Class sessions, consisting of joint lecture and exercise sessions, will take place on Wednesdays. Students are expected to attend and participate in class. Alongside work on the mandatory assignments and the final production, students will be assigned readings and games to play every week. It is expected that readings and games will be completed outside of class sessions each week, as summaries and discussions of both will form a mainstay of every class. In addition, 20 minutes from each class session will be given to one game team to present an analysis of up to 2 games relating to their own game. Approximately every 2 weeks, each game team will be expected to meet with a TA to update their progress on their games. These meetings are to be organised with the TAs. Approximately every 3 weeks, there will be either an optional reading group or game playing group session run by the TAs. Dates for the reading/playing sessions will be posted on the blog.
During this course students will be required to hand in mandatory assignments (e.g. attendance, papers, exercises, presentations, productions), that need to be completed/approved before being eligible to register for the examination and e.g. being allowed to submit written work for examination. Failure to hand in these mandatory assignments on time will mean that the registration for examination is annulled. These mandatory assignments are: * A game concept handed in to the teacher (group hand-in): Feb 15th * An early digital prototype and a short associated report handed in to the teacher (group hand-in): April 25th. Both assignments will be assessed on a approved/not approved basis but will not form a part of the final grade. At the end of semester, students must submit for the examination: * The final game (group hand-in) * A report on reflections on the process and on the theory (individual hand-in) The final game and report must be handed in to the Examination Office by the relevant date and time, and both will contribute towards the final grade. The final grade will be calculated as follows: - 50% of the grade allocated for the game (group hand-in) modified by a group participation grade - 50% of the grade allocated for the report (individual hand-in) Each grading element will be evaluated with a 7-point marking scale. The final grade will be a weighted average (according to ministerial order and grading scale §13 - Ministerial order of grading scale and other forms of Assessment of University Education (grading scale order)). The final game will be graded according to the following criteria: - It must be a progression of the game concept presented in the initial mandatory assignment. - It must be a later iteration of, or related to the early digital prototype presented as the second mandatory assignment. - It must reflect understanding of the design theory and research underlying other related persuasive/serious games. - It must reflect domain knowledge and/or user research. - Its degree of innovation in terms of persuasive expression and/or successfully conveying intended information. - Its degree of completion, in terms of mechanics, aesthetics, and kinesthetics. - Whether it is testable. - Its degree of success in terms of persuasive expression and/or successfully conveying intended information. In the final report, students will be expected to: - Demonstrate a solid knowledge of the literature and critically engage with it. - Reflect on and position the literature alongside learning experiences gained throughout the course. - Reflect on their experiences of designing, developing, and testing the prototypes. - Demonstrate an ability to design persuasive and serious games - Articulate persuasive and serious game design concepts