic game designer. For the occasion of her visit the Center for Games and Playable Media co-sponsored a panel discussion along with Brenda Laurel (another great thinker and designer, whose books have been immensely influential in the way we think about interacting with technology and media) and Susan Laxton. Kate O'Riordan moderated.

Mary's interested in investigating the bridge between artwork and design, using digital games and virtual spaces as her experimental ground. How do you move from art practice to design methodology? And what happens to the design process when we insert values we want the design to uphold? She showed a few of her pieces, one that experiments with moving through space; the well-known work Jump which splices together moments of "jump" actions in video games to offer a sort of catalogue or grammar of the game verb. As well, she makes games at her studio Tiltfactor, including a powerful iOS game, POX, about vaccination.

Overview:
This Fall, The Center for Games and Playable Media will accept applications for the Student Project Incubator Studio. SPIN Studio is an intensive three-month summer program that funds student teams to work on a game or playable media project. The project must be releasable by the end of the summer. Applications are open to any current students who meet the qualifications. The students are encouraged to form a team of not more than 3 core members.

The projects should be innovative and drive forward our understanding of games and playable media in some way. They can be game-based or not, but must fit in the category of “playable media,” meaning computational and deeply interactive. The project can be on any platform. We strongly encourage students to choose platforms and technology that fit both the nature of the project and their skill sets.

Timeline:
October 1:  Info Session for potential applicants.
November 19: Applications due.
December 3: Accepted teams notified.
January 4: Team bios, game info for website.
May 24: Orientation.
June 24: Studio begins.
September 20: Demo Day for finished projects.

Funding:
SPIN offers a $2000/month stipend to each participant for living expenses. We also cover licenses for software, equipment costs, lab fees, development licenses, and other necessary supplies. We encourage students to submit their work to festivals and competition and we will cover the costs of entry fees for up to three submissions per team.

In addition, SPIN has set aside funds to assist in the production of a promotional video.

Curriculum:

SPIN is project-based and participants will spend the bulk of their time in lab work. We offer these additional resources:

The Center for Games and Playable Media is in search of a talented game designer with a portfolio of interesting games for a new position, the Game Designer in Residence. Like an Artist in Residence, the game designer will continue to work on personal projects as well as contribute to the academic environment with a mix of teaching duties, offering feedback and critique, collaborating on research opportunities, and providing design guidance. 

The full job posting is here:

The Center for Games and Playable Media (CGPM) invites applications from outstanding game designers for
the position of Game Designer in Residence at UC Santa Cruz. The Game Designer in Residence has two main
roles: (1) individual game design research developing innovative interactive works, and, (2) participation in the
academic community of the Center at several levels, most notably by teaching undergraduate level courses
focused on game design.

In research, the Game Designer in Residence creates original game design concepts which are then realized
into working games. The Game Designer in Residence will also work collaboratively with faculty and graduate
students on experimental research games. Activities may also include software engineering, as well as providing
critical feedback and design guidance. The Game Designer in Residence may also contribute design ideas and
provide feedback to games being developed as part of externally funded research projects

The 2012 Sammy Awards showcasing undergraduate games from our Games and Playable Media program were a great success! A sold-out show featured 15 teams presenting games from the 170 senior sequence, CMPS 80K, and CMPS 20 classes. The games set a new standard for excellence and the judges had a tough time awarding the prizes. 

You can check out video footage from all the games here on our Youtube channel.

The winners are listed on the Sammys Awards page. Congratulations to all the participating teams! 

For more information and lots of pictures from the event, check our Playable UCSC Facebook page!

We're already excited to start planning for next year...