EDGE

Welcome! Start Here for Important Information from Your Instructors

Hello everybody and welcome to the course! 

Dear Game Design Students,  

Welcome to Transformative Game Design 2! We are delighted that you are joining us on this journey into exploring design principles involved when implementing role-playing games as vehicles for personal and social change. This course explores specific concepts and practices to consider when implementing for transformative impacts.

Course Period

This course takes place 15 January – 24 March 2024 (weeks 03 – 12). All Units will be made available closer to the first day of the course.

Required Materials

All readings, videos, podcasts, and other materials are embedded in the course. You can find links under the relevant Units and specific Assignments.

Assignment Overview

This course is taught mostly asynchronously, meaning that your course materials and the majority of your interactions will take place here online. These assignments are Discussions, Journals, Peer Reviews, and Major Assignments. Rather than attending a scheduled lecture at a regular time, you will instead complete the assignments required of you by 11:59pm on the due date they are assigned. Note that you will use your own time zone, meaning that others may be posting at different times.

Course Schedule

Assignments are due on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. 

Make sure to review the linked Schedule under Modules and plan your time accordingly.

The entire course, including Units 1-10 is contained under the heading Course Content, which is linked here.

Discussion Posts

Essential to your work each week are your discussion posts, including (and especially) your responses to your peers. As this course is distance learning, active engagement with your peers in the discussion forum is the lifeblood in this 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 Unit 1 for more information.

Video Conference Playtests

The exception is your Playtest and Feedback sessions, which you will need to schedule as a video conference with your peers based on your available schedule. Make sure that you sign up for a group based on your preferred schedule for these meetings under People –> Groups. You will need to attend a minimum of 3 synchronous meetings with your group in order to take part in the necessary activities of the course, as playtest and feedback are essential to practicing implementation. You can find more information about joining your group under “Sign up for Your Playtest and Feedback Group.”

Game Design

In addition to your discussions and journals, you will also be playing at least one (1) role-playing game with your group from the provided list of scenarios hacked to steer toward a transformative impact and/or learning objective. You will also design the scaled up implementation of your nanogame developed in previous courses in the track. You can use the nanogame you designed in Introduction to Transformative Game Design and/or Transformative Game Design 1, but the scaling is the important part for this course, i.e. creating the implementation plan for a longer, more extensive game.

Importantly, you will not playtest your scaled game in this class, but rather a game from the assigned list. 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. It is hugely important that you keep track of time in order to be respectful of the needs of your peers. Groups cannot exceed 4 members, so your game should be hacked by you to be played by 2-4 people (including yourself if appropriate).

Writing Assignments

Based on your design, playtests and feedback sessions, you will complete two Major Assignments: one (1) Scaling Implementation Plan and (1) Scaling Transformative Game Design paper.

Deliverables

• Discussion Boards Assignments: You are expected to participate in all discussion assignments in the Units, including your initial posts and posts to the required number of peers throughout the week in Ask a Question, Answer a Question format.
• Reflection Journal Assignments: You are also expected to complete Reflection Journals at the end of each Unit. Note that only your instructors and you can see your journals.
• Major Assignment 1 — Scaling Implementation Plan: You will write an implementation plan containing short sentences (1-2 sentences) for each of the required questions about the implementation details of your scaled game. This document should be 1700-2300 words, not including subject headings.
• Major Assignment 2 — Scaling Transformative Game Design: You will compose an academic article with a revised version of your implementation plan, integrating and citing concepts from the Implementation and Play Units 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.
• Peer Feedback — Implementing Transformative Game Design: You will read the first complete draft of Major Assignment 2 for each of your peers in your group and respond to the required feedback questions to help them improve their work. 

Forms of Teaching

Teaching is comprised of:

• Video lectures by the instructors, guest lecturers, and other sources
• Articles and other resources

Technical Requirements

• You will need a computer, word processor software (such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs), video conferencing software (such as Zoom) and consistent Internet access

Writing Assistance

Uppsala University offers writing support through the linked Language Workshop. We encourage you to make an appointment if you need additional writing support.

Disabilities

If you have disabilities and need accommodations, please contact the Disabilities office linked here

Plagiarism

Before taking your Orientation Quiz, please watch this important video on plagiarism, which can have serious consequences at Uppsala University: 

Contacting Your Instructors

Be sure to email Sarah at sarah.bowman@speldesign.uu.se and Josephine Baird josephine.baird@speldesign.uu.se if you are experiencing any difficulties or have questions. Please use your student email account.

Orientation Quiz

The course is divided into ten (10) Units, which you will find listed under Course Content. Please review the Schedule and familiarize yourself with the Units. Then, take your Orientation Quiz.

Click here to take your Orientation Quiz.

Design Credits

This course was designed by Sarah Lynne Bowman, Josefin Westborg, Elektra Diakolambrianou, and Josephine Baird. It has been revised with feedback from Kaya Toft Thejls.

Graphic design by Liliia Chorna.