The Game Plan

Millikin students engage in game writing and design

The Game Plan

The end of a semester is a time for students to reflect on lessons learned and academic achievements. Recently, a group of Millikin University undergraduates in a new course, titled Advanced Game Writing and Analysis, turned their lessons and ideas into achievements by engaging in the art of game design. The students created over 30 games, half of which were debuted on Dec. 14 to the Millikin campus community.

The event on Dec. 14 was considered a final exam as 10 student-designers asked guests to participate in a wide range of games, including standard card games, dice games, strategy board games, social games and deck-building games.

Millikin Advanced Game Writing

Perhaps one of the largest growing fields for so-called "professional writing," game-writing encompasses anything from writing dialogue for a video game to crafting detailed rule books for the latest deck-building game. Led by Dr. Jeffrey Kirchoff, Millikin assistant professor of English, the Millikin students spent the semester becoming acclimated to all levels of game writing, from conception of an idea to the ultimate production and playing of a game.

"The course simulates what it would be like working in the gaming industry, such as coming up with an idea, pitching it to a company, and then working with a creative board to design the actual game," Dr. Kirchoff said. "Students crafted pitches early in the semester and then pitched their ideas to a creative board made up of English Department and Staley Library faculty members. The creative board decided which games would go into production." 

Various topics were covered throughout the course, such as defining a game, the player experience, brainstorming game ideas, game mechanics, rule writing, market research and video game development.

Millikin Advanced Game Writing

Matthew Gremo, a junior English secondary teaching major from Decatur, Ill., said, "This is something that I've always wanted to do and having a course filtered around game design is a great experience."

Gremo designed a board game called "Inks & Vices" that was centered on historic authors. "The transferrable skills of learning how to do problem solving and understanding trial and error are huge parts of designing games, and it carries over to every other aspect of education," Gremo said.