Games Now! for Master studentsLaajuus (3 op)

Osaamistavoitteet

Games Now! is an open lecture series on the dominant issues and emerging trends in games. The topics are curated in collaboration with Finnish game industry veterans and our top companies. After completing the course, the student will be familiar with the current trends and issues in the games industry. The student will be able to combine industry information with research topics and produce a research article on a selected topic.

Sisältö

The course content is provided by Aalto University Games Now! (GN!) series.

GN! Lectures online either live or recorded
GN! Podcast
GN! Community

Oppimateriaalit

https://gamesnow.aalto.fi/

Arviointikriteerit, kiitettävä (5)

Attended 4 or more GN! Event Days and consistently participated in the GN! Discord server with meaningful posts throughout the course. Completed 6 or more lecture assignments with a strong understanding of the course topics and the ability to describe them in a comprehensive manner. Written an outstanding 2000-3000 word academic paper that thoroughly explored the chosen topic or sub-theme of a lecture. Utilised more than 4 academic references, demonstrating critical thinking and strict compliance with citation and formatting guidelines.

Arviointikriteerit, hyvä (3)

Attended 2-3 GN! Event Days or was moderately active on the GN! Discord server with regular posts. Completed 6 lecture assignments with a good understanding of the course topics and the ability to describe them effectively. Written a solid academic paper of 2000-3000 words, exploring the chosen topic or sub-theme of a lecture. Used at least 2-4 academic references and followed citation and formatting guidelines effectively.

Arviointikriteerit, tyydyttävä (1)

Attended 2 GN! Event Day or was somewhat active on the GN! Discord server, with occasional posts. Completed 6 lecture assignments with a basic understanding of the course topics and some ability to describe them. Written a 2000-3000 word academic paper exploring the chosen topic or sub-theme of a lecture, but lacking depth or critical analysis. Used 2 academic references with some problems of citation and formatting.

Lisätiedot

https://gamesnow.aalto.fi/
https://www.twitch.tv/gamesnowaaltofi

Toteutustavat

Active Attendance: The course requires your active attendance to the GN! community. In order to pass the course, we require you to be either actively present on the GN! Event Days or be an active member of GN! Discord server. Required minimum attendance is participation of 2 GN! Event Days. Register your participation in the beginning of the event online (Discord). Pre-registration might be required for full value of the events.

Lecture Assignments: The lecture assignments can be done prior to the lectures as pre-assignments (based on the description of the talks) or after the lectures as post-assignments (based on the lecture recording). The post-assignments require more work from you. Prioritize working on pre-assignments instead of post-assignments. Minimum of 6 lecture assignments are required to pass the course. Pre-assignment and post-assignment of the same lecture are not counted twice (you can still do the both, but they do not count towards the required amount). You can do post-assignments also based on talks from previous GN! seasons if you have not yet received study credits from the year of that lecture.

Research Track (ministudy + report): Pick one of the topics of the lectures of 2022-23 and write an academic short paper of 2000-3000 words further exploring the theme (or a sub theme) of that lecture. You can work alone or in a group (word limit stays the same in multi-author projects). Example research approaches:
Literature review (piecing together what has been researched on the topic)
Discourse analysis (e.g. critically analysing what game media has been writing on the topic)
Survey (conducting a small online survey with a minimum of 10 respondents )
Interview study (conducting a short interview study with minimum of 2 interviewees)
Game analysis (deep-reading a game utilizing a play diary)
Market analysis (analysing the existing competition of tool/game/service)
It is mandatory to utilize at least 2 academic references. In-text citation is required.

Plan your work so that you have approximately 40 hours available for your ministudy (excluding the report writing). Scoping is important here: your study does not need to have actual academic impact.

(Participate in a minimum of 4 GN! Research Track Meetings. )

Suoritustavat

Active attendance - participation in GN! Event days (minimum 2)
Minimum of 6 lecture assignments submitted
Participation in GN! Research Track: Conduct a ministudy + Submitting track report as an article
(Participation in GN! Track Meetings on Discord)