Video Game Lecture Wades Into Walden Pond

Walden, a game about the experience of author Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond, helps demonstrate experimental video game design at a UC Irvine presentation this afternoon.

Tracy Fullerton, the Electronic Arts Endowed Chair and School of Cinematic Arts associate professor at USC, and Elizabeth Losh, writing director in UCI's Humanities Department, are panelists for "Experimental Game Design: Process, Provocation, Play."

The lecture describes the work of a group of experimental game designers in the USC Game Innovation Lab, where "risky, irreverent questions" are asked daily about what games are and what they might become.

Inspiration comes from unlikely sources, which explains such recent Game Innovation Lab projects as Walden and the experimental game The Night Journey being created with media artist Bill Viola.

Today's Computer Games & Virtual Games 2009-2010 Speaker Series presentation explores all aspects of video-game demonstration, based on the following write up provided by the sponsor, UCI's Center for Computer Games and Virtual Worlds:

In the shadow of the commercial game entertainment industry, experimental and serious game makers are exploring the nature of games, play and learning in projects that have the potential to change the way that we view and value participatory media. There are many different approaches to experimental game design-some designers function best at frantic, free‐for‐all "game jams," others work on the edges of the commercial game industry carving out a viable market for small indie games, still others are working within the realm of artists grants or academia. There are equally as many different ways in which we can "experiment" with games-with their form, their feel, their function, their style, or their overall place in our lives and experiences.

Deep.

"Experimental Game Design: Process, Provocation, Play" plays from 4-5:30 p.m. at 6011 Donald Bren Hall on the campus of UCI. RSVP to venita@ics.uci.edu.