READING/PLAYING SHOULD BE DONE BEFORE CLASS UNLESS THE SCHEDULE INDICATES OTHERWISE. DOWNLOAD GAMES IN GOOD TIME TO MAKE SURE YOU CAN!
Mon Aug 26 – introduction of syllabus and selves, interests and skills
Wed Aug 28
- READ: Hamlet on the Holodeck, Chapter 5, Agency (pdf mailed to you)
- Look at examples from Library of Congress Electronic Literature and its Emerging Forms Exhibition, 2013
- Preview works from presentation categories below
- Content: what kind of ideas, stories, experiences do you want to work with/make? what tools do you employ to generate ideas?
- Logistics: set up “It Must Have Been Dark by Then” Schedule: Sharon, Gillian, Jonathan
SIGN UP FOR: IT MUST HAVE BEEN DARK BY THEN
Mon Sept 2 – LABOR DAY
Wed Sept 4 – Overview Lecture : affordances, challenges, tools based on examples on from Wed Aug 29
- Sign up for Presentations – hand in three ranked choices for presentations
ITHBDBT: Brett, Sarra, Christine
Mon Sept 9 – Origins
READ:
- “On Evolving and Emerging Literary Forms: A Curatorial Statement for ‘Electronic Literature & Its Emerging Forms” by Dene Grigar, 2013
- “E-Literature At the Library of Congress: The Catalog and the Ephemeral” by Kathi Inman Berens, 2013
- Deena Larsen’s Metaphorical Interfaces by Leonardo Flores
WATCH/PLAY:
- Project Documentation: Luc Courchesne (IN CLASS)
- explore/installations/landscape 1, 1997 (read, watch 17 min video)
- Deena Larsen Marble Springs Eastgate Systems, 1993
- MarbleSpringsExamplePresentation
Wed Sept 11 – Tools – – basic story structures -room 242
- READ: : Interactive Story Structures
- PLAY:: Choice/Texas – a twine game (trigger warning)
- Round up of skills, desires
- Twine
- Ren’Py
- HTML 5
- hello world
- html5 and css from the beginning
- HTML5 and css tutorials and documentation – html, & video javascript tool
- Game Engines
- Twitter bots and NL generation
- Locative tools
- Creative Exercise – Do the exercise here – there is no wrong way to do it! It’s an exercise to get you thinking! You may think about using the story structure ideas or not.
- First Project using tool-set you want/learning tool set continue the exercise you began on paper in the class room.
- Naming Convention lastname_projectname.html
ITHBDBT: James, Jasmine, Ishween
Mon Sept 16 – How to Present – PLAY TWO PROJECTS BEFORE CLASS
- J.R. Carpenter The Gathering Cloud
- Step 1 – Describe the project – literally and metaphorically
- content/story being told
- lay out – what changes, what stays the same
- images/text/icons/numbers
- interaction/gameplay
- Step 2 – Analysis
- purpose of lay out/images/texts/ icons/numbers
- how this lay-out tells this story
- how this interaction/gameplay tells this story
- experience of playing/reading
- Step 1 – Describe the project – literally and metaphorically
- Alan Bigelow The Shoot Out
- Step 1 – Describe the project – literally and metaphorically
- content/story being told
- lay out of project – different “pages” – what is on each one?
- images/text/icons/sound/design
- interaction/gameplay
- Step 2 – Analysis
- purpose of lay out/images/texts/icons/design
- how this lay-out serves this purpose
- how this interaction/gameplay tells this story
- experience of playing/reading
- Step 1 – Describe the project – literally and metaphorically
Wed Sept 18 – Programmatic/procedural story/poetry
- READ: Jason Edward Lewis et al, “Making kin with the machines.” AI-Human relationships
- IN CLASS WATCH first 1:30 minutes: Janet Murray on Eliza
- IN CLASS WATCH first 10 minutes: Allison Parrish – Exploring (Semantic) Space With (Literal) Robots
- IN CLASS WATCH Kate Compton (~30 ins): Bot Poetics
- CHECK OUT: NaNoGenMo – spend November writing code to write a novel
- e.g I Waded in Clear Water by Allison Parrish
- CHECK OUT: Michael Mateas et al. Playabl.ai
- READ ABOUT:
- Sheldon County by James Ryan
- For sleepers in the quiet earth by Sofian Audry
- Naho Matsuda EVERY THING EVERY TIME ‘data poetry’
- Pitch ideas for a group project, if any
- Workshops on particular tech/OR/work on first project
- Kate Compton’s Tracery – try the online tutorial
ITHBDBT: Jianghao, Elijah, Sean M, Jeremy
Mon Sept 23 – Games and Story
- READ or WATCH
- VideoGames as Unnatural Narrative by Astrid Ensslin
https://vimeo.com/132324039
https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/files/7178360/PDB5367-00.pdf
- VideoGames as Unnatural Narrative by Astrid Ensslin
- Violence Hub – in class exercise
Wed Sept 25– First Project DUE – room 246
- Show, tell.
