GDC is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

GDC + VRDC 2019 Session Scheduler

View, browse and sort the ever-growing list of GDC sessions by pass type, track, format, and more! With Session Scheduler, create an account to build your own GDC schedule and access it anywhere, including on the GDC app, once live.

If you've registered for GDC, you can use the same login credentials. Adding a session to your schedule does not guarantee you a seat. Sessions do fill up, so please arrive early to sessions that you would like to attend.

How to Teach Game Design: A Fundamentals Class

Eric Zimmerman  (Arts Professor, NYU Game Center)

Location: Room 2014, West Hall

Date: Monday, March 18

Time: 2:10 pm - 2:40 pm

Pass Type: All Access, GDC Conference + Summits, GDC Summits - Get your pass now!

Topic: Educators Summit

Format: Session

Vault Recording: Video

Audience Level: All

This session unpacks a single course in detail: the introductory game design class that every new MFA student at the NYU Game Center takes. The course (and the talk) offers several frames for understanding how to design games: as sets of rules, as the human experience of play, as storytelling systems, or as designed culture. The session will offer key design concepts and hands-on exercises that explore each of these topics, all of which can be brought into your own design practice or program.

Takeaway

The talk will cover a broad range of topics, from formal systems design to narrative game design to designing games as cultural interventions. For each of these topics, detailed exercises and methods will be described that you can bring into your own practice.

Intended Audience

This session is for students, instructors and also working game designers. Teaching game design is a way into understanding game design itself. Through examining a game design class in detail, the session lays out key issues for game designers working across a range of genres and platforms.