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USC School of Cinematic Arts USC School of CTIN 464 Game Studies Seminar: Critical Approaches to Escape Rooms Cinematic Arts Units: 2.0 Spring 2016—Tuesdays, 14:00-16:50 Interactive Media & Games Division Location: SCA 110 Instructor: Kiki Benzon Office: SCI 101C Office Hours: by appointment Contact Info: [email protected] Student Assistant: TBA Course Description This course focuses on escape rooms, an increasingly popular genre of immersive, environmental play that situates players in a mysterious “locked” room; players “escape” by solving a system of puzzles in order to unravel a cryptic narrative that unlocks the mystery of the room. As this is a Games Studies Seminar, we will be considering the escape room phenomenon within historical, cultural, and economic contexts. We will also address the ways in which various game forms and genres—tabletop games, puzzle video games, role-playing games, mechanical puzzles, and others—have contributed to and still influence the formal, aesthetic, and structural elements of the contemporary escape room. Over the course of the term, students will experience and analyze a number of escape rooms in Los Angeles, and speak with practitioners in the field about tangible storytelling, experience design, and running an escape room in a competitive entertainment environment. Students will work in teams to develop an escape room proposal, which they will deliver in an industry pitch at the end of the term. Learning Objectives • devise a genealogy of escape rooms, a game form derived from myriad types of play • explore the cultural and economic contexts in which escape rooms have evolved • consider the problematics of theme and genre in the escape room industry • develop methods for critically assessing escape rooms from player and designer standpoints • increase familiarity with the Los Angeles escape rooms scene—as well as related ventures in immersive theatre, role-playing games, and other interactive narrative environments • learn strategies for designing practicable and fun game systems that fuse puzzles and narrative Required Readings and Supplementary Materials There will be expenses for admission/tickets and design/development; please budget $80 for the former and $50 for the latter. Description and Assessment of Assignments Students will submit three critical comments (15%) to the course website, ctin464.com; comments (300-400 words) should be posted by noon on the day before class (i.e., Mondays). The comments should present an analysis of arguments/ideas communicated in the week's reading assignments. Worth 5% each, comments will be evaluated in terms of their clarity, accuracy, critical engagement, and intellectual verve. Students will deliver two short individual presentations. The first will be a 15-minute “introduction” to a specific type of game that has informed escape rooms as a genre; topics will be chosen from a list on the first day of class. This “mini-presentation” (15%) will offer an overview of the game type—its history, innovators, mechanics—and focus intensively on one or two specific instances of the game that may be demonstrated, played, or shown to the class. The second individual presentation is an escape room review (20%); students will play an escape room in LA and “report back” to us about the experience—remarking on the game’s theme, setting, features, puzzles and other formal elements, and critically assessing the quality of interactivity offered by the game. The team project (40%) constitutes the major deliverable for the course, and will require a good deal of creative and collaborative energy. You will be assigned to a group of peers, with whom you will imagine, plot, theorize, design, document, and pitch an escape room project; pitches, which will be delivered to a panel of industry experts and creatives in the field, will take place in the last week of class. Documentation of the proposed escape room will be submitted as a bible or game design document during exam week. Participation (10%) is an important component of this course, as students will discuss readings, share games experience, and provide feedback on presentations and creative work. Participation will be based on the student’s level of engagement with ideas and themes in the course, as demonstrated by thoughtful and constructive contributions to class discussion and questions posed to presenters and guest speakers. Students can also participate by responding to peer critical comments posts, or bringing to our attention course-related events or resources. Failure to read assigned readings will result in a participation penalty. Grading Breakdown Assignment % of Grade critical comments 15 mini-presentation (game types) 15 escape room review presentation 20 team project: proposal & pitch 40 participation 