This past week’s Virtual Cinema course at Dartmouth College proved that machinima works can go far beyond the tried and true. A mere handful of students explored lost love, gaming culture, poet-zombie attacks, and perhaps most importantly, the pensive and strange qualities of virtual life. Check out their playlist, and celebrate with Tilt.
device design by Ed Flanagan
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Barber, Bonnie. “A Humanist Approach to Game Design.” Dartmouth Now, June 5, 2010
In 18 minutes, TEDx tackles issues, By Linday Brewer Published on Monday, April 19, 2010
Profs. discuss ‘digital humanities’, By Annie Jones Published on Monday, May 17 2010
“Games provide insight into society, culture, Flanagan says” By Conor Galligan Published on Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Digital Humanities professor to open new game lab at College, By Marielle Battistoni Published on Thursday, September 25, 2008
Pearce gives lecture on video games, Published on Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Prof. discusses text-based games, By Robert Szypko Published on Thursday, February 12, 2009
‘Digital humanities’ merges art, technology, philosophy, By Brittany Coombs Published on Wednesday, February 18, 2009
College professor designs online video game ‘Layoff’, By Erin Jaeger Published on Tuesday, March 31, 2009
[Eric] Zimmerman discusses future of game design, By Jamila Ma Published on Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Mobile exhibit space to arrive on campus, By Alex Duckles Published on Wednesday, July 1, 2009
National / International:
Sullivan, Adam. “Can Videogames Help Kids?” WCAX.com (Print and Video) 29 September 2009
Gondek, Chris. “Mary Flanagan Talks Radical Game Design.” MIT Podcast, October 2009
Abbott, Michael. “Interview with Mary Flanagan.” Brainy Gamer Podcast – Episode 23. 6 May 2009.
Beja, Marc. “Labeling Library Archives Is a Game at Dartmouth College.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. August 25, 2009
All Business. “Dartmouth Humanities Professor Awarded Grant to Design Internet Game that will Assist Libraries with Archival Data Tagging.” Via States News Service, Thursday, September 3 2009;
Elder, Robert K. “Save money, not your conscience: Online video game personalizes layoffs, poses difficult choices about cutting positions.” The Chicago Tribune, 23 March 2009
Smith, Lauren. “Dartmouth professor’s “Layoff” depicts today’s recession in video game format.” College News, 19 March 2009.
Abrams, Stephanie. “‘Layoff’ Game Gives Players Points For Job Cuts“ CBS2, 22 March 2009
Kneale, Klaus. “The Weekly Layoff Report: This Is Not A Game.” Forbes, 20 March 2009
Molina, Brad. “Play Layoff the Game!” USA Today, 18 March 2009
Wired Campus, Chronicle of Higher Education, 18 March 2009
McWhertor, Michael. “Layoffs the Videogame is Depressing Fun.” Kotaku, 16 March 2009
Heibel, S. “Layoff Game: Biting Satire Permeates Challenging Online Play,” Hispanic Business 19 March, 2009
Takahashi, Dean. “Layoff game meant as salve for corporate doublespeak,” Venture Beat March 17 2009
Perman, C. “Layoffs The Videogame-There’s Got To Be A Pony In Here Somewhere,” cNBC 20 March 2009.
Boomer, Kim. “Be the Boss: Play the Layoff Game,” WQAD, 20 March, 2009.
Downs, Martin. “Video Games Designed for Better World.” A1, 10 September 2008. Valley News, NH
Downs, Martin. “”Social Activist’ with a Joystick.” 11 September 2008. Concord Monitor, NH
Brooks, David. “New endowed humanities professor at Dartmouth has got game.” 9 September 2008, Nashua Telegraph, NH
Try our online version of the Grow-A-Game© cards!
We are currently waiting for the arrival of our new editions of Grow-A-Game, so our ordering area is offline for the moment until they are in.
The 2010 Summer courses at Dartmouth have begun: Virtual Cinema, which is an exploration of Machinima practices as well as a hands-on studio course in game-related movie making, and Games and Playculture, a theory seminar on play.
Visitors to the classes include designer and theorist Celia Pearce, designer Tracy Fullerton, machinima maker Claus-Dieter Schulz, senior level designer Zach Wilson, screenwriter Lisa Dethridge, and Hugh Hancock of Strange Company (machinima). A very exciting term in a very beautiful New Hampshire/Vermont summer (rainbow spotted today! reminding me of the students’ beloved game…)
A recent article highlights Dartmouth College’s rather unusual approach to game design by basing the process in humanistic thinking. Influenced by Professor Mary Flanagan’s commitment to social change design and human values through the Values at Play project, the students enrolled in Dartmouth’s games courses bring their eclectic backgrounds to the design process to make unique games. Currently in the works at the lab: games for pressing healthcare issues, a game on sustainability and biodiversity, metadata games, and research with the Games for Learning Institute, focusing on the links between industry designers’ everyday knowledge and popular learning theories.
Dr. Doris Rusch visited Dartmouth today, and offered a compelling discussion of the purposeful use of games. She looked at the ways in which the human condition is expressed through other media such as language, literature, and film, and went on to argue for the value of thinking about games in their use of metaphor. Discussion several important recent design trend, Rusch skillfully moved between the theoretical and the practical, making lofty goals ideas concrete in designed form. This was followed by a game night at Tiltfactor, hosted with the help of the Jewel of India.
in the Tiltfactor laboratory
Rusch’s game, Akrasia, was featured, as was a performative achievement in DDR by our own E. McNeill. Finally, a seemingly neverending Settlers of Catan rounded out the evening, with an unsettling trend of rolling 9s and an overpopulation of sheep and monumental robot-building among teams.
News about game development, from USC’s great games program to the island of Malta! Tracy Fullerton’s game innovation lab is featured in the New York Times. Tiltfactor is happy to be honored with not only her work on various advisory boards, but also her insiprational pedagogy and loyal, generous students who also contribute to Tiltfactor and to Dartmouth’s games courses.
The University of Malta is part of an initiative to develop a games industry in the country.