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This page contains an archive of all entries posted to GAMBIT in the Events category. They are listed from oldest to newest. Deadlines is the previous category. GotW is the next category. Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives. 
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Games at GAMBIT 11/6: Abstract Shooters
This week's Games at GAMBIT will feature games where something flies around and possibly shoots things. At least, I think that's what is happening. Anyways, come play the games and debate the issue with us from 4:00 - 6:00! Games include:
11/9/09: Jesper Juul leads A Casual Revolution
A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players
Spending the winter of 2006-07 in New York City, I was beginning to lose count of the times I had heard the same story: somebody had taken the new Nintendo Wii video game system home to parents, grandparents, partner, none of whom had ever expressed any interest whatsoever in video games, and these non-players of video games had been enthralled by the physical activity of the simple sports games, had enjoyed themselves, and had even asked that the video game be brought along for the next gathering. What was going on? Jesper Juul chronicles the rise of the casual games: puzzle games, the Nintendo Wii, and music games. These are video games that reach beyond the traditional video game audience; games that redefine what a video game can be, and who can be a video game player. Just published by MIT Press, A Casual Revolution is Jesper's take on what is happening with video games right now:
Jesper Juul has been working with the development of video game theory since the late 1990's. He is a visiting arts professor at the NYU Game Center, but has previously worked at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Lab at MIT and at the IT University of Copenhagen. His book Half-Real on video game theory was published by MIT press in 2005. His recently published book, A Casual Revolution, examines how puzzle games, music games, and the Nintendo Wii are bringing video games to a new audience. He maintains the blog The Ludologist on "game research and other important things". GAMBIT Halloween Party!
Day of the Tentacle 11/2/09: Purple Blurb presents Mary Flanagan
Critical Play: Radical Game Design
For many players, games are entertainment, diversion, relaxation, fantasy. But what if certain games were something more than this, providing not only outlets for entertainment but a means for creative expression, instruments for conceptual thinking, or tools for social change? In Critical Play, artist and game designer Mary Flanagan examines alternative games--games that challenge the accepted norms embedded within the gaming industry--and argues that games designed by artists and activists are reshaping everyday game culture. Flanagan provides a lively historical context for critical play through twentieth-century art movements, connecting subversive game design to subversive art: her examples of "playing house" include Dadaist puppet shows and The Sims; her discussion of language play includes puns, palindromes, Yoko Ono's Instruction Paintings, and Jenny Holzer's messages in LED. Flanagan also looks at artists' alternative computer-based games, examining projects from Persuasive Games and Gonazalo Frasca and other games created through the use of interventionist strategies in the design process. And she explores games for change, considering the way activist concerns--among them Darfur, worldwide poverty, and AIDS--can be incorporated into game design. Arguing that this kind of conscious practice--which now constitutes the avant-garde of the computer game medium--can inspire new working methods for designers, Flanagan offers a model for designing that will encourage the subversion of popular gaming tropes through new styles of game making, and proposes a theory of alternate game design that focuses on the reworking of contemporary popular game practices. About the Author About Purple Blurb Location confirmed: Clint Hocking at GAMBIT
Clint Hocking, Creative Director at Ubisoft Montreal, will be speaking at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab this afternoon at 4pm. The lab is on the third floor of 5 Cambridge Center. (Google Map) 11/04/09: Eran Egozy presents the Harmonix Story
Eran will talk about how Harmonix got started, what he and Alex Rigopulos did at the MIT Media Lab that sparked the big idea for Harmonix, and describe the long road leading up to Guitar Hero and Rock Band. He will also discuss what they learned about making their products appeal to mass market through their early games, and how they use consumer feedback to develop their products. He will conclude with a overview of the brands of Rock Band and The Beatles and their influence on the Harmonix brand. (Check out this New York Times article for background information on The Beatles: Rock Band.) Eran is an accomplished musician who brings extensive technical and musical expertise to the Harmonix management team. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then conducted research on combining music and technology at the MIT Media Lab; which led to his co-founding Harmonix with Alex Rigopulos. Eran now manages the company's engineering staff, directs intellectual property development, contributes to game design, and helps drive corporate strategy. As a musician he's performed frequently in MIT's Balinese Gamelan, Chamber Music Society, and Symphony Orchestra, and currently spends much of his spare time playing clarinet in Boston's Radius Ensemble and other local classical music groups. He also mentors local entrepreneurs by giving talks and working with organizations such as TechStars, The MIT Enterprise Forum, and the MIT 100K competition. In 2008, Eran and Alex Rigopulos were named in Time Magazine's list of the one hundred most influential people in the world. 6.078 The Founder's Journey is a class about finding and activating your entrepreneurial energy. What road are you embarking upon in starting a company, and what obstacles threaten your success? What else and who else will you need? If you want to start a company, 6.078 will give you the chance to live the steps to bring that passion to fruition, with substantial exposure to mentors and leaders from the business community. You'll learn by doing. We'll have guest speakers who have travelled this path, successfully and unsuccessfully. Although we will cover the basics of new venture creation, this is not a class about how to write a business plan. Rather it's about grasping the essence of the journey you're about to undertake. This class will guide you to rigorously think about the challenges you'll face in building a business. It will teach you to appreciate and nurture the intangibles that make the entrepreneur special. Even if you're not ready for a startup, this class will provide an exploration of leadership, innovation, and creativity as seen through the lens of a startup founder. We'll gain a broader insight into turning any novel vision into action. Friday Games at GAMBIT: Procedural Level Generation with Darius Kazemi
Dwarf Fortress 10/29/09: Richard Rouse III - "Cinematic Games"
Thursday October 29, 2009
