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A small piece on Tetris for the forthcoming book Space Time Play: Architecture, Urbanism, and Computer Games (eds.) Monika Annen, Friedrich von Borries, Steffen P. Walz, Matthias Böttger, Brinkmann Ulrich (Birkhäuser Publishing Basel, Berlin, Boston, autumn 2007). Download mini-essay
"Gaming as a Technique of Analysis" was written in 1954 by two researchers at the Rand Corporation, A.M. Mood and R.D. Specht. Presented as part of a symposium on the use and value of war game methods the paper argues for gaming as a strategy for discovering optimal choice within a system of complex possible outcomes. I was asked to write an short introduction to the piece for a forthcoming volume out of North Carolina State. Please do not cite or reproduce without written permission. Download the introduction and paper here.
This essay was part of a conference on games and architecture in Delft last March. The piece focuses specifically on the notion of conflict and games as contested spaces, within a grounding context of game technology. I am posting it here as the conference proceedings are not widely available, although look for them if you can as they include a number of terrific essays. (Game Set and Match II. On Computer Games, Advanced Geometries and Digital Technologies. Kas Oosterhuis and Lukas Feireiss (ed.) Episode Publishers, March 2006.) Download the essay here
From the side-scrolling mania of early platformers like Defender and Super Mario Brothers, to John Carmack’s invention of 3D first-person perspective and the birth of a PC game called Doom, game design and technological innovation have long gone hand in hand. But what are the particular technologies used by designers to expand and enrich the experience of gaming? More specifically, how have the limits of technology been harnessed by designers to transform the challenge of constraint into the play of possibility?
This essay was published last year as part of Macromedia's Think Tank series, edited by Alice Twemlow and David Womack. I have been doing a lot of recent writing around games and technology and thought this essay was worth revisiting. Download file
This abbreviated glossary was written in support of GameStar Mechanic, a game designed to teach kids how to design games, being produced by Gamelab through a grant from the MacArthur Foundation. The glossary has been tailored to the specific framework of that project but can be used by anyone teaching courses in game design. Ideas for additional entries are welcomed. Download file