Art and Design Commons^™

Nba 2k, Joseph Saludo

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

The NBA 2K games have come a long way from an emerging basketball game to now becoming the biggest basketball game ever created. From its graphics, gameplay, community, and many more reasons why the game became so successful today, NBA 2K has evolved into the best basketball game by improving its overall structure every year-round.

Re-Playing Maimonides’ Codes: Designing Games To Teach Religious Legal Systems, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

Lost & Found is a game series, created at the Initiative for

Religion, Culture, and Policy at the Rochester Institute of

Technology MAGIC Center.1 The series teaches medieval

religious legal systems. This article uses the first two games

of the series as a case study to explore a particular set of

processes to conceive, design, and develop games for learning.

It includes the background leading to the author's work

in games and teaching religion, and the specific context for

the Lost & Found series. It discusses the rationale behind

working to teach religious legal systems more broadly, then

discuss the …

Augmented Reality, Augmented Ethics: Who Has The Right To Augment A Particular Physical Space?, Erica L. Neely

Philosophy and Religion Faculty Scholarship

Augmented reality (AR) blends the virtual and physical worlds such that the virtual content experienced by a user of AR technology depends on the user’s geographical location. Games such as Pokémon GO and technologies such as HoloLens are introducing an increasing number of people to augmented reality. AR technologies raise a number of ethical concerns; I focus on ethical rights surrounding the augmentation of a particular physical space. To address this I distinguish public and private spaces; I also separate the case where we access augmentations via many different applications from the case where there is a more unified sphere …

The Lost & Found Game Series: Teaching Medieval Religious Law In Context, 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 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 first game in the series is a strategy game called Lost & Found …

Mixed Logical And Probabilistic Reasoning In The Game Of Clue, Todd W. Neller, Ziqian Luo

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Neller and Ziqian Luo ’18 presented a means of mixed logical and probabilistic reasoning with knowledge in the popular deductive mystery game Clue. Using at-least constraints, we more efficiently represented and reasoned about cardinality constraints on Clue card deal knowledge, and then employed a WalkSAT-based solution sampling algorithm with a tabu search metaheuristic in order to estimate the probabilities of unknown card places.

Using Three Fields Of Education Research To Frame The Development Of Digital Games, Michelle Zandieh, David Plaxco, Caro Williams-Peirce, Ashish Amresh

Ashish Amresh

No abstract provided.

James Joyce: I. Am. A. Discover Dublin By Reading And Running, Barry Sheehan

Academic Articles

You are walking through it howsomever. I am, a stride at a time. A very short space of time through very short times of space.

James Joyce (Ulysses,p.31).

In Ulysses, on the morning of the 16th June 1904, Stephen Dedalus is striding on Sandymount strand, thinking about time and place as he moves. Later in the day, Leopold Bloom writes I. AM. A.with a stick in the sand on the same Sandymount strand. His scrubbed words will wash away with the tide but remain forever in the novel.

Using geotracking, I recreated the same ephemeral I. AM. …

Procedural Level Generation For A 2d Platformer, Brian Michael Egana

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Procedural Content Generation (PCG), as defined in the book “Procedural Content Generation in Games”, is “the algorithmic creation of game content with limited or indirect user input”. Whether it creates the levels by itself, or together with game designers, PCG is a method used to reduce the cost of designing games, and to produce an endless amount of game content. One of the main challenges that come with PCG is the desire to use PCG algorithms to create entire levels that are feasible, unique, and fun. This is especially challenging for games of progression within the 2D platformer genre; insufficient …

How Representation Of Game Information Affects Player Performance, Matthew Paul Bryan

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The goal of this small experiment was to see if it could be determined whether or not user interface design and the way information is portrayed in a game can affect a player’s performance in that game. During this study, 26 anonymous participants selected one design of a timer from three different categories to be used in a simple, objective-based game. 10 different participants were then run through three levels of that game, with each level corresponding to a different version of timer. The amount of objectives completed were recorded, as well as their thoughts on which version they preferred …

The Effects Of Video Games On Human Intelligence, Lifeng Yuan, Wenxiang Hu

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

With the help of rapidly growing electronics industry offering more affordable electronic gaming devices, an increasing number of people have stepped into the realm of video games and as a result, playing video games has become part of life for many to some extent. While the majority of people are embracing the fun and the thrill that video games have brought about, a handful of people are still holding relatively negative opinions on video games, thinking that playing video game is just a waste of time and money. In fact, the truth is quite the opposite. It has proved that …

Essential Feature - Cooperative Gameplay, Thanh Bui, Hung Nguyen

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

Although single player and multiplayer is very important in today game, cooperative mode is an essential part of a great game. There are a lot of benefits of playing co-op mode in a game such as education and joy. Communicating, solving problems, handling stress, managing time, making decision, following instructions, acting fast as well as working in a team are skills that students can learn and practice while they are playing cooperative games. These skills are valuable for students to use in education and even in careers.