Richard Rouse III is a game designer and writer, best known for The Suffering horror games and his book Game Design: Theory & Practice. He is currently the Lead Single Player Designer on the story-driven FPS Homefront at Kaos Studios in New York City. The CMS colloquium series is intended to provide an intimate and informal exchange between a visiting speaker and CMS faculty, students, visiting scholars and friends. Each week during the term, we host a figure from academia, industry, or the art world to speak about their work and its relation to our studies. These sessions are free, open to the public, and serve as an excellent introduction to our program. We also record these and broadcast them to the world-at-large via our Podcast. You can also download the individual files by clicking the links from each entry. 10/28/09: Clint Hocking speaks at GAMBIT
The Territory is not the Map: Hyper Realism and the New Immersion Paradigm
This talk examines the potential long-term future of gaming by looking at the accelerating convergence between rising technologies and competing media from the internet, games, music and narrative media to augmented reality and the prominence of portable wireless devices. This talk is free to the the MIT community and the public. If you are planning on attending, please email gambit-request@mit.edu so we can ensure enough seating for everybody. The location of the talk may change; please check updates on the GAMBIT blog. Clint Hocking has been working at Ubisoft Montreal since July of 2001, when he began his career in the game industry as a Level Designer on the original SPLINTER CELL. During development he also took on the roles of Game Designer and Scriptwriter. Splinter Cell was nominated for seven Game Developer's Choice Awards (including nominations for Excellence in Level Design, Game Design and Scriptwriting). Along with writer JT Petty, Clint was honored for his writing work on the title with the first-ever Game Developer's Choice Award for Excellence in Scriptwriting. Clint continued to develop the Splinter Cell franchise as Lead Level Designer, Scriptwriter, and Creative Director on SPLINTER CELL: CHAOS THEORY - the highest rated Splinter Cell to date with an aggregate review score of 94%. Clint next took on the role of Creative Director on FAR CRY 2, a controversial title that took players into the 'Heart of Darkness' of a fully realized African state torn apart by civil war. Both innovative and acclaimed, Far Cry 2 was another hit for Ubisoft. In addition to working as a game developer, Clint is also active in the game development community, and is a vocal proponent of games as an emerging medium and art form. Clint is on the Advisory Board of the Montreal IGDA Chapter, and is a frequent speaker at the Game Developers Conference and other conferences around the world. He maintains a blog at www.clicknothing.com. Clint Hocking sits on the advisory board of the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. Friday Games 10/16 -- Tim Schafer ROCKS!
This week's Friday Games celebrates the ROCKTOBER release of Brutal Legend, the heavy metal game by those twin GODS of ROCK: Tim Schafer and Jack Black! To celebrate, we're going to take a look back at Schafer's work, beginning with - Full Throttle and finally... - BRUTAL LEGEND
10/19/09: Jeff Norris (NASA) presents at CSAIL
Date correction: 4pm - 5pm, Stata Center, Kiva/Patil 32-G449. What do driving robots have in common with Pac-Man? How can we explore space with a video game? Many video games are marvelous achievements in human-computer interaction that enable untrained players to use sophisticated controllers to take control of complex systems. This talk explores the surprising similarities between video games and mission control software and the inspiration that can be found in their juxtaposition. Dr. Jeff Norris is the supervisor of the Planning Software Systems Group. His group develops operations systems for a variety of space missions including the Phoenix Mars Scout, Cassini Saturn Orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers -- for which his team was co-winner of the 2004 NASA Software of the Year Award. He is currently leading the development of the uplink system for the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory Rover mission and operations software development within NASA's multi-center lunar Human Robotic Systems technology development project. Jeff founded the JPL OPS Lab, an advanced agile development facility for the design, development, and deployment of mission operations software and human-robot interaction technologies. Jeff helped operate the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers as a Tactical Activity Planner during the prime mission. He received Bachelor's and Masters degrees in Computer Science from MIT and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California. For more information please contact: Rebecca Yadegar, (617) 253-5817. Friday Games at GAMBIT: Four Player Madness!
Two's company, three's a crowd, and four is madness! (So is Sparta, I hear). We'll be playing a variety of the best fast-moving four-player crowd-pleasers. Selections include:
GAMBIT is Three
Happy Birthday to you The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab was started exactly three years ago. There wasn't really a "lab" in 2006, let alone the two R&D facilities at MIT and Singapore that we work in today. Just a tentative written agreement, a couple of lengthy papers justifying a need for a "Singapore-MIT International Game Lab" (the picture shows what Geoff thought of that name when it was announced... hence, our current acronym!), and a couple of plane tickets to Boston. This is for everyone who has ever come through GAMBIT: in the Singapore lab, twelve timezones away in the MIT lab, representing at Indiecade, leading our research, studying for degrees, funding the program, or working in game/media companies all around the world. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all the awesomeness... it wouldn't have happened without you. The 2010 Global Game Jam comes to Boston, Jan 29-31, 2010!
The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab is proud to be the Boston-area host for the 2010 Global Game Jam. We'll post more details about how to participate in the next few months. We hosted the Global Game Jam last year and had a ton of fun! We had a good mix of local developers, students who've worked with us in the lab, and students, staff and researchers from other local schools, including MIT, Berklee College of Music, and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They made 6 games that are currently available to download from the Global Game Jam site. We webcast video and text during the 48-hour session, and archived the presentations made at the end of the event. More information about the 2010 Global Game Jam can be found at their official site, globalgamejam.org, and in the press release below. Continue reading "The 2010 Global Game Jam comes to Boston, Jan 29-31, 2010!" » Friday Games at GAMBIT 10/2
This Friday's Games at GAMBIT presents a selection of the very best Run-n-Gun games, including:
And many others! Join us in NE25 from 4:00 to 6:00 where we will be running to the right and shooting everything that moves. Friday Games at GAMBIT: It's Full of Stars!
