Playful Thinking

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• identify, select and draw upon a wide range of visual, printed and electronic sources.
• Demonstrate that you can articulate and communicate in a professional manner appropriate to the chosen topic.
• demonstrate organisational skills;

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• ways of communicating an informed and critical understanding of your work in the context of the your study.
• the relevance of key discipline-specific theoretical and contextual themes to your work;

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• recognise useful links between contextual data.
• formulate and develop an idea and broadly research its context;

Through a series of discussions students will select one or two areas of focus to write critically about games design in its current context. The syllabus will dynamically represent current concerns and passions of the time.

The assignments will be submitted via turn-it-in. The journalist summary will be considered for inclusion in the Games Design & Art final year publication, to be printed and online. This publication and website will be used to showcase the thinking behind your own design practice or contextual consideration of games in an innovative and informative manner outside of Winchester School of Art.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

• lectures;
• seminars.

Learning activities include:

• discussion;
• Essay and Journalism Writing;
• critical reflection connecting theory and practice;
• independent research and reflection;
• industry 1-1 discussions;
• Academic Skills Hub;
• Careers Service.

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

Gamasutra.

Mobile Media & Communication.

GAME.

UAL Spark Journal.

Digital Culture & Society.

New media & Society.

Games and Culture Journal.

Lynda.com (via Blackboard).

Guardian Games.

Games Criticism.

Convergence.

DiGRA (Digital Games Research Association).

Blackboard.

Panopto Recordings (via Blackboard).

Academic Skills Hub.

Textbooks

Sharp, J. (2015). Works of Game. MIT Press.

Costikyan, G. (2013). Uncertainty in Games. MIT Press.

Isbister, K. (2016). How Games Move Us. MIT Press.

Juul, J. (2013). The Art of Failure. MIT Press.

Sicart, M. (2014). Play Matters. MIT Press.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External