[game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

[Anthony Hart-Jones]

   You can sometimes get hold of them (like the infamous Planescape:
Torment pitch document), if you know where to look.  More interesting is
the Valve approach of including a developer commentary within the game. 
Actually, Monkey Island 2 has that too on Steam. 

  It feels like cheese, but I actually think they are quite an
accessible way of learning about the game.

On 12/08/2010 16:55, Michael Lubker wrote:

> Would be very interesting to see games release with "design doc

> attached" in DOC or whatever other digital forms are appropriate.

>

> Now that would be a collector's edition worth buying!

>

> ~M

>

> On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 10:26 AM,  <game_edu-request at igda.org> wrote:

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>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>>              IGDA Education SIG

>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>>

>> Today's Topics:

>>

>>   1. What would you want from a game company? (Ian Schreiber)

>>   2. Re: What would you want from a game company? (Dan Carreker)

>>   3. Re: What would you want from a game company? (Simon Rozner)

>>

>>

>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>>

>> Message: 1

>> Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:39:46 -0700 (PDT)

>> From: Ian Schreiber <ai864 at yahoo.com>

>> Subject: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

>> To: game_edu at igda.org

>> Message-ID: <258762.38248.qm at web39702.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>>

>> Hi everyone,

>>

>> Just had an interesting discussion with a colleague about potential value that a

>> large game company (something like EA, Blizzard, Zynga, etc.) could offer

>> schools on a large scale.

>>

>> I realize there is always the danger that the "value" could be a thinly-veiled

>> sales pitch for "how to educate your students to get hired at our studio, screw

>> liberal arts and screw the rest of the industry"... but for the purposes of this

>> discussion, let's assume it's not like that, that this would be a genuine offer

>> of assistance.

>>

>> This could be anything: resources for students, resources for faculty, whatever.

>> Assume an offer of time, not money. (Saying "they could give a generous grant to

>> our institution" is too easy and too obvious :-)

>>

>> What kinds of things could a game company offer that would make you absolutely

>> thrilled if you saw it on, say, this mailing list? I had my own ideas, but would

>> be interested in seeing other opinions.

>>

>> If you're wondering why I'm asking, it's because I get the feeling that a lot of

>> things that would be of huge value to us collectively are things that some

>> companies would be very willing to give in the name of improving game education,

>> and it's just a matter of using the strength of our numbers (and the numbers of

>> the IGDA in general) to make it happen. So far most of these sorts of

>> academic-industry collaborations have been between a single school and a single

>> studio, which just means that every one of us has to reinvent the wheel with

>> every studio. It'd be nice to find a better way.

>>

>> Thanks,

>> - Ian

>>

>>

>>

>>

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>> URL: <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_edu/attachments/20100811/c6091b25/attachment.htm>

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>> ------------------------------

>>

>> Message: 2

>> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:05:57 -0700

>> From: "Dan Carreker" <DanC at NarrativeDesigns.com>

>> Subject: Re: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

>> To: "'IGDA Game Education Listserv'" <game_edu at igda.org>

>> Message-ID: <FB1B11E038764A37A4356B73508F5A87 at DanPC>

>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>>

>> Hey Ian,

>>

>>

>>

>> I'll tell you the one thing that's been on my mind re: resources: Sample

>> games.

>>

>>

>>

>> I would love to see many of the classic and pioneering games bundled for use

>> by schools. And I believe there are two feasible means for this to come

>> about.

>>

>>

>>

>> One is to release education bundles. In 2000, PC Gamer Magazine released a

>> free CD in one of their issues with 12 classic games (X-Com, Ultima I, Wing

>> Commander, Duke Nuke-em, etc.) Each of these were tested by the developers

>> to make sure they were compatible with modern hardware and treated -- by

>> Activision (where I worked at the time) at least -- as an OEM product. I see

>> no reason why a curriculum publisher could not arrange a similar deal. It

>> would likely be easiest to release one bundle per company, i.e. an EA pack,

>> an Activision pack, etc. but as long as the games are older than 3-5 years I

>> doubt it would be very expensive. Furthermore, it could be done as a license

>> agreement based on the number of computers encouraging bulk sales of games

>> that are doing nothing but sitting in a vault somewhere.

