October 2016
Game Maker’s Guild October Workshop “Asymmetrical Interaction in Co-op Board Games”
The Game Makers Guild has a special opportunity this month. Mikael Jakobsson is a Research Scientist at the MIT Game Lab who has a longstanding professional interest in co-located collaborative games, both video games and board games. While these games allow for unique and very rewarding gaming experiences, they also come with some inherent pit falls that designers need to be aware of. In the case of board games, there is a well known issue referred to as alpha gaming or quarterbacking. This issue is especially prevalent in co-op games.
Find out more »January 2017
What Playfulness Can Change: “Serious Game Co-design”
Serious games are games that have another purpose than just pure entertainment. In this class, we will test a serious game about Blockchain, and try to assess it and find guidelines for when you're developing that kind of game. After that, I will share tips with you to design your serious game! Don't hesitate to come with a topic in mind.
Find out more »Designing Games to affect Social Change
Hosted by the MIT Game Lab Facilitated by Mack Cameron of MegaGames United and Sam Liberty from the Engagement Lab at Emerson College: Due to the current events, many gamers have been asking how they can be more involved in affecting positive change in our new political climate. You can volunteer for worthy causes, you can contact your representatives, and you can design a game. Games are unique mediums for story-telling. We love them because they are immersive and because …
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Find out more »Play Labs 2017 Applications Open
Applications are open to companies founded by MIT alumni or students for the inaugural edition of PlayLabs, a new A summer accelerator for MIT students & alumni using playful technologies, taking place on MIT's campus, hosted by the MIT Game Lab, and operated by Bayview Labs.
Find out more »What Playfulness Can Change: “Playfulness and Your Project”
When you're designing something, it's important to take the user experience into account. What I'm offering you in this class is to come with a project you have in mind (a technology, a product, a service) and to empower the experience with the playful methodology. You will see how you can use the playful value proposition, and if you don't have an idea in mind, I have several interesting ones for you.
Find out more »What Playfulness Can Change: “Playfulness and Your Team”
We'll see how to use playfulness in a team. How can you empower them using playful levers? Together, we'll practice by taking examples and try to use the playful design methodology to do this. We'll choose together practical use cases you can encounter in your daily routines at work and try to make a change in order to make them more playful!
Find out more »May 2017
Superpower Discovery Session – “Stop Playing Small”
We all have Superpowers – personal, often surprising strengths that lie at the core of who we are – but we rarely live them in our everyday life, our jobs and relationships. Many people don’t know what their Superpowers actually are. They are still hidden and have yet to be discovered. In our workshops, we work with unconventional methods from game design and creative sectors to get to the bottom of everyone’s Superpowers.
Find out more »January 2019
IAP 2019: Board Games and Counter Colonialism in the Americas
IAP Class, limited enrollment: What messages and ideologies are embedded in the games we play, why does it matter, and how can we do better? In this two day workshop, we will look at contemporary board games with colonialist themes set in the Americas. We will discuss and play the games using a critical postcolonial lens in order to see how we can understand the function of these cultural artifacts in a greater political context. We will look at problematic issues which are prevalent in current commercial games, but we will also look at examples of counter-colonialist games.
Find out more »January 2020
IAP 2020: Playing Counter-Colonialism in the Americas
Independent Activities Period 2020 Enrollment: 16 participants: Advance sign-up required Participants can sign up for either, or both, days. Sign-up by 01/17 Location: 9-255 City Arena Play is used as a way to fortify the status of those who control the play or are its heroes. The Western colonial mindset still permeates games and gaming culture. The MIT Game Lab and MIT COLAB works to challenge these ideas and create alternative narratives. In this two-day workshop, we will meet artists and academics …
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Find out more »September 2020
Break this Code: “Tmb’a uism i xchhtm qv iv pwcz!”
Participants will leave this session with a puzzle of their own design to stump their friends! We will learn about different kinds of puzzles, how puzzle designers approach puzzle creation, and the challenges of making a puzzle difficult but solvable.
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