Art and Design Commons^™

Finding Lost & Found: Designer’S Notes From The Process Of Creating A Jewish Game For Learning, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This article provides context for and examines aspects of the design process of a game for learning. Lost & Found (2017a, 2017b) is a tabletop-to-mobile game series designed to teach medieval religious legal systems, beginning with Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (1180), a cornerstone work of Jewish legal rabbinic literature. Through design narratives, the article demonstrates the complex design decisions faced by the team as they balance the needs of player engagement with learning goals. In the process the designers confront challenges in developing winstates and in working with complex resource management. The article provides insight into the pathways the team …

Introduction: Jewish Gamevironments – Exploring Understanding With Playful Systems, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

The study of Judaism, Jewish civilizationi, and games is currently comprised of projects of a rather small set of game scholars. A sample of our work is included in this issue.

An Analysis Of Operant Conditioning And Its Relationship With Video Game Addiction, Daniel Vu

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

A report published by the Entertainment Software Association revealed that in 2015, 155 million Americans play video games with an average of two gamers in each game-playing household (Entertainment Software Association, “Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game Industry”). With this massive popularity that has sprung alongside video games, the question must be asked: how are video games affecting today's people? With the current way some video games are structured, the video game rewards players for achieving certain accomplishments. For example, competitive video games reward players who achieve victories by giving them a higher ranking or other games display …

Random Numbers And Gaming, Sinjin Baglin

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

In Counter Strike: Global Offensive spray pattern control becomes a muscle memory to a player after long periods of playing. It’s a design choice that makes the gunplay between players more about instant crosshair placement with the faster player usually winning. This is very different from the gunplay of the current popular shooter Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds. Player Unknown’s Battleground’s spray pattern for the guns are random. So how does this affect the player experience? Well as opposed to Counter Strike: Global Offensive, the design choice makes gunplay between two players more about how a person can adapt faster …

Exploring Oculus Rift: A Historical Analysis Of The ‘Virtual Reality’ Paradigm, Chastin Gammage

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

This paper will first provide background information about Virtual Reality in order to better analyze its development throughout history and into the future. Next, this essay begins an in-depth historical analysis of how virtual reality has developed prior to 1970, a pivotal year in Virtual Reality history, followed by an exploration of how this development paradigm shifted between the 1970's and the turn of the century. The historical analysis of virtual reality is concluded by covering the modern period from 2000-present. Finally, this paper examines the layout of the virtual reality field in respect to he history and innovations presented.

Fighting Game Difficulty, Andrew Hon

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

Lowering difficulty in games has become a recent trend amongst gaming companies. The goal of this tactic is to provide a more welcoming platform for players that are new to the franchise. However, this trend has been met with criticism amongst more experienced veterans of their respective games. This essay will touch upon different games within the fighting game genre that have lowered their overall difficulty, and the positive/negative effects of it.

Perspectives On Video Games As Art, Jeroen Bourgonjon, Geert Vandermeersche, Kris Rutten, Niels Quinten

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Perspectives on Video Games as Art" Jeroen Bourgonjon, Geert Vndermeer­sche, Kris Rutten and Niels Quinten engage in discussing whether or not video games can be considered a form of art. Although this question has already been discussed elaborately, the debate is guided by many differ­ent and often conflicting positions. The aim of this article is to revisit this debate by mapping out a range of perspectives on video games as art. The authors explore the relation between games and differ­ent definitions and functions of art, different motives of artists, and the potential impact of the arts. The …

The Birds Of A Feather Research Challenge, Todd W. Neller

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Neller presented a set of research challenges for undergraduates that allow an excellent formative experience of research, writing, peer review, and potential presentation and publication through a top-tier conference. The focus problem is the analysis of a newly-designed solitaire card game, Birds of a Feather, so potentials for discovery abound. Open access talk slides, research code, solvability data sets, research tutorial videos, and more are also available at http://cs.gettysburg.edu/~tneller/puzzles/boaf .

Amazons, Penguins, And Amazon Penguins, Todd W. Neller

Computer Science Faculty Publications

This talk discussed a family of games based on Amazons (1988), a distant relative of Go (area control) and Chess (queen-like movement), innovated with the introduction of move obstacles. Hey! That’s My Fish! (2003) restricted the addition of obstacles and added varying points for position visits. Introducing original related game designs (e.g. Amazon Penguins (2009) and Paper Pen-guins (2009)), we demonstrated how game mechanics are like genes that mutate, crossover, and invite evolution of new games.

