Join us for a series of exercises where games and play will teach us about designing meaningful experiences for people. For 30 years, Eric Zimmerman has designed award-winning games and trained artists, designers, technologists, and others on the value of thinking like a game designer. Come prepared to participate in hands-on activities where we will design and play together. No technical knowledge is required.
Workshop Outline
- Learn game design fundamentals, including basic concepts like rules and play, systems thinking, and interaction design.
- Discuss and deconstruct thinking about constraints
- Design through prototyping, playtesting, and iteration
- Find the the value of play through experiencing and discussing the human side of play
- Engage the how and why games engage us emotionally and psychologically.
- Develop a variant of a popular game type to share with others
- Talk through integrating game-making into your creative process and making a career
- AMA with Eric about his experience in games
Your Instructor
Eric is a game designer and Arts Professor at the NYU Game Center who has been designing award-winning games on and off the computer for over 30 years.
Eric co-founded Gamelab, an NYC-based studio that produced commercial hits, including Diner Dash. With architect Nathalie Pozzi, Eric designs installations for MoMA, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and other global venues. He co-founded the Institute of Play, a non-profit that created play-based schools.
A Professor at the NYU Game Center, which he helped to design, his books include Rules of Play (MIT Press, with Katie Salen), The Rules We Break (Princeton Architectural Press), and The Green Games Guide, a group-authored public document about sustainable tabletop game design.
Join us for a series of exercises where games and play will teach us about designing meaningful experiences for people. For 30 years, Eric Zimmerman has designed award-winning games and trained artists, designers, technologists, and others on the value of thinking like a game designer. Come prepared to participate in hands-on activities where we will design and play together. No technical knowledge is required.
Workshop Outline
- Learn game design fundamentals, including basic concepts like rules and play, systems thinking, and interaction design.
- Discuss and deconstruct thinking about constraints
- Design through prototyping, playtesting, and iteration
- Find the the value of play through experiencing and discussing the human side of play
- Engage the how and why games engage us emotionally and psychologically.
- Develop a variant of a popular game type to share with others
- Talk through integrating game-making into your creative process and making a career
- AMA with Eric about his experience in games
Your Instructor
Eric is a game designer and Arts Professor at the NYU Game Center who has been designing award-winning games on and off the computer for over 30 years.
Eric co-founded Gamelab, an NYC-based studio that produced commercial hits, including Diner Dash. With architect Nathalie Pozzi, Eric designs installations for MoMA, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and other global venues. He co-founded the Institute of Play, a non-profit that created play-based schools.
A Professor at the NYU Game Center, which he helped to design, his books include Rules of Play (MIT Press, with Katie Salen), The Rules We Break (Princeton Architectural Press), and The Green Games Guide, a group-authored public document about sustainable tabletop game design.
Our Approach
Game-Making Practice
It's for everyone! We believe that game design and thinking is not limited to "the video game industry." It's a creative point of view that any discipline can use.
LEARN FROM Doing
Our workshops are focused on activities with a majority of time spent on making things.
this is only the start
You'll grow from here. We hope that this is a stepping stone for you to permanently work with the material of games.