Students skip "day-off" for games class

October 1, 2003

Over thirty MSU students woke early on Sunday, September 28th to arrive at the campus of Michigan State University for an all day educational experience sponsored by the Digital Media Art & Technology program in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media and Discreet software. Several others were in attendance, including students and faculty from University of Michigan, Central Michigan University, and Northern Michigan University, and a few non-academics representing various companies in Michigan.

What was the draw, you might ask? It was the opportunity to take part in an all day game design workshop taught by industry veteran Ernest Adams.

Ernest Adams has been involved in game development for over 14 years. He worked for many years at Electronic Arts as designer and audio/video producer on the best-selling Madden NFL Football series and more recently at Bullfrog Productions in England. He is currently an independent game designer and production consultant. Adams is the founder and former president of the International Game Developers Association. He is also a prolific writer and speaker about game design and the game industry. He is the author of the monthly Gamasutra column, "The Designer's Notebook", and several textbooks, most notably the recently published "Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design".

Brian Winn, Assistant Professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media who teaches a game design course at MSU was the host for the event. "I first heard Ernest Adams speak at the 2003 Game Developers Conference in San Jose, CA earlier this year. I was extremely impressed with his dynamic, entertaining, yet information rich speaking style. After his talk at GDC, I spoke with him briefly about the growing interest in game development here in Michigan and about the possibility of having him visit MSU some day. To my amazement, less than 6 months later, here he is."

Adams began the workshop with an hour and a half presentation called "The Fundamental Principles of Game Design". The lecture described the nature of games and what game design teams must do to create effective games. The lecture ended by discussing the various game design roles, including the lead designer, the game designer, the level designer, the user interface designer, and the art director. After which, the attendees were broken up into eight groups of five, each group representing a game design team with each participant assuming one of the design roles.

Each game design team then was handed a game "dream" in a sealed envelope. The dreams varied across each group and were diverse, not currently marketed game ideas, such as "my dream is to climb a mountain" and "my dream is to be Miss World". It was the task of each attendee to work in their defined roles to help design their team's game around the dream. Adams provided worksheets that guided each team and each role within the team through the necessarily steps in designing the game.

After several hours of brainstorming, debating, storyboarding, and writing, each team presented their game concept to the scrutiny of Ernest Adams and the other groups. One game had you playing the role of a futuristic police officer, chasing down speeders through asteroids. Another had you playing the role of an archeologist on a dig in Egypt. "All the teams came up with some very interesting and unique game ideas. Two or three of them could easily be developed into very marketable games," declared Adams.

"Overall the workshop was very successful," said Winn. "The students were able to experience a microcosm of a professional game design environment and receive guidance and advise from a well-known, respected professional. This type of experience really complements what we are doing in the classroom. We (the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media) are currently in the early stages of planning a game design lecture series for the Spring 2004 semester, in which we hope to bring in other notable industry professionals."

Communication Arts & Sciences