A 'system' is defined loosely as a group of interrelated or interdependent parts. While many systems are autonomous, others require input from someone or something in order for the system to function. One common form of interactive systems is a game. What elements comprise a game system, and what interactions are required for these systems to function successfully?

Systems of Play will investigate games as interactive systems by analyzing existing games and by building new ones. Students will learn and implement object- oriented programming techniques in the rapid development of game prototypes.

Prerequisites: Flashback/Design and Development with Flash, Intro to Computational Media, or equivalent programming knowledge, preferably in ActionScript or Processing/Java.

Contact
Eric Socolofsky
email: eric at transmote dot com
url: http://transmote.com/classes/itp/systemsofplay/
office hours: 1 hour after class, by email, or by appointment

Students

Arly Ross	Armin Cooper	Myra Einstein	Huey-Tang (Roger) Tsai
Fazreen Kuhiri	Ji-Sun Lee	Yun-Tzu Lee	Shin-Yi Huang
Jury Hahn	Kat Melen	Leah Gilliam	Sinan Ascioglu
Sam (Ming-Hsun) Lee	Josh (Shiu-Feng) Cheng

Assignments
There are generally both reading assignments and development assignments for every class. The reading assignments are designed to give students a more holistic understanding of small-scale ("casual") game design and programming; the development assignments require application of both the technical and theoretical topics presented in class. For all development assignments, please post your assignments by 6pm Monday every week. This will give me enough time to look over your work and address your issues and difficulties in class on Tuesday.

The course will take students through the development of three rapid game prototypes, followed by the development of a final game design and development project. The prototype assignments are intended to give students exposure to the iterative process of game development -- quickly developing a loose, skeletal game concept, and bringing it to a level of playability at which more design decisions can be considered, leading to further development, then further design, etc. The final project will build on the prototype development, and will be taken to a higher level of completion than the prototypes.

Course Grading
Note that these numbers are loose guidelines as to the worth of each item. Grades are determined much more subjectively, taking into consideration each student's skill level, effort, and participation.

Final Project	35%
Prototypes	15% each
Other assignments	10%
Class Participation	10%

Links
The web is full of great casual games, available for free and for pay. There are also many tutorial sites that discuss various game design and programming topics. Below is a selection of these you might find entertaining and/or useful.

Resources
- Rules of Play, Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, MIT Press.
This is the main text we'll use for discussions of game design theory, and is required for the class.

- Essential ActionScript 2.0, Colin Moock, O'Reilly.
This is the main text we'll use for learning object-oriented programming and ActionScript 2.0 syntax, and is also required for the class. Note that it can also be read online via O'Reilly Safari.
- Gamasutra.com is the leading online publication of game design, programming, and industry articles. Their sister print publication, Game Developer Magazine, is always a good read.
- Jay is Games is a casual games review site. A nice counterpoint to larger review sites (a la ign.com) that focus on larger productions.
- Metanet Software has made a couple of top-notch tutorials on the topic of collision detection and resolution. Don't forget to check out the smooth platformer action they used these topics to create, called simply 'N'.
- The aptly-named site Amit's Game Programming Information is a wealth of well-written articles that explain both the theory and implementation of various game programming topics.
- GameDev.net has a large list of game programming articles, ranging from intermediate and useful to uber-advanced and totally illegible.
- Ultrashock.com has some great ActionScript forums, from super basic to pretty advanced.

Games
- Kongregate.com is a social network centered around the exchange of independent casual games, all made in Flash. Requires a free membership to join.
- The Great Games Experiment is very similar to Kongregate.com. Also requires a free membership.
- orisinal.com is a collection of simple, beautifully-rendered games.
- GameLab, my current employer, is a top-notch casual game developer. Um, no, they didn't pay me (extra) to say that.
- shockwave.com, playfirst.com, popcap.com, and iwin.com are commercial (not free) game sites, with a ton of casual gaming content.