Gactivism, gametivism... activist game design: Harpooned

It’s not very often that you come across an activist game that skillfully incorporates its message with its gameplay, and rarer that they’re so much fun as Harpooned. Take control of a Japanese research vessel and extinctify some whales in the name of science (and selling cat food.) (-- 1Up)

"So it’s a controversial and emotional issue in Australia, however for the rest of the world it’s not newsworthy and I suppose most people never give it a thought. I decided to make a game about whaling and specifically about Japan’s claim that their whaling is scientific, to draw international attention to the issue. Games have the ability to reach a younger and broader audience than newspapers or television and a game distributed on the Internet can have a truly international impact."

Gish Design Tour

This third design tour published at Wolfire blog, was about Gish by Cryptic Sea.

"I asked Edmund McMillen (co-creator of Gish) what he thought, and he said, “I thought it was a well thought out critique of the things that made Gish an important indie game, and also pointed out its flaws in realistic way. Everything you said is totally what we have been talking about for the past few years, so I think you were spot on.”"

Via Wolfire blog

Cooperation and Engagement: What can board games teach us?

Matt Leacock is a principal designer at Yahoo! Inc. When he's not designing social platforms and products for Yahoo!, he dabbles in board game design.

"In February of 2008, Matt Leacock released Pandemic, a board game where players cooperate to save the world from deadly diseases that threaten to wipe out humanity. The game has been enthusiastically received, with its first printing selling out in less than a month. Matt will discuss how being an interaction designer affected the game design process as well as how cooperative games can point to new models for engagement in online systems."

Talking About These: VG and Learning

Daniel Floyd is the creator of an animated lectures series where he expresses a fresh and in-depth view on industry trend topics.

Recently graduated from the Univerity of Georgia, he received a bachelor's degree in Drama, focusing in Digital Media, and is currently pursuing a carreer in the videogames industry as an animator.

"The third entry in my series of video "lectures," made in association with EDGE and game designer James Portnow. Format inspired by Zero Punctuation reviews.

For the first time, NOT made to be presented in a classroom."

Via Talking About These

Indie Prototyping & Innovative Games

Former Game Developer magazine code columnist and 2006 IGF Design Innovation winner Jonathan Blow, has suggested that games are approaching the level of societal influence of other forms of art, such as films and novels. One example that Blow cites is World of Warcraft, which he labels "unethical", stating that such games exploit players by using a simple reward-for-suffering scheme to keep them in front of their computer.

In his view, developers need to think about what reinforcement the games are providing players when they reward them for performing certain actions. He emphasized that there was a need for developers to design inspiring new games using "innovative, ethical and personal art." (--Wikipedia).

"Part of the 2007 Independent Games Summit, held at the Game Developers Conference 2007 in San Francisco, March 2007: Indie Prototyping, Braid, & Making Innovative Games (Jonathan Blow, Number None) [...], discusses the deliberate methodology behind his indie game prototyping. He shows how he conceives, develops, and tests out indie concepts in playable form, and discusses how you know when a prototype is working, and where to take it from there, demonstrating multiple in-development prototypes (including Braid) along the way."

Game Interface Design Profile

Jason Wozencroft is an award-winning art director/creative director with over thirteen years of interactive media experience. His talents include art/creative direction and team management. His collaborative style and ability to motivate teams towards a common goal has led to a legacy of successful large-scale projects. (--twentytwomedia.com)

"Donna Park goes to A2M studios to learn about the design process of game interfaces. We get specifics of the very impressive interfaces from Ironman and the upcoming WET."