Week 1 · August 27

What is a game?

Making Games in the Age of AI. By December, every one of you ships a real game that other people can play.

Scope small, finish strong.

AI is your assistant, not your author. You decide.

0–12 · Play

Watch for two things.

What's fun here?

Say it out loud the moment you notice it.

What do you actually do?

The one action you repeat over and over.

Could you make this?

Keep the question in your head. We come back to it.

12–18 · Verbs

What can you actually do in a game?

jumpcollectstackmatchhide growpushwaitchoosetalk buildsortbalanceescape deliverrepairexplore

Then:

Pick a verb. Now pick our theme. What game is that?

18–24 · What makes it fun

A game is a series of interesting decisions.

What makes a decision interesting?

You can't have both

You don't know for sure

It matters

And the other question:

Why do you stop playing a game you liked?

24–30 · Rules and feelings

You write rules. They feel a feeling.

Mechanics

The rules you write. Blocks fall, lines clear.

Dynamics

What happens when people play. You stack flat, then you panic.

Aesthetics

How it makes them feel. Tension, then relief.

Nobody programmed “tension.”

30–36 · Limits

Three famous games, defined by what they couldn’t do.

Game	The limit
Pong	Two paddles.
Flappy Bird	One button.
Thomas Was Alone	Colored rectangles. It made people cry about rectangles.

So:

Which of these could you make?

Our first limit — and here’s what it leaves wide open:

Knights, castles, dragons, quests, kingdoms · space, robots, aliens, time travel · adventure, exploration, survival, mystery, puzzle, sports, racing, simulation · animals, nature, weather, seasons · history, invention, engineering, construction · scripture · abstract and geometric · everyday life, family, food, travel.

36–46 · Roles

Find yourself on this list.

If you’re the kind of person who…	You’re already doing the work of a…
Notices when something feels off but can’t say why	Designer
Draws constantly, in margins, on everything	Artist
Notices when people are confused or frustrated	Playtest lead
Writes stories, invents worlds, names things	Narrative designer
Is the one who keeps the group on track	Producer
Hears when the music is wrong in a movie	Sound designer
Likes taking things apart to see how they work	Builder
Argues about whether a rule is fair	Balance designer
Tries to break things on purpose	QA
Organizes their stuff, makes lists, likes order	Producer
Can explain things so people understand	Anyone — and eventually a lead
Is good at math and logic puzzles	Builder, systems, balance

On the full industry list, fifteen roles. Two of them are programming.

36–46 · Roles

Pick one. Try it today.

Role	You own	Today, in five minutes
Designer	What the game is	Name the core mechanic of a game we played, in one sentence
Artist	How it looks	Sketch a character, or box art for a dream game
Sound	How it sounds	Watch a clip muted, then with sound. Say what changed.
Builder	Making it work	Name a rule this game must contain, in if/then form
Producer	Keeping it real	Take a big game idea. List what you'd cut to finish by December.

You’ll try at least two roles this semester. Nobody is stuck.

46–50 · Wrap

Finish the sentence.

A game could be about __________
where you __________.