It's a vast galaxy out there. Lonely... and dangerous. But have no fear! You're piloting a Cobra Mk III, armed with missiles and lasers, full of fuel, hauling a cargo of radioactive ore, and you're... mostly harmless. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Elite, we're going spacefaring! Hundreds of planets and stars await in each game, each one hiding riches, pirates, or physics. Oh, and flying... lots of flying. Are you sensing a theme here? Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space. - Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy So hopefully we'll get through at least a handful of these:
Friday Games at GAMBIT will start a little later this week, from 5:00pm until 7:00pm at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, 3rd floor, 5 Cambridge Center, MIT building NE25, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Local Group. Friday Games at GAMBIT: The '60s
Come on over to GAMBIT this Friday to help celebrate the release of some music game featuring a band named after a bug (you may have heard of them). We will have a variety of games set in or inspired by the 1960s. Can you feel the Flower Power? Our selection includes:
And of course....
9/17/09: CMS Colloquium presents Ethan Gilsdorf
Ethan Gilsdorf will present his recently released and much lauded travel memoir/pop culture narrative, FANTASY FREAKS AND GAMING GEEKS: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, which NPR's Adrei Codrescu calls a "breathless adventure/quest/memoir that is uniquely contemporary." Drawing from his own experience as a longtime Dungeons & Dragons devotee, Gilsdorf's talk will explore the varied terrain of fantasy and gaming subcultures, illuminating what attracts game-players and fantasy fans to these worlds, and for what reasons. Now based in Somerville, Massachusetts, Gilsdorf publishes travel, arts, and pop culture stories regularly in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Christian Science Monitor, with articles appearing in such publications as National Geographic Traveler, Psychology Today, and the Washington Post as well. He has also been a guest on talk radio as a fantasy and escapism expert. About CMS Colloquium: The Comparative Media Studies colloquium series provides an intimate and informal exchange between a visiting speaker and CMS faculty, students, visiting scholars and friends. Each week during the term, we host a figure from academia, industry, or the art world to speak about their work and its relation to our studies. These sessions are free, open to the public, and serve as an excellent introduction to the Comparative Media Studies program. Continue reading "9/17/09: CMS Colloquium presents Ethan Gilsdorf" » 9/14/09: Purple Blurb presents Noah Wardrip-Fruin
6pm, Monday 9/14/09
Once again, Purple Blurb offers readings and presentations on digital writing by practitioners of digital writing. All events are at MIT in room 14E-310, Mondays at 6pm. All events are free and open to the public. The Purple Blurb series is supported by the Angus N. MacDonald fund and Writing and Humanistic Studies. Friday Games at GAMBIT
In honor of the Dreamcast's 10th anniversary, this Friday's Games at GAMBIT will be all about Sega's final console. The Dreamcast is fondly remembered by gamers everywhere as home to a wonderful mix of innovative and hardcore titles. This week's lineup will feature, but is not limited to:
Games run from 4:00pm until 6:00pm in the GAMBIT Game Lab, 3rd floor, building NE25, MIT. 9/9/09: GAMBIT UROP Open House, 5-7pm
It's not just Video Game Innovation Day in Massachusetts, the release of The Beatles: Rock Band and the 10th anniversary of the Dreamcast, it's the UROP Open House at GAMBIT! YAY \^o^/ Yes, I know I just posted about this a few days ago... a reminder is always helpful. No RSVP is required. Come talk to GAMBIT staff about upcoming projects! Wednesday, September 9th, 5-7pm (map) We're inviting MIT undergraduates from any major to participate in our Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) this Fall. We offer direct pay compensation or credit for work. So if you're interested in joining a team of fellow undergraduates, collaborating with students from other universities, and working with our research and development staff to make digital or non-digital games, please feel free to contact Rik Eberhardt (gambit-request@mit.edu) for more information. 9/3/09: GAMBIT Freshman Explorations and UROP Program
We're inviting MIT undergraduates from any major to participate in our Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) this Fall. We offer direct pay compensation or credit for work. Take note of two upcoming events at our lab (map) to get a better idea of what we're all about: Freshman Exploration Thursday, September 3rd, 2-3pm UROP Open House Wednesday, September 9th, 5-7pm No RSVP is required for either of the above events. However, if you're interested in joining a team of fellow undergraduates, collaborating with students from other universities, and working with our research and development staff to make digital or non-digital games, please feel free to contact Rik Eberhardt (gambit-request@mit.edu) for more information. 8/7/09: Summer Game Postmortems at Stata Center
Summer is still with us, but GAMBIT's summer program is drawing to a close. We're rounding it out in grand fashion this Friday at the Stata Center. Six student teams will demo and talk about the development of their games, describing their triumphs and battle scars. We'll start at 9am in room 32-141. Hope to see you there, and keep an eye on our website for the public release of the games! Last Chance Open House and Focus Testing: July 30th, 2009!
More Games! More Opinions! More Munchies! (Well, actually, the same six games that showed at the last open house.. but, now with When: July 30th, 6 PM to 8 PM On Thursday, the 30th, please come to our Summer GAMBIT Game Lab Open House, play one or all of six games in development, and give us your opinions! We'll be testing the initial candidates for the release version at the Open House - help us find our ship stopping bugs while the teams still have a chance to fix them! Feel free to drop by any time between 6:00 and 8:00 to play our games, but arriving earlier will give you the chance to play more games. We do close the lab at 8:00 to let our staff head home after a long day on the job. One of our games this year is targeted at children aged 12 - 17; we could especially use testers in that age range, if any of you have children and would like to bring them. If you do bring children to test, please contact us before hand, so we can send you a parent/guardian consent form. If you decide to come at the last minute, that's fine too, but before your child plays any games, please contact a member of the GAMBIT staff, so we can give you a consent form to sign. Please RSVP to gambit-qa(at)mitdotedu, so that we will know how many people are intending to come. We look forward to seeing you! Summer Program Open House/Focus Test Session: July 16th, 6pm - 8pm
Videogames! Opinions! Food! When: July 16th, 6 PM to 8 PM On your way in, let the lobby desk attendant know you are attending the GAMBIT Open House. On Thursday, July 16th, please come to GAMBIT's Summer Program Open House and Focus Testing Session, play one or all of six games in development, and tell us what you think. Our interns have been working hard for the last five weeks, and it's time to get some fresh eyes and fresh opinions on our games. We still have 3 weeks left of our 8 week process, so your opinions and thoughts will make a difference. If you cannot make this Open House, please consider attending our second (and final) Focus Test session on July 30th, also from 6 - 8 PM. One of our games this year is targeted at children aged 12 - 17; we especially welcome testers in that age range. (Younger children are also welcome.) If you do bring children to test, please contact us before hand, so that we can send you a parent/guardian consent form. If you decide to come at the last minute, that's fine too, but before your child plays any games, please contact one of the GAMBIT staff and fill out a parental consent form. Please RSVP to gambit-qa@mit(dot)edu, so that we will know how many people are GAMBIT's Phorm at E3!
