Taipei Ludographic
Game Design Workshop

Theory, Discussion, and
Example Games Online

In the following pages you will find links to resource pages for Ludographers - Game Designers - and others of their ilk. Much of this material has been assembled for the benefit of my students at National Chengchi University for their Game Design Project assignments. However, the material is also of general use to myself and other professional and non-professional game designers.

Game Design Project

This section is for students in my classes. The game design project allows the student of English as a Foreign Language to practice English as a means of (1) giving instructions and (2) accomplishing goals. It's also a nifty way to practice English writing and conversation - depending upon the specific nature of the course.

Students experience the process of game design from initial idea to implementation, playtest, review, and revision. The results are what I call Flash Games, simple games with rather short rules which can be picked up and mastered rather quickly (the term Flash Game is inspired by the literary term Flash Fiction which describes a short short story written under two thousand words). As student-generated Flash Games are completed, they are archived at this site - the student-generated Interactive Dramas are archived at my Shakespeare Eclectic Science Fiction Interactive Theatre site in the NCCU Student Scenarios section.

For an academic look at the language learning benefits of games -particularly Role Playing Games - in the language classroom, see the papers section of my Shakespeare Eclectic Science Fiction Interactive Theatre web page. David Millians runs the Gaming and Education Newsletter for the Game Manufacturers Association Gaming and Education Committee to which I've contributed a few brief articles as well.

While this Game Design Project is specifically intended for my EFL classes, teachers of other languages or even other subjects may find it worthwhile to adapt the project to their own courses. It can lend itself to a variety of classroom applications. Since I am focusing on language use, I do not limit the type of game or the subject area - albeit a fine EFL adaptation is to require the games to be conversational or compositional in nature, depending upon which skills the instructor prefers students work on at the time of the assignment (reading-based games are also a possibility in both language and literature courses). Teachers of other subjects may feel free to narrow the assignment by requiring the student-generated games be within the scope of the course matter (obviously Glass Bead Games are well suited for this sort of classroom application). Teachers may feel free to email Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H. at phillips@nccu.edu.tw with reports of their own adaptation of the project.

In a nutshell, the Game Design Project works this way: Students follow instructions in the Game Design Assignment sheet and create their own original games. Usually they start the sequence by sharing their game concept with other students in small group discussion and/or with the teacher in indivicual conferences (depending upon the focus of the class and time resources available). From the initial concept discussion, students go home and tweak the design. Each student then builds three prototypes of their game with instructions and takes them to class. Students then break into small groups - usually groups of four - and share their games with one another. Students then have the chance to ask questions about game play and go into some detail in explanation. Once all the students in a group have shared their game introductions, they trade games - each student ends up with three reviewers and with three games to review. The students then take the games home and play them with their friends. They fill out a Game Peer Evaluation and Playtest Review Form for each game. Next, students meet in small groups or in pairs and discuss the games with the designers. They return the prototypes and their review sheets and go over them. With these comments in hand, the students go home once again to complete the final draft and design of their game which is then archived on the web page for classmates and the world to see.

Local Game Design Articles

These are various articles and help files of particular use to the novice and beginning game designer. Professionals may find them to be useful review material and idea generators. Many of these are also available elsewhere on the web but I have mirrored them here for easier access for my students at NCCU. If you are a game designer and would like to contribute an article to this archive, then feel free to email Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H. at phillips@nccu.edu.tw.

Flash Games and Other Games by Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H.

These are various freeware games I've created. Copyright stays with me but if you want to print off a copy for personal use, feel free to knock yourself out. Most of these were originally designed as activities for my English as a Foreign Language classes. Many of these are early drafts of game ideas I've since expanded in other forums.

