History of Game Play and Interactivity. 3 credits, 3 contact hours

Catalog description

A guided exploration through the world of games. Students will experiment, play, and analyze various aspects of games - from early traditional games to current generation electronically-mediated games; from individual games to collaborative online games. Game types will be analyzed with particular attention paid to the virtual environments in which these games take place. The expressive and persuasive aspects of games will also be explored. Students will learn underlying principles behind various game development technologies from traditional to digital format. Assignments will ask students to analyze the structure of various games and prepare them for creative final projects. The latter half of the semester will be focused mainly on individual student research toward a creative final project.