Subject Librarian
Lucinda M. Hall
Contact:
Evans Map Room, Baker-Berry Library
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 646-0962
Website Skype Contact: d1128r8@kiewit.dartmouth.edu
SURVEY ABOUT THESE COURSE GUIDES
Course description
This course explores how innovative games are created and what elements go into the design of a good play experience. Games, be they console, networked, mobile, board, or pervasive, provide a versatile platform for design thinking and media practice. During the course, students create a host of game prototypes that address social issues. Students study the process of making games while developing actual game ideas, prototyping, play-testing, and documenting original, innovative game plans in a design journal.
[Source: ORC/Catalog, 05/31/2022] Dist:TAS
In the Library's collections
The call number ranges vary for video and computer game design. One area is the Baker-Berry Cook Collection on Berry Level 3. The call number range is QA 76.575 through QA 76.76. Another section is GV 1469.15 through GV 1469.7 located on Baker Stack Annex A.
You can use one of these subject headings to start your research in the library's online catalog:
Introductory reading(s)
The art of game design by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781138632059Publication Date: 3rd ed.Presents sets of questions, or different lenses, for viewing a game's design. This book describes the deepest and most fundamental principles of game design, demonstrating how tactics used in board, card, and athletic games also work in video games. It provides practical instruction on creating world-class games that will be played again and again. ...
Clockwork game design by Call Number: Baker-Berry Cook QA 76.76 .C672 B859 2015ISBN: 9781138798731Clockwork Game Design is the most functional and directly applicable theory for game design. It details the clockwork game design pattern, which focuses on building around fundamental functionality. You can then use this understanding to prescribe a system for building and refining your rulesets. A game can achieve clarity of purpose by starting with a strong core, then removing elements that conflict with that core while adding elements that support it. ...
The game narrative toolbox by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781317661627Learn how to create compelling game story lines. Four experienced narrative designers from different genres of game development have banded together to create this all-inclusive guide on what it's like to work as a writer and narrative designer in the videogame industry.
On the way to fun: an emotion-based approach to successful game design by Call Number: Baker-Berry Cook QA 76.76 .C672 D54 2010ISBN: 9781568815824How can video games be fun and immerse players in fantastic worlds where anything seems possible? How can they be so engaging to have become the main entertainment product for children and adults alike? In On the Way to Fun, the author proposes a possible answer to these questions by going back to the roots of gaming and showing how early games, as well as modern indie productions, captivated generations of players even without the need for fancy graphics and effects but by relying on basic emotions and instincts instead. This book will be most beneficial to aspiring and beginning game designers and to anyone who wants a better understanding of human nature and how it relates to the design process of immersive video game experiences.
Theory of fun for game design by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781449363215Publication Date: 2nd ed.Now in full color, the 10th anniversary edition of this classic book takes you deep into the influences that underlie modern video games, and examines the elements they share with traditional games such as checkers.
Values at play in digital games by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780262027663All games express and embody human values, providing a compelling arena in which we play out beliefs and ideas. "Big ideas" such as justice, equity, honesty, and cooperation -- as well as other kinds of ideas, including violence, exploitation, and greed -- may emerge in games whether designers intend them or not.
Selected book title(s)
Augmented learning: research and design of mobile educational games by Call Number: Baker-Berry LB 1029 .G3 K585 2008ISBN: 9780262113151An overview of mobile learning games that argues for the educational advantages of handheld games over their big-screen counterparts. New technology has brought with it new tools for learning, and research has shown that the educational potential of video games resonates with scholars, teachers, and students alike. In Augmented Learning, Eric Klopfer describes the largely untapped potential of mobile learning games--games played on such handheld devices as cell phones, Game Boys, and Sony PSPs--to make a substantial impact on learning. ...
Chance, strategy, and choice: an introduction to the mathematics of games and elections by Call Number: Baker-Berry Cook QA 269 .S587 2015ISBN: 9781107084520Games and elections are fundamental activities in society with applications in economics, political science, and sociology. These topics offer familiar, current, and lively subjects for a course in mathematics.
