705_week 4_ancient games

ITGM705 Interac/ve Design/Media Applica/ons ITGM‐705

Game Design History


Game Design One of the more interes/ng forms of interac/on design is game design. Like all forms of interac/on

design, game design is a second‐order design process.


What makes games different than other forms of interac/on design?


The game designer determines the goals of the experience—what the players are trying to do within the interac/on design.


During Unit 4, we will:

• develop a working defini/on of games

• study and discuss the histories of non‐digital games and early video games

• cri/que their peers' solu/ons to Exercise 2

• develop and test prototypes of their midterm projects

• cri/que their peers' midterm project prototypes.


Does it fit the great goal of game design, which is that a game should be

"easy to learn but take a life/me to master."


Imagine what would early games be?

(That may s/ll be around today)


Games have been part of human culture for thousands of years. As far back as 6,000 BC, dice were used in game play, gambling, and decision‐making rituals alike.


One par/cularly popular game played with dice in ancient /mes was Hazard

a game in which par/cipants would bet on the outcome of a pair of thrown dice. The loser was enslaved to the winner for a pre‐determined period of /me.


One of the earliest known board games is Go, which dates back to 2200 BC.

The original name of Go was Wei‐chi, which means "the surrounding game." The essen/al goal of Go is to surround your opponent's pieces with your own.


Dominoes are thought to have originated in China around 1,800 BC.

Experts believe that dominoes evolved as a modifica/on on six‐sided dice; two sides were elongated and the overall height flaJened, leading to the current domino form we know today.


Mancala is another ancient game with origins in Egypt, some/me around 1800 BC.

It is s/ll played today, especially throughout Africa. Mancala is referred to as a "count and sow" game. The players place, count, and pick up stones in the cup un/l one player has lost all their stones.


Chess has origins in India with the game Shaturanga.

It dates back to at least the 200 AD. Shaturanga was a four‐player game, with each player star/ng from a corner posi/on.

Chess were established in 15th‐century Italy. The piece designs, as we know them today, were codified in the middle of the 19th century.

Chess is the earliest, best‐known war game that also meets the "easy to learn, a life/me to master” proclama/on.

earliest known abstract chess set, Persia, 800s AD.


Checkers finds its origins in Aluerque (a.k.a. Quirkat), another game with Egyp/an heritage. Around 1100 AD.

the French developed a varia/on that they called Fierges. Fierges was played on a chessboard with 12 pieces for each player, much like the Checkers of today.

Aluerque (a.k.a. Quirkat) > Fierges > Draughts > Checkers


Monopoly began as an educa/onal game.

Economist Henry George had proposed theories on the crea/on of monopolies and their impact on the poor, including a proposed land tax that would be levied against landowners and paid to the poor.

Lizzie Magie designed the Landlord’s Game to teach

people about George’s

theories on monopoly.

Henry George b 1836 Lizzie Magie b 1866


Monopoly began as an educa/onal game.

Later, Charles Darrow sold his game Monopoly to Parker Brothers. Monopoly was strikingly similar to the Landlord’s Game, though Darrow claimed that he did not know about the earlier game.

Henry George b 1836

Lizzie Magie b 1866 Charles Darrow b 1889


Playing cards are believed to originate in 13th‐century China.

There were 120 cards in a deck, split between four suits. The cards were much narrower, but they had the same hierarchy of values as modern cards.

Cards from Charles VI Tarot Deck (15th Century)

Playing cards came to the West no later than the 14th century. The first known Western cards were Tarot cards in the court of Charles VI, King of France


The deck of cards as we know it today has its origins in the Court Cards, first produced in England in the 16th century.

The face cards represented specific rulers from the courts of Europe, rather than the generic King, Queen, and Jack of modern decks.

Eventually, generic royalty were adopted as the standard.


What is unique about

Playing Cards versus the other games we have discussed?


Playing cards have proven to be an incredibly flexible set of gaming tokens that have been used and reused for an amazingly diverse set of games, including:

• Poker

• Rummy

• Solitaire

• Go Fish

• Hearts

• Bridge

• War

• “BS”

The basic hierarchy and suit design has been used for gambling, children's games, one‐player games, mul/‐player games, magic tricks, and more.

705_week 4_ancient games

Documents

abstract chess set