Feral Game Building

Games can be fresh, contributing to the political
genre. In this course, we will create politically
oriented digital games without code. Given
freedom from programming, and a well-structured
gaming environment, we can leverage both usual and
atypical approaches to game design. Game design
can be organized, feral, and rich, allowing for a
range of sensibilities from edgy interaction to
reflective calm. Each student or team will erupt
two games during the semester. We will employ the
highly capable Construct 3 game engine in the
creation of politically oriented games, worlds,
and worlding. We'll ask questions not assuming we
have the answers. For instance, in what different
(novel) ways might we employ historical imagery
and words? We'll view game building as the
creation of a (metaphorically speaking)
interactive "fabric", weaving the structure of our
games, rather than "building" them. We'll also
take an idea-bootstrapping approach. Historical
and contemporary strategies and tactics of art
making and idea generation will be presented.
Methods and approaches used with include
historical favorites and those almost unknown,
such as dialoguing. This will be in service to
games with political purpose. We'll draw
inspiration from a range of political media-arts
works, both present and past. Most of all, we
will become a collaboration, a collaborative with
room for both individual and group works.