For those of you lucky to be running around at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles this week, keep an eye open for our summer 2008 prototype game Phorm, which is being featured in the IndieCade Independent Games Showcase! Posted below is the official press release from IndieCade.  IndieCade @ E3: An Indie Games ShowcaseWhat is the IndieCade International Festival of Independent Games?
What are the IndieCade Showcase Events?
What is IndieCade's Mission?
What do we mean by independent?
What is IndieCade doing at E3?
How were the games for the E3 Independent Games Showcase Selected?
Who are the developers?
Are any of these games slated for mainstream publication?
Hands-On DemosAnd Yet It Moves* Blueberry Garden* Closure Cogs Dear Esther Flywrench* & Cowboyana Global Conflicts: Latin America Octopounce Papermint Snapshot Winds of Orbis: An Active-Adventure Zephyr: Tides of War
Alternate Reality, Live Games, and InstallationsThe Deep Sleep Initiative Mightier Pluff Prototype161: Agents Wanted
MobileAquariYum! Bobobua Guru Meditation Ruben & Lullaby
Games on VideoFabulous/Fabuleux Gray Posemania Phorm When The Bomb Goes Off
Art ExhibitionFor this year's E3, IndieCade selected games from past years to present high-resolution prints of screenshots. Below is a list of art on display and the artwork being showcased.
Blueberry Garden* The Endless Forest - ABIOGENESIS Freedom Fighter '56 ioq3aPaint Machinarium* The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom* The Night Journey* Nobi Nobi Boy Collage Passage* Rooms* Ruckenblende* The Unfinished Swan Where is My Heart? IndieCade Sponsors, Supporters, and PartnersThe Culver Hotel MIT Enterprise Forum Salutes Henry Jenkins on June 16th
If you're in the Boston area and are a friend of GAMBIT, Comparative Media Studies or GAMBIT Co-PI and CMS Co-Director Henry Jenkins, you're invited to come help send Henry off to USC in style. From 6-8 PM on June 16th at the new Microsoft Cambridge offices, the MIT Enterprise Forum New England Games and Interactive Entertainment SIG is hosting "A Salute to Henry Jenkins: The End of an Era at MIT". The complete details are as follows: A Salute to Henry Jenkins: The End of an Era at MIT We hope to see you there! New Deadline for Indiecade!
Considering submitting something to Indiecade, but worried about the April 30 deadline? Good news -Â the deadline has been extended until May 15th, 2009 at Midnight PST. For more information, visit www.indiecade.com or check out our earlier post. Good luck! 5/1/09: Videogame Research and Development Open House
Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab How are videogames made? Come to MIT and participate in the process of game development! Play games currently in development and learn about the innovative ideas behind them. Talk to the artists, designers, programmers, and managers that work together to produce an enjoyable, entertaining experience. Learn about the history of great digital games from Boston and Cambridge, and get a glimpse of a day in the life of a game research lab! Admission is free. Kids, families, teens, and adults are welcome! 4/30/09: Gam3rs the Play at the New England Institute of Art
Gam3rs: The Play is coming back for a one-night run on April 30th, from 6 to 8:30pm at the New England Institute of Art. It'll be at the Center Building (10 Brookline Place West) in room 1001. It's a free event, part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival. Check it out if you missed the run at the MIT Museum. It's a good one-man comedy about a guy who tries to play his MMORPG while he's at work. Tonight: On the WOW Pod
This evening (Monday, April 13th 2009), the MIT Museum and the Comparative Media Studies program will be hosting a special colloquium panel discussion to examine the WOW Pod, a new collaborative project from artists Cati Vaucelle and Shada/Jahn. Here are the details: On the WOW Pod:
A Design for Extimacy and Fantasy-Fulfillment for the World of Warcraft Addict Panel Discussion Monday, April 13, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. MIT Museum 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA A discussion about the inducement of pleasure, fantasy fulfillment, and the mediation of intimacy in a socially-networked gaming paradigm such as World of Warcraft (WOW) in conjunction with the exhibition SHADA/JAHN/VAUCELLE, "Hollowed," which includes the WOW Pod, a collaborative project by Cati Vaucelle & Shada/Jahn.  World of Warcraft (WOW) is a massive online multi-player game that attracts millions of players. A typical scenario for teenagers addicted to the game is to settle down in front of the monitor on Friday night and collapse on Sunday night. Sleep deprivation as well as high saturated fat diet is the pride of these players who barely take any breaks, and when they do they sign the typical "AFK" ("Away from Keyboard") that pops up on top of their avatar. The average AFK is two minutes, time to run to the fridge, to open a bag of potato chips, to replenish the glass of milk, or go to the bathroom. A model for an immersive architectural solution that anticipates all life needs, WOW Pod by Vaucelle/Shada/Jahn responds to these conditions. Panelists include:
This event is presented by the MIT Museum in collaboration with the Visual Arts Program, MIT School of Architecture + Planning, and the Comparative Media Studies Program, MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.
