Pervasive and Environmental Game Design

Workshop

Jeff Watson@remotedevice

http://remotedevice.netUSC Game Innovation Lab / OCAD University

October 19th, 2012

Stirring $#!* Up With Games!

Jeff Watson@remotedevice

http://remotedevice.netUSC Game Innovation Lab / OCAD University

October 19th, 2012

Workshop Objective

In less than 30 minutes, make a game that will transform the conference environment, using only

what is in this room…

Context: Transforming Urban Environments

Georges-Eugène HaussmannUrban Planner

Boulevards of Paris, “Haussmannization”

1860s, 1870s

L’embellissement strategique.

Situationist InternationalRevolutionary Group

Psychogeography, the construction of “Situations”

Guy Debord, ConstantNieuwenhuys, Rauol Vaneigem, et al.

c. 1957 - 1972

“[Only] play can deconsecrate, open up the possibilities of total

freedom . . . the freedom, for example, to turn Chartres Cathedral

into a fun-fair, into a labyrinth, into a

shooting-range, into a dream landscape.”

Raoul Vaneigem, quoted in Plant, The Most Radical

Gesture, 129.

Theory of the DériveGuy Debord, 1958.

Drift Deck: contemporary dérive practice.Near Future Laboratory, 2010.

Dramaturgy of the LocalAction, not SimulationThe Social is the MediumOptimize for Agency

Environmental Game Design: Four Principles

Dramaturgy of the Local

The impact of an environmental game is directly proportional to the degree to which the game is sensitive to local conditions. The mandates and design strategies underlying any environmental game must thus be derived from a careful analysis of the target environment. While environmental games may or may not be “high tech,” they must always be “high touch.”

Erving GoffmanSociologist

Dramaturgical Analysis

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959)

Action, Not Simulation

Action, not simulation: Environmental games are not only calls to action. Rather, they are substantially the action itself, articulated through the procedures of play as they are manifested in the lived environment.

Reality Ends Here (2011-present)Impact mandates: collaboration, peer discovery, media experimentation

Game actions: collaboration, peer discovery, media experimentation

Macon Money (2010)Impact mandates: build personal connections, support local business

Game actions: build personal connections, support local business

Optimize for Agency

Leverage motivation, optimize for agency: Environmental games activate player agency and create new social and learning motivations by providing channels for the expression of existing motivations.

All of us have desires, all at least who have not become so pathological that they arecompletely apathetic. These desires are the ultimate moving springs of action.

John DeweyExperience & Education

The Social is the Medium

Learning, community-building, and environmental transformation are inherently social operations. The primary “medium” of the environmental game is thus the network of social relations, both potential and real, that exists among its players. In many contemporary environments, this network exists in both physical and digital spaces.

Workshop Objective

In less than 30 minutes, make a game that will transform the conference environment, using only

what is in this room…

• Analyze the space – what’s working, what isn’t, what’s possible, what’s not.• Identify mandate – what do you want to happen that isn’t happening

already/enough?• Identify core action of game – focus on action, not simulation. Does the play of your

game directly bring about the kinds of things you want to make happen? Or does it just call for those things?

• Develop a playable prototype – use what’s available what can be done, rather than what might be done “if” or “when.”

• Optimize for agency – how does your game leverage your players’ existing motivations?

• The social is the medium – all lived environments are social environments. How does your game impact and spread through the social lives of your players?

Methodology

Thank you!

Jeff Watson@remotedeviceUSC Game Innovation Lab / OCAD University