3.1 Game jams as a way to design for new interactions and experiences

3.1.1 Examples of combining academic thinking with game design

In this video Associate Professor Rikke Toft Nørgård and Associate Professor Claus Toft-Nielsen, both from Aarhus University, introduces the design teams to the theme of the game jam at Dokk1 in Aarhus: ‘Gaming at the edge’. The design teams are presented with the challenge to take the players somewhere they have not been before by creating new forms of games or types of player experience. Furthermore, the design teams are challenged to make games that create change for players, the library or in the public.

Presentation of gaming at the edge from the Counterplay festival @Dokk1

The teams are asked to think about how they might create games that causes friction in the players or the space of the public library or actively work with the context and space of the library. They might also consider to try and make entirely new hybrids of games by combining surprising elements (like using the bookshelves of the library as input controller) and in this way create new gaming experiences. The aim for the teams are to try and think outside the box of how we normally think about games and the roles they play. How can the teams create games that change how we think about games? How can they create games that gives the player transformative gaming experiences, give games new purposes or create new values for public spaces and cultural organisations?

In the presentation some concrete examples of combining academic thinking with game design and making are also given to give insight into how teams can create innovative games for and gaming experiences in public spaces, cultural institutions or specific disciplines.