Teaching About Games

To my knowledge I was the first person in the NC Community College system to teach game design (Fall '04 at CCCC, a year before CPCC and Wake began). I am currently writing a book or books about game design. My teaching resume is here.

See my blog about teaching game design.

Origins Game Convention (Columbus OH) 2008

"Getting Started in the Industry" Powerpoint slides. To be revised soon.

MP3 (podcast) of this talk (32Mbps, 24.5MB). The questions and comments from the audience are likely inaudible. Recorded with a Sansa E250 MP3 player. As the 128Mbps version of this is nearly 100MB, I think I'll stick with the 32Mbps to conserve bandwidth.

"How to Design Games" Powerpoint slides. To be revised soon.

MP3 (podcast) of this talk (32Mbps, 20MB). The questions and comments from the audience are likely inaudible. Recorded with a Sansa E250 MP3 player. My recorder unaccountably stopped several minutes before *I* stopped (the 18 questions were the last thing before question time). Sorry.

Breaking into the non-electronic game industry. PDF format. One page summary of what you need to do and think.

I'm including here Ian Schreiber's talk "Game Design for Teachers". Ian is a brilliant young man who has come from the video game industry into teaching. Unlike most teachers, he researches the underpinnings of teaching and of games, and talks about some of this here. His blog about teaching game design is at http://teachingdesign.blogspot.com/.

This is available for download in two formats: 128 Mbps (44 MB in size) 32 Mbps (11 MB in size)

Slides for Ian's talk (Powerpoint). Supplementary information (brief Word document).

North Carolina Computer Instructor's Association Feb '08 (Albemarle)

"The Iterative and Incremental nature of game design" Powerpoint slides

Origins Game Convention (Columbus OH) 2007

"Getting Started in Game Design" Powerpoint slides.

"The Process of Designing a Game" Powerpoint slides.

Podcast (26 MB). This is a recording (via MP3 player) of a talk at Origins 2007 "Getting Started in Game Design". Matt Forbeck, one of the Guests of Honor, volunteered a few days before the talk to participate, but he was further from the recorder. (He had to leave after the first hour.) The recording method limited the quality. Moreover, questions from the audience are not audible, though my answers are. A set of slides that I used (though I didn't pass out, too much expense!) is available above.

Podcast (23 MB). This is a recording (via MP3 player) of my talk at Origins 2007 "The Process of Designing a Game". The recording method limited the quality. Also, I missed the first couple minutes before I remember to turn on the recorder! Finally, questions from the audience are not audible, though my answers are. A set of slides that I used (though I didn't pass out, too much expense!) is available above. I also used a diagram of the process that is available at http://pulsiphergames.com/gamedesign/GameCreationProcess.htm.

North Carolina Computer Instructor's Association March '07 (Morehead City)

Student Retention Powerpoint slides.

Origins Game Convention 2006

"How to Design Games" Powerpoint slides.

North Carolina Computer Instructor's Association March '06 (Winston Salem)

"How to Design Games" Powerpoint is here. If I can find a publisher, I intend to write a book along the same lines, but specifically aimed at novice designers (whether of boardgames or video games).

Digital Game Expo, late June '05

My topic was "Teaching Game Design in Community Colleges," June 24 at 4:15. I was also on the discussion panel late Saturday afternoon (25th). http://dgxpo.com

Slides for my talk are here. (Powerpoint: when printing, be sure to choose "Black and White" to avoid a black background.)

See below for more information.

North Carolina Computer Instructor's Association March '05

Download Dr. P's NCCIA slides. (Powerpoint: when printing, be sure to choose "Black and White" to avoid a black background.)

Course Outline (now out of date) for "Intro to Gaming" (Word document)

Web sites: Tom Sloper, Chris Crawford. Ernest Adams

Prensky "Digital Immigrants" article (PDF): part 1, part 2

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"Always do right--this will gratify some and astonish the rest." Mark Twain

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery

"A teacher is never a giver of truth - he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst." (Martial Arts quote)