81579 - Digital Media Content Production (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The lab aims to give a set of practical tools to design a digital ludic product. During this five week course many different types of design methods will be described and tested through several case histories and some personal experiences from participants.

Students will learn how to identify and distinguish different key factors and dynamics to obtain a good design know-how, engaging all the various issues that emerge during a creative design process. They will be able to actively work in a team, sharing and comparing their ideas, while acknowledging and accepting strengths and weaknesses of their creative team.

Course contents

First week

• Theoretical introduction on the concept of ‘ludic’ in the contemporary mediascape and on the most important design methods: case histories and personal experiences.
• Game design and gamification: a peculiar approach to media design and to hybrid ludic products (location based games, advergames, serious games, newsgames).

Second week

• Design thinking and Human centered design: tools, methods, case histories, exercises and simulations.
• Team project: groups formation, type of product, concept, field work planning.

Third week

• Team project: presentation and discussion with the class on each group concept and field work results.
• Team project: iterative design cycles and work on gameflow / user personas / user journey map.

Fourth week

• Team project: presentation and discussion with the class on each group gameflow / user personas / user journey map.
• Team project: work on the project and production of a concept paper and a paper prototype or digital mock-up.

Fifth week

• Team project: mock-up closure, work on the pitch presentation for each project and rehearsal.
• Team project: pitch presentation.

Readings/Bibliography

Mandatory texts for both attending and not attending students:

• Mauro Salvador, In gioco e fuori gioco: il ludico nella cultura e nei media contemporanei, Mimesis 2015.
• Maresa Bertolo, Ilaria Mariani (Eds.), Game Design. Gioco e giocare tra teoria e progetto, Pearson 2014.

Suggested texts. Non attending students must choose two in addition to the mandatory texts above:

• Valerie Frissen, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul, Joost Raessens (Eds.), Playful Identities. The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures, Amsterdam University Press 2015.
• Marco Pellitteri, Mauro Salvador, Conoscere i videogiochi, Tunué 2014.
• Ian Bogost, Play Anything: The Pleasure of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secret of Games, Basic Books 2016.
• Riccardo Fassone, Cinema e videogiochi, Carocci 2017.
• Riccardo Fassone, Every Game is an Island
  Endings and Extremities in Video Games, Bloomsbury 2017.
• Anton Nijholt (Ed.), Playable Cities : The City as a Digital Playground, Springer 2017.
• Nicola Dusi, Dal cinema ai media digitali, Mimesis 2014.

Teaching methods

Lectures, discussions, creative team work.

Assessment methods

For students who attended classes, the final evaluation will be based on:

• final project quality;
• oral exam on topics discussed during class and mandatory texts.

For students who did not attend classes, the final evaluation will be an oral exam on the mandatory texts plus two suggested text of their choice.

If reading in Italian is too difficult, it is possible to ask for an alternative bibliography in English.

To take the exam, it is mandatory to register on time. Students who are not registered, or who have not read the needed texts mentioned above, will not be admitted.

 

Teaching tools

Slides, videos, web.

Office hours

See the website of Mauro Salvador