  • Peg Board Glass Bead Games - three conversational variants of a simple Glass Bead Game by Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H..
  • Konfusion - an abstract strategy dice chess game by Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H..
  • Hearts to Heart - The English Conversation Card Game of Exploring Relationships by Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H.. This game is basically a simplified non-Tarot-based version of my Tarot Truth or Dare card game. It plays faster than the original game and is uncomplicated with Dare levels. Based upon a standard deck of cards, it is also more accessible to most students and teachers.
  • Terra 3000 - diplomacy variant set in the far future by Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H..
  • Greed: Money Power - the first version of a math skills learning game create elementary school children by Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H..
  • Greed: The Game of Wealth and Poverty - an improved version of the math skills learning game by Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H.. This version is simpler, faster, and easier to set up and get running.

  • Tarot Truth or Dare - The Tarot Card Game of Human Relationships by Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H..
  • The Pendulum Game - A question and answer game by Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H. employing the ideomotor effect.
  • Dice Games - Several dice game variants by Damond Reid. These games are specifically intended for play with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons role playing game scenarios but they work perfectly well as stand alone games too.
  • Freeform Live Role Playing Interactive Drama Scenarios - Here is a listing of various interactive dramas available on the web - local to the Shakespeare Eclectic site or elsewhere.
  • Student Live Role Play Interactive Drama Games - These are scenarios created by my students over the years..

Glass Bead Game or Glasperlenspiel Design

These are web pages which discuss designs of games which are inspired by Hermann Hesse's Nobel Prize winning novel, Magister Ludi: The Glass Bead Game. In the novel, Hesse describes a futuristic utopian society in which The Glass Bead Game is played by demonstrating connections between ideas (this is a simplistic summary of the concept, read the damned book for a better idea of whatever the hell it's about). Hess describes the game ideas but he doesn't go into detail on the mechanics of the system. Quite a few folks have taken this as a challenge and have decided to create their own variations or Glass Bead Games. Some designers consider the creation of a true Glass Bead Game to be something of a Holy Grail of Game Design akin to Unified Field Theory. These variations represent a gamut of subtle and meditative to simple and conversational.

Excellent Glass Bead Game Resources

Discussions about the Glass Bead Game

  • GBG-List - a mailing list for the discussion of the Waldzell Glass Bead Game.

Glass Bead Games

  • Peg Board Glass Bead Games - three Flash Game conversational variants of a simple Glass Bead Game by Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H.. The game uses an open board which expands as ideas are added to create pictures with pegs and strings representing the concepts and links in play.
  • HipBone Games - games to enchant the spirit and stretch the mind, thus giving purpose to body and honoring earth. This site contains the boards, rules, and some sample games from Charles Cameron's HipBone Family of Games, GBG-inspired games which include his "WaterBird" and "TenStones" games.
  • Center for Ludic Synergy - site devoted to developing Kennexions, a very kool game based upon an Old Norse analogy word game.
  • Waldzell - Mark Line's very sophisticated Glass Bead Game.
  • Glass Plate Game Dunbar Aitkens has a playable game called the "Glass Plate Game", which is played "face to face" using numbered cubes, small color transparencies and "idea" cards with brief idea titles and images (sample card: "wavicle -- light as wave and particle" with an image of two wave forms / an arrow). It's basically a "conversational game" in Dunbar's words, allowing one to map the twists and turns of a conversation in interesting ways while it's in progress. There are regular "playing" of the Glass Plate Game in Oregon.
  • Bodenheimer Gallery - Scott Bodenheimer's huge and beautiful site contains a virtual Memory Palace, a page about the GBG, and at least one game, using a rather intriguing board.

Similar but Different

Free Role Playing Games

Role Playing Games are my favorite sort of game so I wanted to include a good list of free RPGs you can find available on the Web. These are table top RPGs, if you'd like to see some excellent materials on Live Action Role Playing Games, Freeforms, and Interactive Dramas, then feel free to slip on over to my very own Shakespeare Eclectic Science Fiction Interactive Theatre for more than enough of that (actually, my Ph.D. dissertation is on that very subject).

You can find some good Role Playing Game design articles at RPG.NET's Gamer's Realm Specialty Forums page.

Design Fundamentals and Computer Game Design

This is a mega list of game design articles on the web, most of which are specifically related to computer game design but many of which discuss principles which carry over into other game design areas - cross-platform principles if you will. Some of these articles are also archived on this site for easier access for my students here at NCCU.

