This series of four workshops is for anyone interested in interactivity and basic game principles. In other words, it’s about what keeps us engaged and interested when we play anything; from throwing a simple beer cap in a bar to several hundred participants’ live-action role-playing game about outer space.
It is a fun and light-hearted series, focused on hands-on practice with some theory. Every session will start with examples and little games to play, depending on the genre, and will center around creating your prototypes following some guidelines. We’ll aim at playtesting all of them and discussing feedback. This series is about the fundamentals of game design that we’ll learn from physical prototyping and the origins of games in the material world, with a little exception in the second session.
We recommend attending all 4 sessions as they are interconnected, but you can also take only the ones that you’re interested in. Just keep in mind that you may miss some terminology and bits of theory that might be difficult to recap or repeat.
Game mechanics
April 18, iii workspace, The Hague
In the first evening, with the example of board games including card games and other games, you can play at a table, we’ll look at the foundations of game design — game goals, game mechanics, and game dynamics. You’ll make your board game prototype, and observe people playing it, as playtesting is at the core of game design.
What do you need: mainly hands, but other body parts may be useful as well
Game narrative
April 25, iii workspace, The Hague
This workshop will give a hint into storytelling in games with some examples from video games, but also board games, live-action role-playing, and alternate reality games. First, we’ll discuss some theories, make some world-building exercises to spice things up, and then make a small text-based game in the open-source software Twine . And of course, we’ll play all of the games and give a proper playtester’s feedback.
For this one, you’ll need laptops with Twine installed.
Game space
May 2, Den Haag Centraal, The Hague
On this day we’ll look into how games create spaces while talking and experiencing urban games: games that are played outdoors often focused on re-discovering city-space (eg. hide and seek, alternate reality games). This session will take place outdoors in the city. First, we’ll discuss some theories, then play an urban game and, of course, focus on designing your game prototypes for testing.
What do you need: clothes according to the weather
Game play
May 9, iii workspace, The Hague
In the last session, we’ll talk about role-playing games, a genre of games in physical spaces that combines games and improvisational theater. Although there are multiple definitions of larping, the best way to explain how it works is to play at least one. At this session, we’ll play a short LARP, and you’ll design your 15-minute gameplay prototypes by following some guidelines. We’ll also playtest them and you’ll have some player feedback to work with.
What do you need: you may bring some interesting clothing items for dressing up like hats, scarfs, jackets, whatever you find maybe a bit kitschy-fancy and/or special
About Jana Romanova
Jana Romanova is a multidisciplinary artist inspired by misunderstandings. She works with performance and game practices, using photography and video as tools to discover gaps between what we say and what we do. She takes these breaches in communication as possibilities for being together, whatever that could mean.
Before starting an artistic practice,Jana has been active as a game designer for live-action role-playing games (LARP) for about nine years, developing both intimate (up to 5 players) and large-scale (around 200 players) experiences. She is researching how different game mechanics and ways of working with games and playfulness can become methods for creating art projects.
Currently, along with her artistic practice, Jana is teaching a course in analog game design at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (KABK), in MA Photography and Society” a practical course on creating public impact; and organizes The Movement Lab, a series of workshops on performance methods. She is a graduate of MA “Photography and Society” at KABK.
Header photo: Helena Roig
For questions, please email workshop coordinator Yun Lee at yun@instrumentinventors.org
How Games Work with Jana Romanova is presented by iii with financial support from Creative Industries Fund NL and The Municipality of The Hague.
