Thursday, July 06, 2006

Purpose of this Blog

There are precious few resources on the Web for professional game designers. There are even fewer resources for students who want to become game designers some day. There are no resources at all, as far as I could tell, for those who wish to teach game design in a classroom. So, I'm creating one.

This blog will live at the convergence of game design, instructional design and academia. I am writing for you if you are a:
  • Game industry professional who is curious about what it would be like to teach
  • Game design student who wants to see what goes on behind the scenes of your classes
  • Teacher or Professor who is teaching game design, or is curious about how to apply game design skills to improve your classee in an entirely different field

As long as I'm talking about what this blog is, I should also mention what it isn't:

It is not about game studies. Game studies is a wonderful field dedicated to studying the relationship between games and culture, which I am not a part of. I deal with game design: the art and science of making games that are fun.

It is not about getting a job in the game industry. There are already many great sites that talk about "breaking in". I'm a teacher, not an agent.

And for anyone taking my courses, it is not about sucking up for a better grade. :-)

If you're still interested, sit back and make yourself at home. Maybe we can learn something together.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ian's an amazing teacher! I'm still collecting business cards for my horse race deck. :)

3DElizabeth said...

Hello Ian, I just stumbled across your blog today as I was reviewing the XOGamejam pages. I've been reading different articles you've written and will be following your blog. I'm not a teacher by trade but I love games and I am teaching 3D max for the F.I.R.S.T. Autodesk Animation Competition, to high school students in Charleston SC.
I'm going to catch up on your other entries I just wanted to say thank you for putting this information together.