Game design legend Eric Zimmerman is up from NYC, and will host an open lecture this Thursday at 6:30 pm on the 10 principles of game design. This looks like it’s going to be an awesome talk, so plan to be there.
Event Details:
When: Thursday, February 28th, 6:30 – 8:30pm
Where: Execution Labs, 3863 St-Laurent, #206 (just next to Schwartz’s)
What: Eric Zimmerman on Game Design
Fee: None. This is an open event.
Presentation:
“BEING A GAME DESIGNER: 10 principles for a thoughtful practice”
Most game design talks focus on how to make a better product – a more successful game. This session frames what game designers do in a different way. I want to ask the question: What does it mean to be a game designer?
Apart from the problems and challenges of designing particular games, what are the attitudes and approaches that cut across all kinds of games that can connect us more deeply to what we do on a daily basis? For example, practitioners of Parkour see it not just as a series of techniques for jumping over walls, but as an attitude that can permeate every moment of someone’s life. Could we take a similar approach to game design? Is it possible to think about game design as a way or mode of being?
The talk is structured as a series of “principles.” The principles help describe games as a cultural form, and they also describe game design as a creative practice. The principles are meant to anchor a set of ideas around what being a game designer can mean. Each principle will be presented with examples from my own experience as a designer, player, and teacher.
Who:
Eric Zimmerman is a game designer, entrepreneur, artist, author, and academic who has been working in the game industry for nearly 20 years. He helped invent indie, experimental, and casual games, and was the founder of Gamelab (a game development company based in New York City that created dozens of games, including the casual blockbuster hit Diner Dash) and co-author of Rules of Play with Katie Salen.