Start a Game Design Club « Patrick Curry’s Thoughts on Game Design

April 29th, 2007

Start a Game Design Club

If you’re in high school or college then you should be in a game design club. If one doesn’t exist at your school, start one! Just what does a game design club do? Well let me tell you…

A good game design club meets once a week to discuss games, game design and game ideas. Bring in a game and play it as a group one week. (It helps if someone brings in a save-game from home.) Playing multiplayer games is an easy way to get more people involved together. If your school has a computer lab then you could potentially play in there, or if you only have one TV you can play split-screen console games.

After you play a game discuss it. This is the important part! Don’t just play and go home. Get together and talk about what you just played. What was fun about it? What wasn’t fun? Why do you think that this one particular spot was more fun that that other one? What would you have changed in the game? What do you want to see in the sequel? Why do you think Johnny was so much better at the game than Tommy?

Another week dedicate one night to discussing your own game ideas. Everyone should bring in a game idea and you all brainstorm on it. What would be some really cool moments? What would make this new game different from existing games? What would it take to make such a game? Maybe you can do it right now and you didn’t even realize it! (This is pretty much what real game designers do, so you gotta start sometime!)

If your school gives you any crap about wanting to start a game design club, remind them that the game industry is a multi-billion dollar business, that making games requires art, writing, math, and lots of problem solving skills. Oh, and tell them that I said it was cool.

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10 Responses to “Start a Game Design Club”

Decompiled commented:
posted April 30th, 2007 at 6:43 am

I can see it now, the Video Game Design Club in a panel vs the Society for Study of Modern Interactive Culture on a discussion over wither gameplay and narrative can occupy the same space or wither they are elements that are always seporate.

I would suggest to any shoolkids to identify an adult stakeholder who can help with the organization of such a thing.

Patrick commented:
posted April 30th, 2007 at 8:45 am

Or better yet, a debate with the Philosophy Club over whether or not truth can exist in completely virtual worlds.

It’s definitely a good idea to get a teacher, professor or TA to help get the club started. For some reason they have a bit more pull when it comes to commandeering classrooms and such.

Patrick Moran commented:
posted April 30th, 2007 at 11:39 am

Great idea!

It would be blast to see something like UIL start a game design competition.

Oldtimer commented:
posted April 30th, 2007 at 3:20 pm

Schools and colleges are fine if you can get them to help, but don’t count on them. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, kids used to play baseball and build sandlot diamonds without schools or little leagues. Build your own virtual sandlots if no one will help. I once knew a kid who first got hooked by seeing an adult do just that.

Brian commented:
posted April 30th, 2007 at 6:50 pm

Great post, and I agree with all of the above. But how about considering your library as headqthe venue for the club and/or competition? Many libraries are doing that these days. Check it out:

http://gaming.techsource.ala.org/index.php/Main_Page

Patrick commented:
posted April 30th, 2007 at 10:20 pm

Anywhere you can get a few people together to play and discuss games is great. Be it a classroom, a library, a tent, a scuba-base, wherever you have the time and space. Lately I’ve been playing (and discussing) board games with friends at a coffeeshop.

You don’t even have to call it a “club”, but doing so makes it seem somehow more legitimate, important, and maybe even worthwhile. Like the old cine-clubs, or the Inklings, great things can happen when you get like-minded people together to discuss your craft.

Erin commented:
posted May 19th, 2007 at 3:48 pm

Word to all that. I really like the idea of a game design club — or a group for any passion — whether you’re a student or long past school. Just having people to talk with about what you love, to brainstorm and commiserate, can be so inspiring. I feel that way about my writing group and my band — and talking with Patrick about all kinds of fun stuff.

Samuel commented:
posted August 15th, 2007 at 11:15 pm

Oh wow! Thanks a lot for I thought that the idea of the game that I was trying to make would be impossible for me but now I feel so good that maybe I really can do something with people’s help but the big problem is that can I really trust this person?! I wish I had game design club… Now that I’m graduated from high school, I don’t even know which college to go to… I wish I find a good school that requires design, math, writing, trusting people, help one another to become a successful person. I hope to find this college which isn’t too expansive to go to… and I wish it is in California… I wish to have good Christian friends… First maybe I want to make a game that I have kind of planned out by myself with other people’s help then to create some kind of exercise equipment that is fun for people to really get into… Thank you so much for this idea of Game Design Club. ^^

Tony Hirst commented:
posted March 15th, 2008 at 6:07 am

Over the next 2-3 months, I’m going to be doing a little experiment: writing a ‘course’ on interactive media and computer game design using a blog.

This blog, in fact: http://digitalworlds.wordpress.com/

Along the way, I’ll be posting a series of tutorials on how to get started with Game Maker. These will be based, in part, on the ‘official’ GameMaker ‘Getting Started’, ‘Maze’ and ‘Platform’ tutorials, but they’ll focus a little more on how to get the most out of those games from a design sense - including ideas on how to customise them…

If you’re an advanced Game Maker user, you may find other bits of the blog are of interest - I intend to look at ‘Game studies’, how online gamer communities work (maybe even using this community as an example! and how the business of gaming has turned the games industry into a force to be reckoned with…

I intend to write a post to the blog every day or two for the next 2-3 months, (I started 10 days or so ago)

http://digitalworlds.wordpress.com/

BrianS's Mom commented:
posted April 5th, 2008 at 8:32 am

Has anyone come across a Design Club? Do you know of where I can get a hold of just a few agenda’s to help get things started. I know nothing about this, but want to approach my son’s HS about it or some community interests. Appreciate any help. Thanks.