  • Eskil Steenberg, a graphics artist for Obsession Development presents his views on games design. While hard to read with black text on a dark grey background, it does contains a few interesting ideas.
  • Dr. Sue Peabody at the department of history (no less) at Washington State University at Vancouver has put a scanned copy of Chris Crawford's seminal book The Art of Computer Game Design on-line. Very strange, considering that Chris is still selling copies of it. Either you grab it while it is still there, or you don't.
  • Thom Gillespie, an Indiana University professor, ponders about games design in Game Design as the Model for Information Science as an Art, strange ruminations: version 1.1
  • The Dead Media Project, has republished Chris Crawford's mind-bending essay Computer Games are Dead originally published in Crawford's own Journal of Interactive Entertainment Design. The entries are divided into four parts: One, Two, Three, and Four.
  • Greg Costikyan, probably best known as the designer of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, has a few good articles on games design on his webpage:
  • Started as a supplement to the print-only magazine Game Developer, the Miller-Freeman site Gamasutra is updated bi-weekly with articles concerning all aspects of the computer games industry (many articles reprints from the aforementioned magazine). Well worth a bi-weekly visit!
  • Well-known puzzler and inversionist Scott Kim hosted a roundtable discussion at the 1997 Computer Games Developers Conference. The Designing Online Puzzle Games notes from the roundtables are available at his webpage.
  • Unlike 99.9% of all technical game pages on the web, videogamedesign.com actually interests itself in the design of games, not merely their programming. Articles and comments from, amongst others, h0l, a games designer at Eidos makes this site worth watching (especially if they drop the stupid navigation frame at the bottom).
  • Strange Creations is a depository for programming files from all around the internet. Ben Sawyer's The Getting Started Guide to Game Development FAQ (recently expanded into The Ultimate Game Developer's Sourcebook).
  • Mike Siggins, editor of Sumo, a board games magazine c/o The Game Cabinet (a bi-monthly on-line war, strategy and roleplaying (but not computer) games magazine), presents a list of games books that might be of interest to the computer games designer. The Sumo article Downsizing in Game Design also deserves attention.
  • Of interest at The Black Sheep Journal (subtitled Of Interactive Entertainment Development) is so far mostly the editor David Mullich's own articles.

Other Design Pages

Free Games

Other places . . .

Here are some of the web pages that deal with game design. If you know of others, please tell me and I'll post them.

Game Designers

As I find them, I will list here the home pages of specific game designers.

The following people are doing their own game design and are happy to share their results with you for free:

There are a number of independent-minded game publishers out there. Here are some of them.

General Game Pages

Here are some of my favorite general games pages. They also have a number of pointers that will send all over the place.

  • U.S. Patent Office - I kid you not. Use the search pages to search for new game patents. Just go to the U.S. Patent Boolean Search Page and put game in the box for Term 1 and whatever type of game you're interested in knowing about in the box for Term 2 - such as board or card. This is a hao kool function.
  • RPGnet: The Inside Scoop on Gaming - this is the definative place to find whatever needs to be found on the web in relationship to role playing games and fantasy gaming in their many incarnations. The site is maintained by my friends Sandy Antunes and Emma Kolstad Antunes. This is a very comprehensive site, well worth anyone's time. Sandy and Emma have also been kind enough to host my Shakespeare Eclectic Science Fiction Interactive Theatre pages here as the freeform resource.
  • Chess Variants - More ways to play Chess than a human should know.
  • WGRweb - from the makers of World Game Review magazine. This site is brand new. Check it out.
  • The Game Cabinet - a wonderful site, I've spent entire afternoons in the cabinet.
  • Card Games - a lot of card games
  • Play By Mail Games Page

Gaming Newsgroups

Here are some internet newsgroups which approach game design and games. Just go to the group most appropriate to your interests and have at you.

Email Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H. at phillips@nccu.edu.tw.
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