When dozens of young visual designers, programmers and project managers descended on the MIT campus last summer to create full-fledged video games in just nine weeks, the Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab had its work cut out.
The Gambit-organized teams ended up turning out half a dozen games, exploring games' potential to deal with themes such as Greek drama and depression.
But now, six months later, those teams' leaders and product owners are being invited to reflect on the process — the philosophical questions, the practical challenges, even the occasional absurdity of tight-scheduled, cutting-edge game design — in a new "Game of the Week" blog series created by Gambit's Abe Stein. (Those questions, challenges and absurdity certainly weren't lost on Stein, who created the Phil Collins-inspired trailer for GOTW below.) On Monday of each week, a new video produced by the Lab's Generoso Fierro and Garret Beazley will explore the origins and processes of developing each project, followed throughout the week by posts featuring concept art, design documents and analysis of the highlighted game.
Fierro says that each episode of the series will be filmed in an MIT locale reminiscent of the game itself, such as in the MIT Media Lab with Jeff Orkin, whose own Media Lab background was integral to the development of the artificial intelligence-heavy game Improviso.
The upcoming schedule for the series is:
The Gambit-organized teams ended up turning out half a dozen games, exploring games' potential to deal with themes such as Greek drama and depression.
But now, six months later, those teams' leaders and product owners are being invited to reflect on the process — the philosophical questions, the practical challenges, even the occasional absurdity of tight-scheduled, cutting-edge game design — in a new "Game of the Week" blog series created by Gambit's Abe Stein. (Those questions, challenges and absurdity certainly weren't lost on Stein, who created the Phil Collins-inspired trailer for GOTW below.) On Monday of each week, a new video produced by the Lab's Generoso Fierro and Garret Beazley will explore the origins and processes of developing each project, followed throughout the week by posts featuring concept art, design documents and analysis of the highlighted game.
Fierro says that each episode of the series will be filmed in an MIT locale reminiscent of the game itself, such as in the MIT Media Lab with Jeff Orkin, whose own Media Lab background was integral to the development of the artificial intelligence-heavy game Improviso.
The upcoming schedule for the series is:
- Jan. 31-Feb. 4: Symon
- Feb. 7-Feb. 11: Poikilia
- Feb. 14-Feb. 18: Elude
- Feb. 21-Feb. 25: Afterland
- Feb. 28-Mar. 4: Yet One Word/Seer
- Mar. 7-Mar. 11: Improviso