Chris Crawford on interactive storytelling by Call Number: Baker-Berry Cook GV 1469.17 .S86 C73 2005ISBN: 9780321278906As a game designer or media storyteller, you know that the story is everything. However, figuring out how to tell it interactively - can be challenging. This work provides examples of contemporary games that rely on different technologies - and learn the storytelling lessons to be garnered from each of the past methodologies.
The game design reader: a Rules of play anthology by Call Number: Baker-Berry Cook QA 76.76 .C672 G357 2006ISBN: 9780262195362Classic and cutting-edge writings on games, spanning nearly 50 years of game analysis and criticism, by game designers, game journalists, game fans, folklorists, sociologists, and media theorists.The Game Design Reader is a one-of-a-kind collection on game design and criticism, from classic scholarly essays to cutting-edge case studies. ...
Physics for game developers by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781449392512Publication Date: 2nd ed.If you want to enrich your game's experience with physics-based realism, the expanded edition of this classic book details physics principles applicable to game development. You'll learn about collisions, explosions, sound, projectiles, and other effects used in games on Wii, PlayStation, Xbox, smartphones, and tablets. You'll also get a handle on how to take advantage of various sensors such as accelerometers and optical tracking devices. ...
Other library resource(s)
Feminist and queer game studies from Oxford Bibliographies Online - Communication by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199756841To date, there are no general overviews of feminist and queer game studies, though there are several core texts, edited collections, and special journal issues. Much of feminist game studies might more rightly be called women’s game studies, as the feminist goals of the work were largely focused on ethnographic and qualitative scholarship on women and girls who play and make games. Research on masculinity in games comprises a much smaller subcategory of research. ...
Video and computer games from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286It almost goes without saying that video games have made a profound impact across culture and society. According to the Electronic Software Association, 67 percent of households within the United States play video and/or computer games. The average video game player is age thirty-four and has been playing games for well over a decade. Gamer demographics have also shifted significantly, as women and girls constitute 40 percent of gamers while, in 2010, 26 percent of gamers are over the age of fifty. ...- Video games and communication from Oxford Bibliographies Online - Communication by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199756841Video games (or computer games or digital games) are a form of media that communicates through a combination of methods, including text, visuals, audio, and—perhaps most importantly—rules. As an industry (or set of industries), games represent one of the most pervasive and successful media in the world. Despite that, research on games is still fairly young, and it is often dispersed across disciplines, such as computer science, rhetoric, literature, and leisure studies. This article focuses on social scientific research on games conducted primarily in the field of (mass) communication. ...
Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)
Articles and other writings about games and game theory can be found in many publications. Our collection includes several titles which looks exclusively at Games. You can use Film & Television Literature Index to find articles or use the search box at the top of the page.
- IEEE transactions on games byCall Number: Electronic journalThe IEEE Transactions on Games publishes original high-quality articles covering scientific, technical, and engineering aspects of games.
International journal of computer games technologyCall Number: Electronic journalThis journal publishes original research and review articles on both the research and development aspects of games technology covering the whole range of entertainment computing and interactive digital media.
Film & television literature indexCall Number: Electronic resourceThis index covers over 300 journal and magazine titles for film and television reviews, scholarly and critical analysis of cinema and television, and articles of popular interest about film and television. About half the journals and magazines are film periodicals and the other half cover film and television with some regularity. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
Web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Internet resource(s)
- International Center for the History of Electronic GamesThe International Center for the History of Electronic Games® (ICHEG) at The Strong collects, studies, and interprets video games, other electronic games, and related materials and the ways in which electronic games are changing how people play, learn, and connect with each other, including across boundaries of culture and geography.
- Tiltfactor LaboratoryThe Tiltfactor Laboratory is the first academic center to focus on “critical play.” Their mission is to research and develop software and playful art that creates rewarding, compelling, and socially-responsible interactions, with a focus on inventive game design for social change.
- Values at PlayValues at Play™ investigates how designers can be more intentional about the ways in which they integrate human values into their game-based systems.
Citing and Tracking Your Bibliographic References
Use this guide to help you learn how to correctly cite and keep track of the references you find for your research.
Keeping up with the Gaming literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature in Gaming research? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.
You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.