PLAYFUL BY DESIGN • Spring Symposium • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Schedule of Events – 2018
All events are free and open to the public. Registration is not required, but if you REGISTER NOW you will receive a Playful by Design t-shirt! You can tweet your experience at the Symposium to #PlayfulByDesign, or share pics and video snippets to facebook.com/pbd.uiuc
Thursday, April 5th
Reception — 3:00 to 5:00 at Spurlock Museum
Continue the conversation at a post-reception Gathering at Krannert Uncorked — 5:00 FREE. Wine samples and music featuring a jazz ensemble. This even is being held immediately across the street from Spurlock Museum in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
3:00pm – Opening of the Central Core Gallery Exhibit Past Times Pastimes: Vintage Board Games
4:00pm – Reception will be followed by presentations in the Spurlock Auditorium.
Featured Speakers –
Dan Cermak: Behind the Dice: War in Games 1895 – 1950
David Dubin: Central Illinois games and gamers: Some highlights of the last half century
Friday, April 6th
All-Day Sessions – 10:30 to 4:00 – Armory 182
Vintage Table Top and Video games – Armory 182 (south end)
Organizer: David Ward; Volunteers: Paige Dhyne, Stephen Margeloney-Lajoie, Zander Miller, Emmy Neal, Zohra Saulat
Come play facsimiles of board games from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Game Design Open House — Armory 182 (north end)
Organizer: Victor Mouschovias
Bring in your own games (of any variety) to share with other Symposium participants.
VR Demos in the VR Lab (attached to Armory 172, sign up in Armory 182)
9:30-11:30: Alexander Mejia’s Starship Commander.
Starship Commander is a virtual reality game driven by human speech. The audience is given agency in the middle of a sci-fi story, as part of a military embroiled in a dark intergalactic war. You’re in command of a secretive mission, and your decisions have deadly consequences.
1:00-4:00: Play demos of games in progress, by Victor Mouschovias and others.
Self-Organized Networking & Design
Participants may offer an impromptu workshop or continue their session conversations. Sign-up at the registration table in Armory 182 to reserve space in Armory 145 and 148.
Pre-SESSION: 9:00-9:20 — Armory 182
Bagels & Coffee w/ Colleen Macklin as we set up for the day in the new Armory Innovation Spaces.
SESSION 1 – 9:20/9:30am to 10:20am
History of Games & Gaming — Armory 182 (begins at 9:20).
Chair: David Ward
Participants: Robert Baird, Dan Cermak, Dave Dubin, Kiel Gilleade, Elizabeth Hoiem, Jerome McDonough
Games as Research Tools — Armory 172 (begins at 9:30).
Chair: Sherry Yi
Participants: Jeffrey Ginger, Alexis Kim, Helen Wauck
SESSION 2 — 10:30-11:20
Teaching Game Design — Armory 147
Chair: Lawrence Angrave
Participants: Dan Cermak, Dave Dubin, Robb Lindgren, Judith Pintar
Community Gaming — Armory 172
Chair: Lisa Bievenue
Participants: Duncan Baird, Kaity Bequette, Jeffrey Ginger, Lemley Mullett
Cinematic InterSESSION — 11:30-1:00-ish
Screening of The Lost Arcade — Armory Auditorium
As the film’s website describes it “the Lost Arcade is the critically acclaimed documentary about the last hold out of old-school arcade culture in New York City. An intimate portrait of the passionate and exceptionally diverse community at the beloved Chinatown Fair, The Lost Arcade, chronicles the evolution of arcades, while celebrating the camaraderie and history of a pop culture phenomenon.”
Registrants for this session will receive a light lunch, which you can pick up at 11:20 in Armory 182.
SESSION 3 — 1:00-1:50
Gaming Technologies — Armory 147
Chair: Kiel Gilleade
Participants: Eric Arnold, Dan Cermak, Mike Flavin, Chris Lukeman, Alexander Mejia, Jamie Nelson, Travis Ross
Educational Game Design — Armory 145
Chair: Alexis Kim
Participants: Robb Lindgren, Lawrence Lu, James Planey, Randy Sadler
Come Play with Museums (Part 1) — Armory 432
Chair: Kim Sheahan
Participants: Douglas Brauer, Patrick Cain, Kamila Glowacki, Pam Leiter, Katie Snyder
SESSION 4 — 2:00-2:50
Come Play with Museums (Part 2) — Armory 432
If you attended the first session, you can stay and keep playing, but new folks are also welcome!
Intro to E-sports: Competitive Video Gaming — Auditorium, Armory 101
Note: a pre-session demo will begin at about 1:20 in the Auditorium, immediately following the end of The Lost Arcade discussion.
Chair: Jamie Nelson & Lisette Chapa
Participants: Jim Boone, Arnel Canedo, Chris DeSouza, Richie Garcia, Jin Woo Kim, David Koruna, Max Patel, Zachary Pease, Will Van Hoose
Teaching through Games — Armory 147
Chair: Dan Steward
Participants: Patricia Franke, Jeff Ginger, Leon Liebenberg, Timothy Wedig, Sherry Yi
SESSION 5 — 3:00-3:50
Entertainment Game Design — Auditorium, Armory 101
Chair: Dan Cermak
Participants: Phillip Alexander, Jason Blair, Jim Boone, Rob Gable, Lorcan Murphy, Keith Self-Ballard, James Torbit
Interactive Narrative & Critical Game Studies — Armory 147
Chair: Jorge Alvarez
Participants: Alexis Kim, Amanda Kim, Judith Pintar, Rebecca Whalen, Salvador Sarmiento, Caleb Wilson
Keynote Address by Colleen Macklin — 4:00-5:30, Auditorium, Armory 101
Introduction of Keynote Speaker:
Antoinette Burton, Director of the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities
Keynote Speaker:
Colleen Macklin, “Gaming the System: How Games Make Meaning in a Mixed-up World”
Colleen Macklin is a game designer, a Professor in the school of Art, Media and Technology at Parsons School of Design and co-director of PETLab (Prototyping Education and Technology Lab), which develops games for experimental learning and social engagement. PETLab projects include disaster preparedness games and sports with the Red Cross, the urban activist game Re:Activism and the physical/fiscal sport Budgetball. She is co-author of the book Games, Design and Play: A detailed look at iterative game design.
Saturday, April 7th
Games & Gaming Make-a-thon — 10:00-6:00, CU Community Fablab
Working with a team or on your own, you will have seven hours to create a prototype of a game or a game-related accessory in this Games & Gaming Make-a-thon. If you didn’t register, but would like to come just to watch, you are welcome!
The challenge opens with a presentation by CUDO PLAYS, the hosts of Champaign Urbana’s annual Board Game Design Competition. Fab Lab staff will be on-hand to assist throughout the day to run workshops as needed on the Laser Silhouette Cutter (vinyl cutter), 3D printers, RPG maker (video game development), programmable Sewing Machines, and more!
Prizes will be awarded!
10:00am to 10:30am – Orientation – Turner Hall, 1102 S. Goodwin Ave
10:45am to 12:00pm – Workshops – Fab Lab, 1301 S. Goodwin Ave
12:00pm to 1:00pm – Lunch – Fab Lab, 1301 S. Goodwin Ave
1:00pm to 4:30pm – Workshops – Fab Lab, 1301 S. Goodwin Ave
5:00pm – 6:00pm – Playing, Testing & Conclusion – Turner Hall, 1102 S. Goodwin Ave
