EDGE

Submission of Final Draft of Major Assignment 2: Implementing Transformative Game Design

For your final draft of Major Assignment 2, you will revise your Major Assignment 1: Scaling Implementation Plan according to recommendations from your peers in Discussion 8: Implementation Team Feedback Brainstorm, as well as feedback from your instructors. You will submit this paper for peer review and detail recommendations from your peers, revising accordingly.

In addition to your revised Implementation plan, you will add components of academic analysis, integrating and citing concepts from the Implementation Units (1-5) and Play Units (6-7) of the class with regard to your design choices. You will submit a complete first draft for peer feedback, then revise your assignment based upon these comments for your final submission at the end of the course. Your word limit is 2600-3700, not including subject headings or Appendices.

Overall, your choices should reflect consideration of impacts on the players in each section, including not only desired transformative impacts, but also any consequences your choices might have on players. Cite all sources in Chicago Author-Date or another consistent citation style.

Use separate section headings for each of the below required sections and adhere to the word limits as closely as possible for full credit. You may use contents from your revised Game Design Document. Use complete sentences and paragraph form, but be brief and succinct. Some categories will need more description than others.

Note that the emphasis for this paper is design of the implementation strategy, not the game components. While you can add a couple of sentences about what sorts of additions you wish to make to the game’s structure, they should not be the focus of the paper.

Total word limit for Major Assignment 2: 2600-3700. Word limits do not include subject headings or Appendices.

1) Game Design (200-300 words): Describe your original game design. Focus only on details necessary to understand the desired transformative impact(s), the concept, and the game play.

2) Scaling (1500-2000 words): Describe how you plan to scale your game using the below outline as subheadings. Try to limit your answers to one sentence per question if possible.

a) Population: Who are your intended players?

b) Type: What type of game will it be?

• Will this game be tabletop, larp, or freeform?
• Is your game intended to be Leisure Transformational, Therapeutic, or Educational? Why?
• How many sessions (one-shot or campaign) and how long will each game session be, i.e., 4 hours, 3 days, etc.?

c) Facilitation: How many facilitators will you need? How will runtime game mastering occur? Are external responsible parties required, i.e. teachers or counselors?

d) Logistics: What are the logistical details necessary for the game to be successfully implemented?

• Size: How big will your player base be? 
• Space: In which space(s) will the group play? 
• Time: How long will the game session(s) take? How many game sessions will there be, i.e. single session, multiple sessions, and/or multiple days per session? 
• Atmosphere: What atmosphere will you create through location, sound design, scenography, and other factors?
• Tools: What tools will be needed for the game to be implemented, including costumes, props, etc.?
• Preparation: What preparations are needed to ensure smooth implementation:
  • What will you provide (or not provide) in terms of food, restroom facilities, sleeping arrangements?
  • What preparations do you and any other facilitators need to make before play can begin?
  • How will cleanup occur?
  • What do players need to do to prepare before the game?
• Creation: Who is responsible for the creation of the fiction?
  • How will worldbuilding and character creation occur?
  • To what degree can player choices impact the game during runtime, i.e. what is their degree of agency?

e) Game Activities: Expand upon your original idea with additional activities and/or modules.

• What specific activities or modules will you prepare?
• What intended transformational impacts and/or learning objectives do these activities have? Be specific.

f) Interaction: How will players interface with the others?

• How will players interact with each other during game?
• How will players establish character relations?
• How will they interact with the facilitators during game?
• How will they interact with the game world and/or environment? Be specific.

g) Framing: How will you frame the game according to your desired transformative impacts and/or learning objectives?

• What workshops will you include and how will they contribute to the desired transformative impacts?
• How will debriefing take place?
• What other post-game processing activities do you have planned? Be specific.

h) Support: What can players expect in terms of support throughout the process?

• How will players be instructed to support one another before, during, and after play? 
• What safety mechanics and/or techniques will you include?
• How will facilitators support players before, during, and after play? If relevant, include the activities of any additional responsible parties who will support learning and emotional well-being, i.e. teachers, counselors, etc.
• How will you address accessibility needs?

i) Communication:How will facilitators communicate with players and vice versa throughout the process? 

• How will you promote this game and recruit players?
• How will players contact you before, during, and after the game session(s)? How often will you be available for contact?
• How often will you contact them?

j) Documentation: How will you record what occurs at before, during, and after the game?

• How will you document the game, if at all?
• How will you obtain consent for documentation?
• In what contexts or publication venues will documentation be used? Be specific.

3) Implementation and Play Concepts (500-750 words): Describe the implementation choices you made and justify why you made them. Make sure to include content from the original sources in each paragraph, cited in-text and in References in Chicago Author-Date or another consistent style of your choice. Each paragraph should apply one (1) concept for a total of four (4) paragraphs maximum:

a) Two (2) separate concepts from different sources and content creators from the Implementation Units (1-5). These concepts can be theoretical or practical, but make sure you tie them concretely to specific choices you made. 

b) Two (2) separate concepts from different sources and content creators from the Player Experience Units (6-7). These concepts can be theoretical or practical, but make sure you tie them concretely to specific choices you made. 

4) Feedback (300-450 words): Discuss the feedback process, including recommendations from your peers in the Brainstorm session and comments your instructors in their grading feedback when available. Describe any design decisions you made based on this feedback. If you did not revise according to certain feedback, justify why. 

5) Conclusion (100-200 words): Analyze the design of implementation process, considering how concepts you explored in this class might impact your implementation choices in the future.

6) Appendix I: Game Design Document:  As an Appendix, include your Game Design Document from Transformative Game Design 1.

7) Appendix II: Cover Letter: You must integrate the feedback from your peer reviews and instructor in your Final Draft of Major Assignment 2. You will include a cover letter that addresses each of their recommendations and how you integrated them as Appendix II. If you have reasons for not integrating the comments, please provide a thorough and persuasive explanation why.