>>

>>

>>

>> Alternatively, a service such as Steam could host games that the schools'

>> could license. Of course they do this now, but most of the games are 1)

>> fairly new and 2) priced a little more expensive than I think most schools

>> could afford (once you start talking about multiple accounts for dozens of

>> games.)

>>

>>

>>

>> The REAL crown though would be samples of builds at various stages. I know

>> these are usually VERY guarded by the companies, but you can learn a lot

>> about the design challenges and the design process when you see how the game

>> evolve over their development and having various sample buggy versions of a

>> the level from game would be fantastic.

>>

>>

>>

>> There are plenty of other things I think would be beneficial to school I

>> teach at, but this would be the one thing that would get me the most

>> excited. I've even been toying with the idea of looking for investors to

>> pursue this, but all the entrepreneurs I know are very tight with their

>> finances right now.

>>

>>

>>

>> --Dan Carreker

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>  _____

>>

>> From: Ian Schreiber [mailto:ai864 at yahoo.com]

>> Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 5:40 PM

>> To: game_edu at igda.org

>> Subject: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

>>

>>

>>

>> Hi everyone,

>>

>> Just had an interesting discussion with a colleague about potential value

>> that a large game company (something like EA, Blizzard, Zynga, etc.) could

>> offer schools on a large scale.

>>

>> I realize there is always the danger that the "value" could be a

>> thinly-veiled sales pitch for "how to educate your students to get hired at

>> our studio, screw liberal arts and screw the rest of the industry"... but

>> for the purposes of this discussion, let's assume it's not like that, that

>> this would be a genuine offer of assistance.

>>

>> This could be anything: resources for students, resources for faculty,

>> whatever. Assume an offer of time, not money. (Saying "they could give a

>> generous grant to our institution" is too easy and too obvious :-)

>>

>> What kinds of things could a game company offer that would make you

>> absolutely thrilled if you saw it on, say, this mailing list? I had my own

>> ideas, but would be interested in seeing other opinions.

>>

>> If you're wondering why I'm asking, it's because I get the feeling that a

>> lot of things that would be of huge value to us collectively are things that

>> some companies would be very willing to give in the name of improving game

>> education, and it's just a matter of using the strength of our numbers (and

>> the numbers of the IGDA in general) to make it happen. So far most of these

>> sorts of academic-industry collaborations have been between a single school

>> and a single studio, which just means that every one of us has to reinvent

>> the wheel with every studio. It'd be nice to find a better way.

>>

>> Thanks,

>> - Ian

>>

>>

>>

>> -------------- next part --------------

>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...

>> URL: <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_edu/attachments/20100812/05366526/attachment-0001.html>

>>

>> ------------------------------

>>

>> Message: 3

>> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:19:59 +0800

>> From: Simon Rozner <infonaut at gameonaut.com>

>> Subject: Re: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

>> To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>

>> Message-ID: <75F4B964-37DF-4517-836C-7F163F63BED9 at gameonaut.com>

>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="cp932"; Format="flowed";

>>        DelSp="yes"

>>

>> Hi Ian,

>> thanks for bringing this up. And Dan, gret suggestion.

>>

>> One thing I think would be hugely interesting to have are design and

>> technical docs at various stages. Even though same great ones are out

>> there many are either incomplete and never show their evolution. To my

>> students this would be fantastic to see and discuss and show design

>> decisions. Also pre beta builds before and after a change was made

>> would be superb so show changes in action. Now surely that would be

>> difficult for copyrights and licensing etc issues.

>>

>> Will think of more.