5/8/09: MIT Sloan to host its first ever Business in Gaming Conference
Digital distribution, marketing, and in-game advertising are the themes of MIT Sloan School of Management's inaugural Business in Gaming Conference being held on Friday, May 8, 2009 on the business school's campus. The conference will bring together industry leaders, game developers, academics, and students from leading MBA schools to discuss the newest business trends and the future of the gaming industry. Ken Levine, president of 2K Boston, who led the creation of the multi-million selling, multiple game-of-the year award winning title, BioShock, will serve as the conference's inaugural key note speaker. Other speakers will include: Susan Bonds, 42 Entertainment's president and CEO. Bonds, the brains behind creative publicity campaigns for games such as Halo, guided the creative team behind this year's most successful ARG 'WhySoSerious' to promote the award-winning blockbuster film The Dark Knight; John Rizzo, CEO of Zeebo, who spearheaded the creation of the first fully managed digital distribution console, Scot Osterweil, MIT research director and designer of Zoombinis Island Odyssey and the games Switchback and Yoiks!; and Curt Schilling (Boston Red Sox's three-time World Series champion) is slated to speak on a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) Business Model panel. Panelists from Turbine, creator of The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online, and Mythic, creator of Warhammer Online, will talk about the future of this segment's business model. Representatives from such companies as Google, Massive, GamerDNA, and Mana Potions will address in-game advertising. "Few gaming industry conferences focus exclusively on the business side of the gaming industry," says MIT Sloan MBA Dennis Fu, one of the conference organizers. "MIT, which is the birthplace of companies such as Harmonix, is in the unique position to lead in this area." For more information and to register for the conference, please visit: http://www.mitbig.com/ For questions or comments, please e-mail: bigteam@mit.edu Philip Tan and Eitan Glinert at IGC East
 Philip and Eitan's talks are as follows: Steal This Idea! Other speakers currently scheduled to appear at the conference include:
See you there! GAM3RS the Play: A one-man show about the secret lives of gamers
Some folks from GAM3RS the Play visited the GAMBIT lab today. Their production will be performed at the MIT Museum (map) for two nights: March 13, Friday 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 and the event is free! The hour-long show will be followed by a half-hour discussion with the actor and writers about gaming and the theatre. Try to arrive early so you can get a good seat! Synopsis Work sucks for tech-support operator Steve Jaros. He's overqualified, underpaid, and around-the-clock dealing with vacuous customers, a Medusa-like boss, and an arrogant cubicle mate. But what they all don't know about Steve is that he is about to save an entire kingdom from death at the hands of their murdering neighbors. He is about to lead an army of thousands into a dangerous land to take back their source of power. He is about to become the most powerful warrior ever to live among men . . . online. With the help of a blue dwarf, a dark sorceress, and a disobedient page-boy, Steve (a.k.a. Boreus the White Knight) must lead his people to victory over the elven kingdom while answering phones and hiding his true identity from his patrolling supervisor. Can Steve successfully live in fantasy and reality at the same time? From the Brian Bielawski, the lead of the play: I feel that most of the magic is there because GAM3RS is based on my family. Entirely. (Think about all the implications of that as you watch it.) The rest of the magic comes from the whole gaming population for whom it was written. Long considered "weird" or "immature," gamers often get the short-end of the social stick. I created this piece to show that maybe, just maybe, gamers operate on a higher mental plane where the limits of the body and the "real world" are overthrown by the imagination. I have to think that way. After all, I'm one of them. From Gregory Wilson, curtainup.com, Brian Bielawski and Walter G. Meyer get so much right about the life of a gaming geek, here embodied in the character Steve (played believably by Bielawski), an MIT dropout who rules the universe of an online role-playing game and works a real life tech support job to support his virtual one, that the non-gaming members of the audience which find his behavior so bizarrely funny would probably be shocked to learn how accurate the portrayal actually is. What's fun about this show is that it packs more inside gamer/techie/webhead jokes into an hour than seems possible without leaving the 'outsider' part of the audience behind, and thus everyone gets to have a good time. Both gamers and non-gamers alike will enjoy its humor. Contact Brian Bielawski for more details. Boston Game Jam Games at Post Mortem
A quick reminder to everyone here in the Boston area: tonight's Boston Post Mortem will feature the games from the Boston session of the 2009 Global Game Jam, which GAMBIT hosted here at our lab. Here's the description of the event from the official announcement: Instead of a single speaker, we're going to be doing a showcase and post mortem of the games created last weekend at the Boston site of the Global Game Jam. For those of you who don't know, the GGJ was organized by the IGDA as a game jam happening simultaneously around the world, with over 1600 participants creating over 300+ games in 48 hours. Our Boston site was hosted by the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. All 300 games are on the official website, but you might particularly want to check out the six games that were made in Boston. They're all open-source, too, so feel free to take a crack at the code! Hope to see you there! Post Mortem will go down tonight at 7pm at the Skellig in Waltham. For directions, click here. Global Game Jam Live Webcast
The Global Game Jam has started at MIT! Hit the jump or go to Ustream for the live webstream and live chat.
Global Game Jam
The Global Game Jam has started at MIT! Check out our live webstream and chat on Ustream. The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab will be the host site in Boston for the 1st Annual Global Game Jam, from January 30 through February 1, 2009. Other sites around the world will run game jams with similar rules and limitations, with one unique constraint at each site. How it works Some constraints Registration If space is available, participants should receive an email confirmation within a week. Location and Timing Tonight: Jesper Juul at Purple Blurb
This evening at 6PM, GAMBIT's own Jesper Juul will be speaking in Nick Montfort's Purple Blurb lecture series. From the website: Jesper Juul on developing video games to develop video game theory The event is free and open to the public. First Games by Famous Designers
One of our Game Nights this summer showcased the first games of famous designers. The idea was to show how first game designers started, and teach our students that it is okay if your first game is not genius, and that good games are the result of teamwork and not of individual personalities. As I was working on videogame archeology to prepare the session, I realized that lesson was not going to get across with these examples, because they all turned out to be really great games, and some of them made by the designer himself. What is interesting is that most of these games have nothing to do with what these designers have become famous for. So let's travel back in time and play these "first games".