Virtual Archaeology, Virtual Longhouses And "Envisioning The Unseen" Within The Archaeological Record, William M. Carter

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

We are of an era in which digital technology now enhances the method and practice of archaeology. In our rush to embrace these technological advances however, Virtual Archaeology has become a practice to visualize the archaeological record, yet it is still searching for its methodological and theoretical base. I submit that Virtual Archaeology is the digital making and interrogating of the archaeological unknown. By wayfaring means, through the synergy of the maker, digital tools and material, archaeologists make meaning of the archaeological record by engaging the known archaeological data with the crafting of new knowledge by multimodal reflection and the …

Game Specific Approaches To Monte Carlo Tree Search For Dots And Boxes, Jared Prince

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In this project, a Monte Carlo tree search player was designed and implemented for the child’s game dots and boxes, the computational burden of which has left traditional artificial intelligence approaches like minimax ineffective. Two potential improvements to this player were implemented using game-specific information about dots and boxes: the lack of information for decision-making provided by the net score and the inherent symmetry in many states. The results of these two approaches are presented, along with details about the design of the Monte Carlo tree search player. The first improvement, removing net score from the state information, was proven …

Salvation: Into The Cosmos: Board Game Project Blending 4x And Eurogame Styles, Zachary Stewart Griffith

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

This project is an attempt at creating a shorter and simpler 4X strategy game. To do this, the author takes elements of the Eurogame genre and combines aspects of The Settlers of Catan by Klaus Teuber and Shattered Plans by Jagex while following the requirements of the German board game award, the Spiel de Jahres. After following the traditional game design process of conceptualization, prototyping, and repeated testing, analysis, and revision, the author succeeded in creating a core foundation for such a game that also had marketing potential on its own.

Dreamkeeper: 3d Game Using Unreal Engine 4, Marii Elizabeth Boyken, Martin Clayton Coleman, Casey Kendrick Albert-Hall

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

The goal of this senior project was to combine our diverse skills to make a 3D game. The plot involves a young girl who has been given the powers to enter dreams and defeat nightmares. The 3D assets that we built and animated were made in Autodesk Maya. We used Unreal Engine 4 to piece together our assets and create the logic for the game. This document explains the technologies that we used, design choices we made, feedback from our player-testing, and work that we want to complete for the project in the future. Our final game demo features two …

No Player Is Ideal: Why Video Game Designers Cannot Ethically Ignore Players’ Real-World Identities, Erica L. Neely

Philosophy and Religion Faculty Scholarship

As video games flourish, designers have a responsibility to treat players and potential players justly. In deontological terms, designers are obliged to treat all of them as having intrinsic worth. Since players are a diverse group, designers must not simply focus on an idealized gamer, who is typically a straight white male. This creates a duty to consider whether design choices place unnecessary barriers to the ability of certain groups of players to achieve their ends in playing a game. I examine the design implication of this for the gameworld, avatar design, and accessibility to players with disabilities. I also …

Time Travel, Labour History, And The Null Curriculum: New Design Knowledge For Mobile Augmented Reality History Games, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This paper presents a case study drawn from design-based research (DBR) on a mobile, place-based augmented reality history game. Using DBR methods, the game was developed by the author as a history learning intervention for fifth to seventh graders. The game is built upon historical narratives of disenfranchised populations that are seldom taught, those typically relegated to the 'null curriculum'. These narratives include the stories of women immigrant labour leaders in the early twentieth century, more than a decade before suffrage. The project understands the purpose of history education as the preparation of informed citizens. In paying particular attention to …

Gatekeeping: Women, People Of Color, And The Video Game Community, Bonnie Harris-Lowe

Senior Theses

Gamers are a large, diverse group of people, but they are not treated as such within their own community. AAA video games are designed largely by and for white men at the expense of women and racial minorities. These groups are grossly underrepresented in video games and are often poorly depicted when they do exist in virtual spaces. Stereotypes and other negative attitudes towards these groups are exacerbated and furthered by their portrayals in video games. The wide quantitative and qualitative gaps between female characters and characters of color compared to white male characters has contributed to a toxic culture …

Remembering Virtual Worlds: Painting And Video Games, Nathaniel M. St. Amour

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Video games create the feeling of great achievement and place the player into a role that turns them into a great hero. These experiences feel significant because they require great time and emotional investment. The monumentality of these experiences, however, are at odds with the transience of the electrical virtual worlds. The medium of oil painting helps overcome the sense of transience because of oil painting’s durable permanent way of image making and stillness. Painting’s inherent nod to history also creates a dissonance between the newness of the video game medium and the antiquity of painting, a contrast exacerbated by …

Constructed Reality: A Study In Spatial Perception Through Virtual Reality, Jose P. Rodriguez

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Architecture often begins explorations that lead into various modes of end products. These modes of production and representation could often embed traces that shape the outcome of the design. In his book, “Architectural Representation and The Perspective Hinge.”, Alberto Perez Gomez says that “Architects do not produce Buildings but instead produce images of buildings.” These representational images are an expression of an idea or design. Historically, representation began in static two-dimensions. By bridging into digital environments, these representations become more dynamic. As computing power increases and software broadens, the use of virtual reality environments and immersion simulations are becoming more …