>>

>> Cheers

>> Simon

>>

>> DigiPen Singapore

>>

>>

>>

>> Sent from my iPhone

>>

>> On 12-Aug-2010, at 17:05, "Dan Carreker" <DanC at NarrativeDesigns.com>

>> wrote:

>>

>>> Hey Ian,

>>>

>>> I?ll tell you the one thing that?s been on my mind re: resources: Sa

>>> mple games.

>>>

>>> I would love to see many of the classic and pioneering games bundled

>>> for use by schools. And I believe there are two feasible means for

>>> this to come about.

>>>

>>> One is to release education bundles. In 2000, PC Gamer Magazine

>>> released a free CD in one of their issues with 12 classic games (X-

>>> Com, Ultima I, Wing Commander, Duke Nuke-em, etc.) Each of these

>>> were tested by the developers to make sure they were compatible with

>>> modern hardware and treated -- by Activision (where I worked at the

>>> time) at least -- as an OEM product. I see no reason why a

>>> curriculum publisher could not arrange a similar deal. It would

>>> likely be easiest to release one bundle per company, i.e. an EA

>>> pack, an Activision pack, etc. but as long as the games are older

>>> than 3-5 years I doubt it would be very expensive. Furthermore, it

>>> could be done as a license agreement based on the number of

>>> computers encouraging bulk sales of games that are doing nothing but

>>> sitting in a vault somewhere.

>>>

>>> Alternatively, a service such as Steam could host games that the

>>> schools? could license. Of course they do this now, but most of the

>>> games are 1) fairly new and 2) priced a little more expensive than I

>>>  think most schools could afford (once you start talking about multi

>>> ple accounts for dozens of games.)

>>>

>>> The REAL crown though would be samples of builds at various stages.

>>> I know these are usually VERY guarded by the companies, but you can

>>> learn a lot about the design challenges and the design process when

>>> you see how the game evolve over their development and having

>>> various sample buggy versions of a the level from game would be

>>> fantastic.

>>>

>>> There are plenty of other things I think would be beneficial to

>>> school I teach at, but this would be the one thing that would get me

>>> the most excited. I?ve even been toying with the idea of looking for

>>>  investors to pursue this, but all the entrepreneurs I know are very

>>>  tight with their finances right now.

>>>

>>> --Dan Carreker

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>> From: Ian Schreiber [mailto:ai864 at yahoo.com]

>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 5:40 PM

>>> To: game_edu at igda.org

>>> Subject: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

>>>

>>> Hi everyone,

>>>

>>> Just had an interesting discussion with a colleague about potential

>>> value that a large game company (something like EA, Blizzard, Zynga,

>>> etc.) could offer schools on a large scale.

>>>

>>> I realize there is always the danger that the "value" could be a

>>> thinly-veiled sales pitch for "how to educate your students to get

>>> hired at our studio, screw liberal arts and screw the rest of the

>>> industry"... but for the purposes of this discussion, let's assume

>>> it's not like that, that this would be a genuine offer of assistance.

>>>

>>> This could be anything: resources for students, resources for

>>> faculty, whatever. Assume an offer of time, not money. (Saying "they

>>> could give a generous grant to our institution" is too easy and too

>>> obvious :-)

>>>

>>> What kinds of things could a game company offer that would make you

>>> absolutely thrilled if you saw it on, say, this mailing list? I had

>>> my own ideas, but would be interested in seeing other opinions.

>>>

>>> If you're wondering why I'm asking, it's because I get the feeling

>>> that a lot of things that would be of huge value to us collectively

>>> are things that some companies would be very willing to give in the

>>> name of improving game education, and it's just a matter of using

>>> the strength of our numbers (and the numbers of the IGDA in general)

>>> to make it happen. So far most of these sorts of academic-industry

>>> collaborations have been between a single school and a single

>>> studio, which just means that every one of us has to reinvent the

>>> wheel with every studio. It'd be nice to find a better way.

>>>

>>> Thanks,

>>> - Ian

>>>

>>> _______________________________________________

>>> game_edu mailing list

>>> game_edu at igda.org

>>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu

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>> End of game_edu Digest, Vol 71, Issue 2

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