truna aka j.turner

introduction |

game design and its emphasis on the user as participant influences digital media design in a wide variety of areas. the tone and parameters of this immersion design can be seen in web-based media, educational software and cinematic media.

building lost cities is a game design course and handbook aimed at an audience interested in exploiting game design in the development of digital media, for example: teachers interested in creating an educational game environment or using the materials for a school based short course in the basic parameters of game design and game design programmers and artists who are interested in the immersion theory behind games.

the course is also appropriate to use in other educational settings such as a primary situation where the potential to explore the pedagogy and principles without access to technology would usefully enable some constructivist learning in keeping with educational outcomes.

building lost cities is based on 'the lost cities' project. a course in designing immersive game environments for beginners by truna aka j.turner. the lost cities project has been running as a tertiary entry level course since 2000. in turn the lost cities project is based on workshops in the design and construction of educational constructive game environments run by the authoress since 1997

the course covers the basic steps in game environment design. character design, object and puzzle design. it assumes no specialist design software but invites exploitation of whatever might be available in the form of generic graphic editors and environment platforms.

indeed, the course could easily be undertaken using paper, pens, scissors and paste.

the course takes its underlying curriculum themes and ideology from the curriculum recommendations made by the international game developers association [IGDA] and the pedagogical principles embedded in the integration of technology in the formal educational setting:

this is about games AS education

the sections are designed to be explored in order or as stand alone learning opportunities. each section takes a game / immersion design element and offers a design activity. these could be used to build up the design experience necessary to create an immersive environment project or as instances of immersion design practice.

embedded in each design activity is a learning opportunity, to be exploited as appropriate to the teaching situation.

the original lost cities project was run using a MOO [MUD Object Oriented] and the encore graphic interface designed by jan van holmevik. this environment enabled the designers to experiment with both text and mixed media

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orientation ||

interactivity and action |

the future of interactivity is something you DO rather than something you are GIVEN....

digital media design in a wide variety of fields uses the term interactive to indicate the presence of a user in the design decisions.

this interactive presence is a required element for the design to work. thus while the presence of an audience is a necessity for a film or a book or an off air tv broadcast other than reality shows [and even here we are sceptical], the media will be there, run, display without any active participation from the audience beyond the basic initiation of the media event, for example reading, watching ..]

interactivity involves the user in some further action for the media event to continue. this might be as minimal as clicking on a link in hypertext environments in order to make a choice, watch a movie clip or start a search.

interactivity is not a single applicable parameter that is inherent in digital media. interactivity is a design decision dependent on the form of digital media under construction. the form dictates the variety of interaction:

basic user-oriented interaction:
this form of interaction occupies the minimal pole of the interaction spectrum. it is generally aligned with purpose or task.

yahoo's search portal demonstrates typical user-oriented interaction. the design of the site is geared to the task of searching. go to yahoo, type in a key word search, access results.

many digital media designs exploit this minimal task or user-oriented interaction. the act of choosing a link in a hypertext work, be it literary or information based is a task based interaction. this form is an architecture design decision, not a reflection on content: a hypertext work like michael joyce's afternoon involves the reader in user-oriented interaction [the physical choice of links within the text] and a reader response or involvement with the text in a literary sense but this response is not an aspect of the design discussed here in the sense that the response goes on in the head of the reader rather than as an aspect of the digital design.

however, it does point to the next step on the interaction design spectrum, where the designer not only offers the basic task oriented interaction but also provides other forms of engagement in order to entice the user.

user-engagement or sticky interaction:
user-engagement or sticky interaction - so called after the concept of sticky web sites, where the user arrives in order to complete a task but stays and explores - is the shopping mall interaction form and a standard in web based media design.

user-engagement interaction occupies the widest spread in the designed interaction spectrum. a site like the abc's triple j invites the user to a range of basic action decisions such as reviewing a topic presented, finding out about concerts advertised or joining a forum and contributing input to shows. It also offers further engagement by providing competitions, on-line picture galleries and live chat forums - the message is 'stay and play'.

instances of sticky interaction are more active than others, for example a site like michael samyn and auriea harvey's sixteenpages.net and patrick smith's vectorpark:

technically, the interface is by no means perfect. It will not work without your cooperation

once the interface demands the user or player and nothing happens without their initiation of events, then you are entering the further end of the interaction spectrum:

participant interaction:

to be continued ........

further resources |

nathan shedroff : experience design

espen aarseth : cybertext

janet muray : hamlet on the holodeck

environment resources |

lambda MOO core and documents

encore home page