The Possibilities Of The Video Game Exhibition, Elizabeth Legere 2762328

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is an examination of video games as an artistic medium, and of their current presentation in art museums like the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as an attempt to come up with better modes of presentation for them within a museum space. Using a general understanding of video game theory and aesthetics, it might be possible to begin to look at solutions to the issues posed by current methods of presentation and interpretation, and to examine whether video games’ complicated aesthetic and artistic importance can be better highlighted by a new mode of display …

Inside The Mind Of Mcmillen, Tina Duong

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

The paper discusses how Edmund McMillen created “The Binding of Isaac”. It goes into his inspirations, influences, and his background leading up to the game. It then describes the game, going into its mechanics, design, art and story and how each of these elements were unique and risky to put into an Indie game. I discussed how “The Binding of Isaac” brought in fresh, new elements that most mainstream games wouldn’t dare touch, and despite that “Binding of Isaac” accomplished amazing success. Then, I talk about how the game was initially made by a group of two people, and was …

Glhf: A Brief Overview Of Gaming Cafes, John Sun

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

My paper is on the history of internet and gaming cafes, focusing on how they are seen today, the problems they face and some potential solutions. Although my focus is on gaming cafes in America, because they are so popular overseas in Asian countries (such as South Korea, China, and Japan), they inevitably come up more often in my paper and presentation.

Metagames: Postmodern Narrative And Agency In The Video Games Of Davey Wreden, Richard J. Andrews

Honors Theses

This study aims to determine how contemporary video games utilize self-reflexive narrative techniques to explore the strengths and weaknesses of video games as an artistic narrative medium. This study combines emergent digital game theory with established literary theory about self-reflexive narrative (also known as ‘metafiction.’) This synthesis is further informed by observing first hand player interaction with self-reflexive gaming platforms. A focus on the problems of ontology and epistemology for both gamers and readers allows comparison between treatments of these problems in both digital game theory and metafictional studies. My study compares these concepts and applies them to the operations …

Mmorpgs And Their Effect On Players, Udit Manocha

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

The purpose of this essay is to explore the popularity and effects of video games in the MMORPG genre. Games and play have been a part of human culture for an exceptionally long time, and in the recent decades video games have a become a large medium to continue this. Studying how video games, such as MMORPGs, can be used in order to advance life skills is important to understand the future of human development. By researching other studies done on various topics of related to MMORPG, I developed the idea that this genre of video games could be very …

Art/Cs 108, Introduction To Game Studies, Section 2, Spring 2017, James Morgan

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

Course syllabus.

Art/Cs 108, Introduction To Game Studies, Section 1, Spring 2017, James Morgan

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

Course syllabus.

Promoting Your Department To High School Seniors, Jeremy H. Sarachan

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Increasingly departments must take charge of their recruitment, but most academics are new to public relations and marketing. What are the best methods to reach high school students? Led by a media and communication chair, this discussion will revolve around best practices that are both affordable and easy to manage.

Playful Ai Education, Todd W. Neller

Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this talk, Neller shared how games can serve as a fun means of teaching not only game-tree search in Artificial Intelligence (AI), but also such diverse topics as constraint satisfaction, logical reasoning, planning, uncertain reasoning, machine learning, and robotics. He observed that teachers teach best when they enjoy what they share and encouraged AI educators present to teach to their unique strengths and enthusiasms.

Lost & Found: Order In The Court -- The Party Game, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Presentations and other scholarship

Lost & Found is a strategy card-to-mobile game series that teaches medieval religious legal systems with attention to period accuracy and cultural and historical context.

The Lost & Found games project seeks to expand the discourse around religious legal systems, to enrich public conversations in a variety of communities, and to promote greater understanding of the religious traditions that build the fabric of the United States. Comparative religious literacy can build bridges between and within communities and prepare learners to be responsible citizens in our pluralist democracy.

The second game in the series, Lost & Found: Order in the Court …

Synergy: Game Design + Qur'an Memorization, Sultana Jesmine Moulana

Theses and Dissertations

The rise of digital technology has transformed nearly every part of our daily lives, including the way we learn and memorize. Such transformations raise interesting questions for one of the most long-standing and demanding memorization tasks in the world: the memorization of the Islamic holy book, The Qur’an. For Muslims, The Qur’an is a timeless, sacred text, cradling within its covers many profound images, stories, and parables. Despite rigorous research in the fields of game design and memorization techniques, very little work has been done in combining these two areas of research to create a game-based memorization experience of The …

The Institute Of New Feelings: Plastic Identities And Imperfect Surfaces, Weijian Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

Digital media are moldable spaces where an image is simultaneously a thought. This instance and flexibility enables digital existences to be malleable, transformative, situational, and unstable. They are plastic images. Video games generate digital bodies that are a fusion of subjectivities and cybernetic simulations, in a perceivable and ambiguous process. Such bodies are extensions of ourselves, being girlish, imperfect, unfinished and happening—digesting and emitting clusters of feelings, regardless of our biological gender and age. The performative experience of play is progressively departing from spectacle, gambling and competition, and increasingly shifting towards an emotional journey of alternate realities, spreading subjectivities into …