Overview: Transformative Game Design: Implementation Basics
Welcome to Transformative Game Design 2! This course explores foundational concepts and practices to consider when implementing analog role-playing games for transformative impacts. Remember the concept from the Larp Design book that everything is a designable surface. Implementation strategies must also be designed as well to ensure your game runs as intended, as we have emphasized in previous classes with your Playtest Plans.
In addition to lectures, discussions, and journals, you will also be planning a Session 0, facilitating 1 existing game by another author, and playing games facilitated by your group members.
Most class activities are asynchronous, meaning that you will submit your work on specific due dates, but there are no assigned class times where you must log in. These activities are typically discussion boards, journals, peer reviews, and major assignments.
Discussion forum engagement is the lifeblood of the course. Since we are all in different time zones, please post your initial discussions the night before the class day. Then, engage in the discussion forum by responding to at least two (2) of your peers in Ask a Question, Answer a Question format. See the Discussion Forum Instructions in the Unit for more information.
Reflection journals are viewable only by your instructors, although in many cases, you will also post assignments in the discussion board for your peers. In Reflection journals, you will consider the work you have read, watched, and discussed all week and tie it to your personal thoughts and experiences.
Playtesting and feedback sessions will take place over video conferencing within your peer group. We recommend Zoom, as Uppsala provides this software for free linked here. We will give you options for groups, but you will schedule meeting times within your group. Please try to be as flexible as possible with one another, as we are logging in from various parts of the world and have different schedules of availability.
- You must facilitate one (1) game with your group members during this course, which you will hack to emphasize a particular transformative impact and/or learning objective. These games are written by other authors, so you will be practicing your facilitation skills and receiving feedback from your peers.
- You will run one (1) of these games for your group members for a maximum of four (4) games per group. Each playtest should last no longer than 2 hours: 45 min-1.5 hours for workshop, play, and debriefing (depending on the game), and 15-30 minutes on player feedback on facilitation/implementation.
- This process will take likely a minimum of 3 sessions: one meeting (1) for Session 0 and two (2) playtest sessions of a maximum of four (4) hours each. Please plan accordingly.
Major Assignments are papers you will write for the class. The emphasis for these assignments will be creating an implementation plan to scale one (1) of the nano-games you designed in Intro to Transformative Game Design or Transformative Game Design 1.
Please familiarize yourself with the contents of the course including the syllabus, the calendar, and the units, then take your Orientation Quiz, which is linked in this Unit.
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Unit 1 Overview
In Unit 1, we will discuss role-playing implementation basics for tabletop, freeform, and larp. Some of you may be highly familiar with this content, whereas for others, it will be new for you. Our hope is that this basic introduction will give you much of the vocabulary needed to understand the rest of the content in this course and future courses in the Transformative Game Design Certificate. We also want you to consider these concepts in terms of transformative impacts and goal-setting, as implementation choices can enhance or inhibit these processes depending upon the circumstances.
In this Unit, we will cover:
- Tabletop Role-playing Games Implementation Basics
- Larp Implementation Basics
- Metareflection
- Subjective Diegesis
Note: Some of the materials below may not be available outside of this course. We are providing them as part of your education within this course. Do not distribute PDFs.
Required materials:
Readings:
- Levin, Hilda. 2020. “Metareflection.” In What Do We Do When We Play?, edited by Eleanor Saitta, Johanna Koljonen, Jukka Särkijärvi, Anne Serup Grove, Pauliina Männistö, and Mia Makkonen, 63-75. Helsinki: Solmukohta.
- Montola, Markus. 2003. “Role-playing as Interactive Construction of Subjective Diegeses.” In As Larp Grows Up, edited by Morten Gade, Line Thorup, and Mikkel Sander, 82-89. Denmark: Projektgruppen KP03.
Videos:
- Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2023. “Transformative Role-playing Games: Implementation Basics.” Transformative Play Initiative. YouTube, January 14.
List of Games for Playtest Facilitation:
- Arons, J. Michael. 2021. “Be Witch.” Golden Cobra Challenge.
- Barnett, Tracy. 2014. “HERE LIES ______.” Golden Cobra Challenge.
- Cazeneuve, Axiel. 2020. “Talk to Me.” Golden Cobra Challenge.
- Cooper, Tracy. 2021. “Great Unknown.” Golden Cobra Challenge.
- Note: This game involves secrecy, but should be hacked for transparency, as all players have access to the scenario.
- Devine, Tim. 2019. “Julia’s Lost Treasure.” Golden Cobra Challenge.
- Holkar, Mo. 2018. “Fake News.” Alexandria.dk.
- Lucas, Casey. 2020. “All We Have Is Us.” Golden Cobra Challenge.
- Nix, Dylan. “Charging of the Light-Bearer.” Golden Cobra Challenge.
- Reininghaus, Gerrit. 2020. “The Batcave.” Golden Cobra Challenge.
- Content advisory: Information about bats, images of bats
- Wood, Laura. 2020. “A Single Step.” Golden Cobra Challenge.