Developing Narrative Games/ On-line Worlds

31 Mar 2006
6 Nis 2006

In this intensive five-day workshop, the participants will work both alone and in teams to develop a design treatment for a narrative game/an online world. They will begin by studying the fundamental principles of computer game design, and then go on to explore the relationship between interactivity and narrative - in single player games as well as in online worlds.

There will be a few lectures, but most of the activities will be fully hands-on, involving brainstorming, discussion, and presentations from the participants to the group.

BIO__Ernest Adams
Ernest Adams is a game designer, writer and teacher, working as part of the International Hobo design consortium. Adams graduated from Stanford University (California, USA) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy in 1986. Initially, he worked as a software engineer in the electronics industry, but switched to game development in 1989, joining a company called Interactive Productions (later P.F.Magic). There he wrote the PC client for an early America Online game, RabbitJack¹s Casino. He also did the programming for Third Degree, a multi-player party game for the short-lived CD-I player. Moving to Electronic Arts in 1992, Adams became a game designer. He designed the first-ever CD-ROM edition of John Madden Football, for the 3DO Multiplayer. For the next several years he served as the audio/video producer for the Madden series, and under his guidance Electronic Arts perfected the technique of assembling sentences from audio fragments to produce seamless play-by-play commentary. During this period Adams also helped to produce the Game Developers¹ Conference and founded the International Game Developers¹ Association, the first worldwide professional society for game developers. In 1999, Adams moved to Great Britain to become a lead designer at Bullfrog Productions, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. There he worked on two prototype projects, Genesis: The Hand of God and Dungeon Keeper 3. In 2000 Adams left Bullfrog to become a design consultant, joining the International Hobo consortium. He has worked for both large industry publishers such as THQ and Ubisoft, and smaller clients with special projects, including the Guinness Book of World Records and Zoo Atlanta. He writes a regular column on game design called ³The designer¹s Notebook² for the Gamasutra developers¹ webzine, and has coauthored a book on the subject, Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design. He has also written a second book Break Into the Game Industry: How to Get a Job Making Video Games. Adams lectures frequently at colleges, art festivals, and game conferences, and conducts game design workshops around the world. His professional web site is at www.designersnotebook.com.

BIO__Jessica Mulligan
Jessica Mulligan is a 20-year veteran of the online games industry. Recently as Executive Producer and Creative Director at Turbine Entertainment, she oversaw the award-winning MMORPG franchise, Asheron's Call. Before Turbine, Ms. Mulligan held a number of positions within the games industry, including president of The Themis Group, vice-president of development for Engage Games Online, director of online services for Interplay productions, a director on Ultima Online for Electronic Arts and director of operations at MM3D, Inc on the Middle Earth Online project. Ms. Mulligan has been involved in the design, development or management of more than 50 online games, including a dozen persistent worlds. A respected writer on industry issues, she was the author of the popular "Biting the Hand" column on Skotos.net for over six years. Her most recent book, "Developing Online Games: An Insider's Guide," with co-author Bridgette Patrovsky (bridgette@mm3d.com), was released in the US by New Riders in March 2003 and has since been published in localized versions worldwide, including Korean and Chinese.

sagasnet is a non-profit vacational training initiative in the frame of the MEDIA Programme of the European Commission. The workshops are designed in the first place for European writers, designers, developers, directors, producers.
Participation fee : freelancer EUR 800,00, company delegates EUR 2000,00 There is a limited budget for scholarships available. For details: www.sagas.de