GAMBIT Open House, Friday August 8th 10am-noon
Come to our last Open House this summer! With eight weeks of development behind them, our summer development teams are finally finished. We have seven very different games to play, and we want to show them all off. Come and play one - or all - this Friday! As usual, there will be munchies and drinks. One of our games this year is targeted at children aged 12-14; we could especially use players in that age range!
Please sign up as visitors in the lobby when you arrive. Also, please RSVP to gambit-qa AT mit DOT edu, so that we will know how many people are coming - we wouldn't want the munchies to run out!
The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab is a five-year research initiative that addresses important challenges faced by the global digital game research community and industry, with a core focus on identifying and solving research problems using a multi-disciplinary approach that can be applied by Singapore's digital game industry. The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab focuses on building collaborations between Singapore institutions of higher learning and several MIT departments to accomplish both research and development. For more about our lab, please click here. William Uricchio to present learned lessons from GAMBIT at GLS 4.0
William Uricchio, the co-director of Comparative Media Studies and a lead principal investigator for the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, will present a selection of lessons learned from the lab's first year in existence at the fourth Games, Learning and Society Conference July 10-11 in Madison, Wisconsin. From the conference's website: Can we make a game that can be played equally by sighted and sightless players (AudiOdyssey)? How do we make a multiplayer game where the collective behavior of the players shapes the simulation (Backflow)? These are some of the research challenges presented by the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab in their 5-year initiative to bridge the cultures of engineering and humanities. GAMBIT Game Lab incorporates academic researchers into the process of game development, and provides a space for researchers to work across and learn from both Eastern and Western cultures. In this fireside chat, William Uricchio, a lead principal investigator of GAMBIT Game Lab, will share the techniques and strategies that have been particularly effective... and those that were not. How does this project compare with other cross-disciplinary game development initiatives, like the Dutch GATE project? Where are they going from here? More about Uricchio can be found at http://gambit.mit.edu/credits/#wuricchio or at http://www.glsconference.org/2008/person.html?id=326; more about the Comparative Media Studies program can be found at http://cms.mit.edu and more about the Singapore-MIT Game Lab can be found at http://gambit.mit.edu. GAMBIT Summer Orientation '08 - Singapore
You never realise how blissful it is to have a quiet day just sitting in a chair at the office until you've spent two weeks' worth of very hectic orientation activities with 45 budding game developers. The official Singapore-based orientation activities for the GAMBIT '08 students have finally drawn to a close yesterday. We ran them through a huge series of talks, workshops and team-building activities, focusing in turn on all aspects of game development - the entire gamut of design, production, art, audio, code, QA, localization, research, audience and genre, cultural differences, professionalism, the various game companies in Singapore, and even how to pass their first hiring interview in the industry. It was insane. It was crazy. It was one of the most enjoyable times of the year. Actually, now that I think about it, it was way longer than two weeks. It started nearly a month and a half ago, when we first invited the new generation of Scrummasters to sit in on the different meetings we had ongoing in the Singapore lab. They observed and watched as Zul and I, the two producers in the lab here, conducted our Sprint Planning, Daily Scrums, Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives, and design meetings. They asked questions, and we tried to pass on to them as much of the lessons learned over the last year as we could. Then we turned it over to them. The Seven Already, this generation is forging legends and memories of its own: from the epic Scrummaster vs. Scrummaster showdown during the orientation card games, to that unforgettable night at Hooters, to all the in-jokes about mentors... this generation has become, in just this short period of time, the seed of something great. I can't wait to see what they're all going to come up with over the next 9 weeks or so. This summer's going to be a blast!
Jesper Juul giving keynote at Game Philosophy Conference
GAMBIT's Jesper Juul is giving a keynote at the Philosophy of Computer Games conference in Potsdam, May 8-10. Talk title: Who Made the Magic Circle? Seeking the Solvable Part of the Game-Player Problem. Abstract: If the early days of game studies concerned the issue of games and stories, recent discussions appear to be focused on the issue of games and players. This is a discussion of methods and of the object of study: Should we discuss players or should we discuss games? There are two possible perspectives on this: The common "segregationist" perspective implies that games are structures separate from players, structures that players can subsequently subvert. In this talk, I will make the case for an alternative "integrationist" perspective wherein games are chosen and upheld by players, and where players will happily create formal rule systems and boundaries around the playing activity. Second Skin at IFFBoston 2008
From April 23rd through April 29th, cinema screens near the MIT campus will flicker to life with the 2008 Independent Film Festival of Boston, and one film in particular has caught our eye: Second Skin, a documentary about the lives of gamers. From the film's website: Second Skin takes an intimate look at computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by the emerging genre of Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs). World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Everquest allow millions of users to simultaneously interact in virtual spaces. Second Skin introduces us to couples who have fallen in love without meeting, disabled players who have found new purpose, addicts, Chinese gold-farming sweatshop workers, wealthy online entrepreneurs and legendary guild leaders - all living in a world that doesn't quite exist. The press I've caught about the film so far has been intriguing. From The Austin Chronicle: The doc is a car wreck in rush hour, even from a gamer's perspective: You can't look away no matter how depressing, unbelievable, or grotesque the story becomes. But this isn't just the pitfalls of the gaming industry; it's a hell of a lot of fun. Mixing expert opinion with amazingly true testimonials, Second Skin might just be the most accurate and entertaining glimpse of the economy and psychology of technology since Tron. And, according to The Escapist: Documentary nuts walk away having seen a window into yet another strange world. And gamers walk away feeling like they had seen seen their life story, with slick editing, a peppy soundtrack, and the seductive polish of an Apple commercial. Not all the reviews are positive, as in Gamasutra: Beyond my disappointment that the film never even mentioned Second Life, I was bummed that the most interesting aspects of this new medium were barely explored. How we experience ourselves is unarguably impacted by our relationship with virtual worlds and MMOs. The physical world still waits, however, for a film that fully explores these issues. Despite some possible flaws, however, the film still sounds like it's worth seeing. The film is 95 minutes long and will be playing at the Somerville Theater in Davis Square at 9:30 PM on Thursday, April 24th. Tickets are available from IFFBoston website, and a trailer is available at http://www.pwdocs.com/secondskin/?id=trailer. We hope to see you there! Jesper Juul speaks at Columbia University April 10th
