> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://marc-saurette.gitbook.io/historical-game-studies-2024/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://marc-saurette.gitbook.io/historical-game-studies-2024/fundamentals/history-game-design.md). # History Game Design ### Goals: * Consider how to design a History Game * Examine examples of history games designs and evaluate the success or the compromises necessary to the process. * Begin work on exercise 5: this framework will give you the structure to complete your annotated bibliography. Potential Questions: * Rouse's chapter on Game Design highlights their key idea about game design - player choice. In the games that you play, how important is having the ability to solve a challenge in different ways? Which games do this best, do you find? And how, if you were creating a history game, would you balance player choice with historical accuracy? * Grufstedt approaches the idea of game design from an analytical perspective - she is analyzing as a historian the history of history-game design at Paradox. She (p. 77) talks about how Rockstar games use History as "clout" - a way to signal authenticity more for marketing than a game pillar. Or Assassin's Creed series uses the claim historical consultancy to "pre-empt criticism". Do you see that in other games and should this concern us as historians? * What is a counterfactual game in Grufstedt's writing? How might students apply her definition to their own research? ### Read/Watch/Listen: * Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, ed. *The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies*, chp. 20, "Game Design" * Darren Reid; Video Game Development as Public History: Practical Reflections on Making a Video Game for Historical Public Engagement. *The Public Historian* 1 February 2024; 46 (1): 74–107. doi: * Y. Grufstedt, *Shaping the Past: Counterfactual History and Game Design Practice in Digital Strategy Games*, chp. 2. Case Studies: * F. Klaassen. "Game Development in a Senior Seminar" in *Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games*. * [Virtus card deck and rules](http://historygames.usask.ca/islandora/object/historygames%3A10) * A. Clulow et al. "[Designing Historical Video Game](https://notevenpast.org/designing-historical-video-games/)s" * ### Going further Kevin Kee et al., “Towards a Theory of Good History Through Gaming,” *The Canadian Historical Review* 90, no. 2 (2009): 303–26 Julien A. Bazile, “An ‘Alternative to the Pen’? Perspectives for the Design of Historiographical Videogames,” *Games and Culture* 17, no. 6 (2022): 856 Dawn Spring, “Gaming History: Computer and Video Games as Historical Scholarship,” *Rethinking History* 19, no. 2 (2015): 207 Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek, "MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research", Tanenbaum, T. J., Gardner, D., & Cowling, M. (2017). "[Chalk, Props, And Costumes](https://analoggamestudies.org/2017/07/2716/): Two Exercises for Teaching Pervasive Game Design." *Analog Game Studies*, 4(4), ETC Press. pp 232 – 248 Tim Somers, [Making Historical Boardgames](https://qubpublichistory.wordpress.com/2019/10/07/making-historical-board-games/#_ftn2) (blog post, October 7, 2019) * [Cards and rulebooks](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PKYX8NaWyutnHMbKhqsXW20L7OwrxiMr?usp=sharing)