10 TOTAL 100 Assignment Submission Policy Critical commentaries should be posted to the website by the designated time. Team bibles/design documents should be submitted as email attachments in PDF form. Missing an Assignment Deadline, Incompletes The only acceptable excuses for missing an assignment deadline or taking an incomplete in the course are personal illness or a family emergency. Students must inform the instructor before the assignment due date and present verifiable evidence in order for a deadline extension to be granted. Students who wish to take incompletes must also present documentation of the problem to the instructor or student assistant before final grades are due. For assignments turned in after the assignment deadline without prior permission from the instructor, a penalty will be imposed equal to 10% of the total available points for the assignment, for each day or part of a day that the assignment is late, up to a maximum of seven days. Attendance Policy Punctual attendance at all classes is mandatory. Students arriving more than five minutes late to three classes, more than ten minutes late to a single class, or leaving early, will be marked as having an unexcused absence from class, unless prior permission has been obtained from the instructor. The following guidelines are from the Interactive Media & Games Division handbook regarding absences and grading and apply to all students. Guidelines for absences affecting grading • Two unexcused absences: lowers grade one full grade point (e.g. from A to B) • Three unexcused absences: lowers grade two full grade points • Four or more unexcused absences: request to withdraw from course (instructor’s discretion) Excused absences are: • Illness (with a doctor’s verification) • Family or personal emergency (with verification) Social media, including text messaging and internet messaging, are excluded from class unless explicitly permitted by the instructor. A 0.5% grade reduction will result from each occurrence of a student being found using them. Diversity In making games and interactive media in a professional and ethical way, it is important that you consider diversity. When looking at your projects, you should consider who is depicted and how this work will impact others. What kinds of individuals and communities are represented in your work? What point of view does your work express? This class my assist you in learning how to make work that includes diverse viewpoints, and may discuss racial, religious, gender and sexual orientation issues in the context of games and interactive media. Additional Policies Course Schedule: A Weekly Breakdown Week 1: August 22 Topics introduction to the course Screening Exam (Stuart Hazeldine, 2009) 101 min. OR Cube (Vincenzo Natali, 1997) 90 min. Week 2: August 29 Topics histories, cultural contexts, game studies / “escape room in-a-box” Prepare Nieuwenhuys, Constant. “A Different City for a Different Life.” Internationale Situationniste 3 (1959): 37–40. Flanagan, Mary. "Artist's Locative Games." Critical Play. Cambridge, US: MIT Press, 2009. 189-222. Abend, Lisa. “Escaping, Literally, in Budapest and Beyond.” New York Times. July 2, 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/travel/escaping- literally-in-budapest-and-beyond.html?mcubz=0&_r=0 Activities play: Secret Of Dr Gravely's Retreat Game (Think Fun); Exit: The Pharaoh's Tomb Game (Thames & Kosmos) Week 3: September 5 Topics “post-digital” genre / mixed-reality technology Prepare Michelsen, Jacob and Steffan Bjork. “The Rooms: Creating immersive experiences through projected augmented reality.” Foundations of Digital Games Conference, 2014. Nakevska, Marija. et al. “Interactive storytelling in a mixed reality environment: The effects of interactivity on user experiences.” Entertainment Computing. 21. (2017): 97–104. Whitby, Matthew. “Designing and Creating Game Installations.” Computer Games Journal. 6. (2017): 85–109. Activities mini-presentations 1-4 (15%) / screening: “Playtest” (s03e02) (Black Mirror, 2016) 57 min. Week 4: September 12 Topics the experience economy Prepare Mehmetoglu, Mehmet and Marit Engen. "Pine and Gilmore's Concept of Experience Economy and Its Dimensions: An Empirical Examination in Tourism." Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism. 12.4, (2011): 237- 255. Activities mini-presentations 5-8 (15%) / guest speaker: Michael Libby (Worldbldr, Inc.) is an experience designer working in Advanced Development at Disney Consumer Products and Interactive. An alumnus of the USC Interactive Media and Game Design program, Michael was a lead designer on The Purge: Breakout Los Angeles, an immersive adventure linked to The Purge movie series. Week 5: September 19 Topics live-action immersive adventure Prepare Lemle, Elise. et al. “Story
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