GAMBIT's Jesper Juul is speaking on casual games at Columbia University on Thursday April 10th at 6pm. Title: What Makes Casual Games so Appealing, so Attractive: Looking for 'the Casual' in Casual Video Games Abstract: Given that video games are as wonderful as they are, why would someone choose not to play video games? It seems that video games for a long period of time have alienated a large part of the population by way of their themes, their assumptions about the player's familiarity with video game conventions, and by the demands games have placed on the player's time. With the Nintendo Wii, Guitar Hero, and downloadable games like Diner Dash, however, video games appear to be reaching beyond the traditional game audience. In this talk, I will discuss why many people do not play video games, and identify the broader appeal of today's casual games. Details: 12/11/07: Boston Postmortem
The Skellig, Waltham The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab will be speaking at Boston Postmortem! Last summer, 45 MIT and Singapore students worked to tackle 6 tricky research questions, turning them into playable games over an intensive 2 month development cycle. At this month's Boston Post-Mortem, the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab will present its first year of games and talk about the challenges of turning research into game design, working in newly-minted teams, and what worked and didn't work with our development processes. Zarf's Presentation at Purple Blurb 12/04/2007
This week saw the last reading session of the Purple Blurb Fall series. Andrew Plotkin, a.k.a. Zarf, talked about his latest experiment in digital writing, a writing game based on the Myst world. Plotkin is a celebrated Interactive Fiction author (The Dreamhold, Shade, and Spider and Web), and game designer (System's Twilight and Capture the Flag with Stuff). He's also produced other geeky, nifty stuff, such as a hack of the Z-machine to play Tetris, Freefall, as well as a reimplementation of ElectroPaint called StonerView, which is quite pretty. We confirmed by is presentation that he very much tends to story-based, puzzle-like games as an author and a player, which we had already inferred from his previous IF oeuvre. His works more often than not thrive in the disquieting and the disconcerting, giving you a fascinating dive into ontologically unstable worlds. To put it plainly, Plotkin's IF pieces mess up with your head... and you'll like it. Continue reading "Zarf's Presentation at Purple Blurb 12/04/2007" » 12/04/07: Karakuri: The Roots of Japanese Robot Technology
A Talk and Demonstration by Shobei Tamaya IX, Master & Craftsman, Karakuri Ningyo Tuesday, 4 December, 5:30pm KARAKURI NINGYO are Japanese mechanized puppets or "proto-robots" from the 18th/19th century. The word 'Karakuri' means a "mechanical device to tease, trick, or take a person by surprise" and implies hidden magic, and an element of mystery; "ningyo" means doll or puppet in human form. Traditionally, karakuri ningyo appeared in religious festivals to enact myths and legends and to entertain the public. Free & Open to the Public. Continue reading "12/04/07: Karakuri: The Roots of Japanese Robot Technology" » 11/08/07: Games and Civic Engagement
Thursday, November 8 A generation of scholars, critics and political leaders has denounced videogames as at best a distraction and at worst a negative influence on society. Yet for a growing generation of activists and researchers, games may also represent a resource for engaging young people with the political process and heightening their awareness of social issues. In what ways do young people use the online societies constructed in multiplayer games to rehearse and refine skills at citizenship? Can we imagine games as a medium that encourages public awareness and citizenship? And what might it mean to empower young people to create their own games to reflect their perceptions of the world around them? This is the second lecture in a continuing series from the new MIT Center for Future Civic Media. Friday Games @ GAMBIT: Horror
Every Friday from 3:30 to at least 5, we grab a pile of games grouped around a similar theme and plug 'em in and let 'em whirl! It's open to our friends, which includes you, dear reader! Today, in honor of Halloween, our theme is HORROR! Move II: Kendall Square
GAMBIT has finally moved to its new office! We are in a custom-designed 3rd floor space above Legal Seafoods, a mere Nerf-dart's shooting distance from the Kendall Square red line. We encourage everyone in the area to come by and say hi, see how much fun we're having this summer, and try our coffee. To kick things off, a few of the lovely folks from Harmonix came by to give our student developers a talk about the ins and outs of game production. Check out the pictures here.  6/15/07: Brad Edelman, PlayFirst: Casual Games - Principles of Success
On June 15, the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab is sponsoring the talk, "Casual Games - Principles of Success" led by Brad Edelman (MIT '93) and Michelle Woods of PlayFirst, Inc., a leading publisher of casual games and the company behind the smash hit multi-platform game franchise, Diner Dash. Join us in Building 1-390 at 11 a.m. to hear Brad (PlayFirst's co-founder and CTO) and Michelle (a PlayFirst Game Designer) share insight on how to be successful in the fast-growing casual games industry. They'll dive into important topics that impact casual game development such as how to design a game with universal appeal and how to assert engineering and technical requirements in game creation. Continue reading "6/15/07: Brad Edelman, PlayFirst: Casual Games - Principles of Success" » 5/18/07: Paprika Sneak Preview, 5pm, Room 26-100