- BRING Project on thumb drive and load it onto computer – see twine info above for saving project
- START Final Project, Elevator Pitch + 1-2 Page Project Proposal + Planning documents DUE ON OCT 9
ITHBDBT: Tom K, Derek, Hansel, Kyle H
Mon Sept 30 – Panel Presentation 1: Playing with Story, Narrating Games
PANEL WILL PRESENT: James Pollard, Jasmine Lindsay, Tom Kang, Sharon Stack (first meeting Friday Sept 12)
- Braid by Jonathan Blow
- The Stanley Parable by Davey Wreden
- Save the Date by Chris
Wed Oct 2 – Eliza and playing with natural language (10-11 r.235, 11-11:50 r. 246)
BEFORE CLASS – make a twitter account
- Talking version of Eliza, standard version of Eliza
- Taroko Gorge by Nick Montfort, and variations and how to make your own remix
- CheapBotsDoneQuick
- PLANNING DOCS CHECK IN
ITHBDBT: Josep, Jianhui, Shijia
Mon Oct 7 – Panel Presentation 2: Forest 404 Podcast
PANEL WILL PRESENT: Brett Kolodny, Sarra Souissi, Eli Straus
- Forest 404 – podcasts: story plus soundscapes plus lectures
Wed Oct 9 – (room 235)
- Deliver Elevator Pitch descriptions of Project
- Hand in 1-2 Page proposal
- Further Discussion of Planning Documents
Mon Oct 14 – Panel Presentation 3: Playing with your Mind
PANEL WILL PRESENT: Hansel Almonte, Derek Chin, Gillian Rose
Wed Oct 16 – Panel Presentation 4: Web series/Social Media
PANEL WILL PRESENT : Ishween Jolly, Christina Soto, Andrew Laspesa, Kyle Hauptli
- Lizzie Bennet Diaries by Hank Green and Bernie Su
Mon Oct 21– Panel Presentation 5: Electronic Literature Organization Winners/Honorable Mentions
PANEL WILL PRESENT: TBA
- Little Emperor Syndrome by David Thomas Henry Wright
- The Winnipeg by Maria Mencia
- Novelling by Luers, Smith, Dean
- Arriving Simultaneously on Multiple Far-Flung Systems by Judy Malloy
Wed Oct 23 – Project Progress Check in: (10-11 r. 246, 11-11-50 r. 235)
Mon Oct 28 – Panel Presentation 6: (Why) Work without Words
PANEL WILL PRESENT: Jonathan Doroski, Shihia Zheng, Jianhui Yu
- The Path by Tale of Tales (Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn)
- The Path Post Mortem
- The Contradiction Of Linearity, Michael Samyn

Wed Oct 30
*** TEST PLAYING first version of PROJECTS ** (room 246)
Mon Nov 4 – Panel Presentation 7: Firewatch
PANEL WILL PRESENT:Joseph Demartino, Sean Mansfield, Jeremy Lares, Jianghao Wu (Kyle)
- Firewatch
- Walking, Talking and Playing with Masculinities in Firewatch by Melissa Kagen, Game Studies, volume 18 issue 2 September 2018
Wed Nov 6
- Should filmmakers learn to code?
- IDFA Doclab Documentary storytelling in the age of interface
- MIT Open Doc Lab
Mon Nov 11 – Locative Media
- READ: A Manifesto for Ambient Literature by Tom Abba
- WILL HAVE ALREADY PLAYED: “It Must Have Been Dark by then.” By Duncan Speakman/Ambient Lit
- READ ABOUT:
- Radio Aporee/Mobile Miniatures https://aporee.org/aporee.html
Wed Nov 13 – (room 246)
- Samantha Gorman Pry for iphone, ipad
- Jason Edward Lewis – Poetry for Excitable [Mobile] Media
Mon Nov 18 – (room 235)
- Cayley The Listeners Project for Alexa
- Nine affects Silvan Tomkins
- Patrick Carman, Skeleton Creek – book + online videos
- Summary begin (see homework)
HOMEWORK Choose 1 – Pry, the Listeners, Carman
- summarize the story
- summarize everything not the story
- think about how best to combine these
- 250 min/400 max word limit
- bring for wednesday
- will be working in small groups with people who chose the same project on perfecting the summary
Wed Nov 20 – BRING PROJECT TO WORK ON
- Logistics for critiques
- Summaries – reports
- Round Up
Mon Nov 25 – ONLINE CLASS
- Third generation electronic literature (I hr 29 ins) Guest Lecture by Leonardo Flores at the University of Bergen (January 31, 2018)
- Watch video – note three points that interested you, summarize what Flores said, comment on these points, send you commentary by email to me. Commentary length min 250 max 500 words.
Mon Dec 2 – CRITIQUES 3 (10-11 r. 246, 11-11:50 r. 235)
The following will show their projects. PLEASE come to room 246 5-10 mins early to set up. Come with an estimate of how long your play/read through is.
Sean M, Gillian M, Derek, Eli, Shijia, James, Jianhui, Jeremy, Brett & Sarra
Wed Dec 4 – CRITIQUES 4 (10-11 r. 246, 11-11:50 r. 235)
The following will show their projects. PLEASE come to room 246 5-10 mins early to set up. Come with an estimate of how long your play/read through is.
Joseph, Shawn, Jonathan, Sharon, Ishween, Hansel, Jasmine, Christina, Jianghao/Kyle, Tom
Saturday Dec 14 – Final Project Final Deadline
- Electronic version – that I can play!
- html + assets files for twine
- mac executable for renPy
- web-browser playable version for unity
- other – talk to me
- KEEP and/or CONTINUE PROJECT to SHOW NEXT STUDENT SHOW!!!