Applications Of Modular Synthesis In Music & Sound Design For Video Games, Wyatt Gay, Shelby Pease, Logan Starks, Travis Wattigney

Undergraduate Research Conference

Project Objective: Score one minute of gameplay footage and produce fifteen sound effects for a video game solely utilizing the virtual modular synthesizer Reaktor Blocks.

The Evolution Of Nintendo Company, Yaochen Wei

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

Through consistent innovation, investment in quality, research, and diversification, Nintendo managed to evolve from a playing card manufacturer to a world-leading video game company.

Ready, Set, Play! Disrupting Our Preconceptions Of Classroom Learning Through Innovative Teaching Practices., Heather Shaw

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

What is play in the context of an undergraduate classroom? For our purposes, play is an attitude and an approach to making work. Both inside and outside of the classroom, there are many ways in which play can serve as a base for serious problem-solving.

As educators, we choose to create a learning environment that provides enjoyment to the people who conduct activities within it. Play does not need to be frivolous — it encourages curiosity, constructive and critical discourse, and provides a safe environment to fail. Framing work within the context of “play” allows students to go beyond their …

Plentiful Possibilities For Pen, Pencil, And Paper Play, Todd W. Neller

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Neller presented games such as Dots and Boxes, Sprouts, Jotto, Chomp, and Pentominoes in order to illustrate the diversity of existing pencil and paper games. Additionally, he presented his own pencil and paper game design, Paper Penguins, and discussed the game design process.

Emergent Narrative: Stories Of Play, Playing With Stories, Eric Murnane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emergent narrative, a phenomenon of unexpected contextual stories arising through play, has been researched in the field of game studies since 1999. However, that discussion largely lies in the realm of theoretical stories which are generated by either the system or the player. The purpose of this dissertation is to deepen our understanding of emergent narrative by examining real-world examples of the phenomenon. Four hundred player posts were gathered from forums relating to the video game Skyrim (a large, open world fantasy roleplaying game) and analyzed using a mixed-method framework which is informed by digital ethnography, fan studies, and game …

Learning To Generate Natural Language Rationales For Game Playing Agents, Upol Ehsan, Pradyumna Tambwekar, Larry Chan, Brent Harrison, Mark O. Riedl

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Many computer games feature non-player charactert (NPC) teammates and companions; however, playing with or against NPCs can be frustrating when they perform unexpectedly. These frustrations can be avoided if the NPC has the ability to explain its actions and motivations. When NPC behavior is controlled by a black box AI system it can be hard to generate the necessary explanations. In this paper, we present a system that generates human-like, natural language explanations—called rationales—of an agent's actions in a game environment regardless of how the decisions are made by a black box AI. We outline a robust data collection …

Good Game, Greyory Blake

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis and its corresponding art installation, Lessons from Ziggy, attempts to deconstruct the variables prevalent within several complex systems, analyze their transformations, and propose a methodology for reasserting the soap box within the display pedestal. In this text, there are several key and specific examples of the transformation of various signifiers (i.e. media-bred fear’s transformation into a political tactic of surveillance, contemporary freneticism’s transformation into complacency, and community’s transformation into nationalism as a state weapon). In this essay, all of these concepts are contextualized within the exponential growth of new technologies. That is to say, all of these semiotic …

Prosocial Religion And Games: Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Articles

In a time when religious legal systems are discussed without an understanding of history or context, it is more important than ever to help widen the understanding and discourse about the prosocial aspects of religious legal systems throughout history. The Lost & Found (www.lostandfoundthegame.com) game series, targeted for an audience of teens through twentysomethings in formal, learning environments, is designed to teach the prosocial aspects of medieval religious systems—specifically collaboration, cooperation, and the balancing of communal and individual/family needs. Set in Fustat (Old Cairo) in the 12th century, the first two games in the series address laws in Moses Maimonides’ …

Your Iphone Cannot Escape History, And Neither Can You: Self-Reflexive Design For A Mobile History Learning Game, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This chapter focuses on the design approach used in the self-reflexive finale of the mobile augmented reality history game Jewish Time Jump: New York. In the finale, the iOS device itself and the player using it are implicated in the historical moment and theme of the game. The author-designer-researcher drew from self-reflexive traditions in theater, cinema, and nonmobile games to craft the reveal of the connection between the mobile device and the history that the learners were studying. Through centering on this particular design element, the author demonstrates how self-reflexivity can be deployed in a mobile learning experience to …

Run Hugs, Squeeze Hugs, And Jump Hugs: Playfully Professing Parenthood And The Self-In-Relation, Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.