 The screening is open to the general public and is free. Screening courtesy of Comparative Media Studies at MIT and Sony Pictures. Born on October 12, 1963 in Hokkaido, Satoshi Kon went to Musashino Art University and studied Visual Communication Design. While at the University, he made his debut as a comic artist at Young Magazine (published by Kodansha, Japan). His detailed illustration and composition became highly regarded, and he went on to work on Kaikisen (Regression Line) and World Apartment Horror. His work includes: Roujin Z, as a background artist; Run, Meros as a layout artist; Patlabor 2 as a background and layout artist, and Memories as a background and layout artist and screenwriter. His unique composition where everything within the frame is clearly defined and cleverly laid out attracted the industry's attention. In 1998, he made his directorial debut with Perfect Blue which gained him international attention. 2002 saw the release of his second film Millennium Actress and in 2003, Tokyo Godfathers debuted. All of his feature films have been screened at the top international film festivals around the world. In 2004, he directed his first television series, Paranoia Agent. Paprika is his latest anime feature. Continue reading "5/18/07: Paprika Sneak Preview, 5pm, Room 26-100" » 5/11/07: Katherine Isbister, RPI, Better Game Characters by Design
A Psychological Approach 1:30pm at the Star Seminar Room (32-D463) Increasingly, HCI practitioners are turning to digital games and other leisure technologies for insights into how to approach design outside the workplace and the office. Games themselves are currently engaged in a major evolution, driven by growth in technical sophistication and audience reach. One essential innovation games can bring to HCI practice is the tremendous success of interactive characters in games - both as player avatars, and as 'NPCs' (non-player characters). In this session we'll examine the underlying psychological principles that help to make the best game characters compelling to players. Taking a psychological approach to understanding their design allows us to extend the insights their designers have had into other application areas in which social and emotional principles come into play. For more information please contact Michael Bernstein (msbernst AT mit DOT edu) Continue reading "5/11/07: Katherine Isbister, RPI, Better Game Characters by Design" » 5/9/07: Ben Sawyer, Serious Games Initiative
Wednesday, May 9, E51-145 The MIT Game Tycoons are pleased to welcome Ben Sawyer, Director of the Serious Games Initiative to MIT. Ben will talk about the state of the Serious Games industry and his work to promote the use of interactive games as tools for learning in all types of disciplines. The Serious Games Initiative is focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector. Part of its overall charter is to help forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy. 3/7/07: What's in a game? The Art, Media, and Technology
Monday, May 7th, 7:30-9:30pm A panel discussion exploring the nature and potential of video games and To attend, please send an RSVP email to: gilbert AT fas DOT harvard DOT edu. Details are available on the HIMG site. Continue reading "3/7/07: What's in a game? The Art, Media, and Technology" » 4/18/07: Matt Weise, 10 Things You Will Not Like About Professional Game Development
5pm, Room 14E-304 Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab Speaker Series presents Comparative Media Studies alumnus Matt Weise, who has been working in the mobile games industry since his 2004 graduation. There will be a question and answer session with Matt after the lecture. 3/22/07: Threshold Animation Studios
Larry Kasanoff, CEO, Threshold Animation Studios and Producer/Director/Co-creator/Writer, Foodfight! Moderated by Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Visiting Professor of Engineering Systems and VP, Technical Strategy and Innovation, IBM Event Details 3/13/07: Dr Barbara Lippe, Girls-Games-Japan
March 13, 2007 | 5:00 PM | Location: 14E-304 Women's culture has existed for centuries in Japan. Today, it extensively shapes Japan's popular culture - even its game industry. Gender-blending, androgyny and the challenging of gender roles lie at the core of specific game genres produced by and for females in Japan. Whereas in the West most professional attempts to adress a larger number of female gamers and to engage a greater female workforce in the game industry have failed, Avaloop - an independent game development studio in Austria - is about to change this profoundly. By taking the global de-disneyfication into account and employing female creative leads, its game Papermint has not only already gained a large fanbase of non-traditional gamers but even manages to blend games with the notion of bourgeois 'high culture'. Papermint's success is based on its practical realisation of Barbara's research on Japanese gaming and girl culture, as well as the game's wholly original artistic concept created by a diverse team. Continue reading "3/13/07: Dr Barbara Lippe, Girls-Games-Japan" » 2/20/07: Boston Postmortem
The Boston Postmortem is going to be held on Tuesday evening, Feb 20 at the Skellig in Waltham. These monthly informal gatherings are a great way to get to know the local professional game development community. I'll be joining other participants of the Boston Game Jam (conducted last month at The Education Arcade in building 10) in presenting the games that were built over 36 hours. Let's try to arrange some sort of car pool. Hit the jump for the full details. 2/12/07: MIT Videogame Theorists Colloquium
From Alice Robison and Kenny Peng: It's our pleasure to announce the start of the MIT Videogame Theorists Colloquium, a series of short, informal (noncredit) classes and discussions about videogames and their relationship to academic study . This is an interdisciplinary group intended for people of all ages and experience whose interests span the sciences, social sciences and humanities. The first meeting is this coming Monday, 2/12, 7pm-8:30pm in room 32-124 on the MIT campus. Please contact Kenny Peng (pengk (AT) mit.edu) if you cannot attend and would like to be added to the mailing list to be notified of our upcoming sessions. Continue reading "2/12/07: MIT Videogame Theorists Colloquium" » |
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Join us this Friday at 4:00pm where we will be playing a variety of Halloween-themed and related games!
Mary Flanagan is the author of 
The Territory is not the Map: Hyper Realism and the New Immersion Paradigm
6.078 (The Founder's Journey) presents a special presentation by Eran Egozy, the co-founder of 
This Friday, 
Many people talk about "cinematic" games, but what does this really mean? Over their century of existence, films have been using a range of techniques to create specific emotional responses in their audience. Instead of simply using more cut-scenes, better script writers, or making more heavily scripted game experiences, game designers can look to film techniques as an inspiration for new techniques that accentuate what games do well. This lecture will present film clips from a number of classic movies, analyze how they work from a cinematic standpoint, and then suggest ways these techniques can be used in gameplay to create even more stimulating experiences for gamers, including examples from games that have successfully bridged the gap.
Elite
5pm, Thursday 9/17/09
Noah Wardrip-Fruin is author of Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies (MIT Press, 2009), co-creator of Screen (among other works of digital writing), and assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz.