DESIGN ISSUESPub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1162/desi_e_00702
James Malazita;Casey O'Donnell
{"title":"Introduction: Toward Critical Game Design","authors":"James Malazita;Casey O'Donnell","doi":"10.1162/desi_e_00702","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_e_00702","url":null,"abstract":"This special issue addresses the epistemological, institutional, and political challenges of integrating critical games scholarship with game development practices and pedagogy. The featured essays help form a foundation for Critical Game Design and draw from intellectual traditions and debates not only from both game studies and game design, but from the classical design disciplines as well. We aim to build more connective tissue and collaboration between game design and the broader design disciplines, allowing space for research, scholarship, and creative work that drives the underlying epistemological core of the many spaces in which all designers find themselves educated and employed.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"4-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42444769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DESIGN ISSUESPub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1162/desi_a_00708
Rebecca Rouse;James Malazita
{"title":"Critical Disciplinary Thinking and Curricular Design in Games","authors":"Rebecca Rouse;James Malazita","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00708","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00708","url":null,"abstract":"This article details a large-scale curricular design project in creating and implementing an MS/PhD in “Critical Game Design.” Curricular design and critical scholarship in the analysis and design of games are co-constitutive. Institutional structures build individual and institutional capacity, they legitimize scholarship, define boundaries of expertise, and contribute to imaginations of disciplinary purview. We reflect on what is at stake beyond the discipline itself in wider digital culture, particularly the spread of disinformation, related growth of anti-academic sentiment, and testing of the foundations of democracy. We examine our own complicity and articulate the space of the games classroom as a site of potential transformation.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"88-104"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43541562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DESIGN ISSUESPub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1162/desi_a_00703
Kara Stone
{"title":"Reparative Game Creation: Designing For and With Psychosocial Disability","authors":"Kara Stone","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00703","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00703","url":null,"abstract":"This article proposes a design framework called Reparative Game Creation, a process of creating interactive media focused on healing, emotional acceptance, and accessibility for the psychosocially disabled. It is informed by disability studies, affect theory, anti-capitalist thought, and artist-scholarship on research creation and/or critical practice. Though much of game design and game studies focus on the end product or the player experience, this article instead focuses on the process of game design, and as such does not analyze particular games but instead proposes new ways of creating games informed by psychosocial disability.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"14-26"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42481611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DESIGN ISSUESPub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1162/desi_a_00705
Joshua Wood
{"title":"Gaming Xiuhpohualli: A (Chicano) Theory of Game Design","authors":"Joshua Wood","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00705","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00705","url":null,"abstract":"Game design has been a field largely dominated by white, male voices, to the exclusion of others. The lack of diversity among game developers results in a lack of diversity in the games themselves. This article presents one way forward, merging indigenous thought from the Nahua of Mexico and the Chicano movement with game design principles. Further, it presents a series of exercises to challenge the way designers think about games.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"42-54"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45356325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Join the Fold: Video Games, Science Fiction, and the Refolding of Citizen Science","authors":"Colin Milburn;Katherine Buse;Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal;Melissa Wills;Raida Aldosari;Patrick Camarador;Josh Aaron Miller;Justin Siegel","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00707","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00707","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the value of science fiction narratives in games for citizen science. Focusing on the protein-folding game Foldit, it describes the process of modifying and redesigning the game to feature a framing narrative and other alterations to the main tutorial campaign. The campaign narrative, Foldit: First Contact, situates the practices of citizen science in an expanded context of meanings and ethical implications, promoting critical self-reflection on the relations of science and civic values. A study of player responses to Foldit: First Contact suggests the significance of science fiction and critical game design for attuning citizen scientists to the collective responsibilities of experimentation and innovation, drawing attention to the intersecting social, technical, and environmental domains in which gamers may contribute to scientific research.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"70-87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46949147","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DESIGN ISSUESPub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1162/desi_a_00704
Michael Anthony DeAnda;Gracie Lu Straznickas
{"title":"Undetectable Starting Points: Rethinking “Passing” in Level Design through Queerness, Disability, and Roxy's Got Balls","authors":"Michael Anthony DeAnda;Gracie Lu Straznickas","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00704","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00704","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, the authors tease out meritocracy from level design by comparing “passing” game levels with “passing” as performances for survival by marginalized peoples. We use HIV to demonstrate passing as a response from the intersections of queerness, race, and disability to inform heuristics for level design that tease out meritocratic design practices. We finish by illustrating our heuristics in action through Roxy's Got Balls, an online drag queen bingo event.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"27-41"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44258835","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DESIGN ISSUESPub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1162/desi_a_00706
Rilla Khaled;Pippin Barr
{"title":"Generative Logics and Conceptual Clicks: A Case Study of the Method for Design Materialization","authors":"Rilla Khaled;Pippin Barr","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00706","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00706","url":null,"abstract":"Game design research is caught between epistemologies and disciplines, leading to a lack of grounded methodologies. Without such methodological approaches, we cannot support evidence-based claims about game design. The Method for Design Materialization (MDM) is a methodological approach to capturing game design via software version control. By embracing a time-sliced representation of a game throughout its development and pairing it with explicit materializations of design thinking through reflective writing, we believe significant progress can be made in understanding and extrapolating from the design process.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"55-69"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48908978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DESIGN ISSUESPub Date : 2022-10-01DOI: 10.1162/desi_a_00698
Aggie Toppins
{"title":"Dig If You Will the Picture…: Reading Prince's Semiotic World","authors":"Aggie Toppins","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00698","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00698","url":null,"abstract":"Prince Rogers Nelson (1958–2016) was an innovative American musician whose life and work defied categorization. His music combined the spiritual with the sexual while spanning funk, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and roll, and pop genres. Prince embraced nonbinary gender performance and, as a Black artist of enormous celebrity, exemplified what W. E. B. Du Bois named double-consciousness: a sensibility gained from looking at oneself through the eyes of others; a “two-ness” derived from being both American and Black. Prince used multivalent signs, symbols, and codes to craft an enigmatic personal mythology. In this essay, I use Roland Barthes's poststructuralist theory and Stuart Hall's writing on stereotypes to examine Prince's semiotic world. By studying recurring motifs in his lyrics, fashion, and visual communication design, I show that Prince's signifying practices constitute a sensual text that, through illegibility, catalyzed emancipatory cultural expressions.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"38 4","pages":"63-75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42576473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DESIGN ISSUESPub Date : 2022-10-01DOI: 10.1162/desi_a_00697
Paul Kahn;Hugh Dubberly;Dario Rodighiero
{"title":"COVIC: Collecting Visualizations of COVID-19 to Outline a Space of Possibilities","authors":"Paul Kahn;Hugh Dubberly;Dario Rodighiero","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00697","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00697","url":null,"abstract":"We describe the COVID-19 Online Visualization Collection (COVIC), its goals, how it came to be, and why we propose such a collection as a new path for design research. The COVIC database contains a collective visualization response to the COVID-19 pandemic gathered from approximately 3,000 articles, each containing one or more visualizations (about 12,000 in total). We have sought to create a resource for design research—a boundary object—that will be useful to any of the disciplines brought together through their response to the pandemic event.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"38 4","pages":"44-62"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48630133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}