Last night’s class was perhaps the best yet. Starting out by going over video games as art and as a device for self expression (not only for the creator and artist, but for the player as well), with the aforementioned hacked version of Super Mario as a focal point. Touched upon the Tekken Torture Tournament as well, along with a 17 minute long video of someone playing Tomb Raider but dying over and over again, and on purpose, which I caught at some exhibit at BAM a few years ago.
Went over homework and was pleasantly surprised by some of the ideas. Based on the reaction upon assigning it, I didn’t expect a serious effort, but a few did try hard to improve upong a game that they admittedly did not care for.
The in-class assignment was to create a puzzle game. Once again they were put in groups, but unlike last week, there were no set criteria to adhere to and the game had to be playable in class. And once more, there were looks of shock and confusion from almost everyone, but I assured them to trust their instincts (puzzle solving is one of the most basic skills that humans display) and to use what they knew. Plus, I explained, I got my job at Ubi Soft in a similar “just being thrown into the thick of things” kind of way.
It was simply amazing seeing these kids (okay, many of these folks are either my age or older, so I shouldn’t say that) go at it and overhearing their thought processes. They had at their disposal just sheets of plain white paper, scissors, and colored markers; just watching them construct all the elements, and listening them fine tune the rules, made me feel very proud.
This was also the first time where I actually asked how they felt about the class and was elated to hear that everyone’s really digging the chance to talk, analyze, and make games. I also spoke to them more personally, less as a teacher, but more as just some guy who also likes video games, and you could say some bonding took place. Plus there was some playful jabbing aimed at my artistic abilitiles, which led to me drawing two evil worms for the class. And I hope this doesn’t sound too egotistical, but I always love hearing people say that they’ve never met a person who know so much about, or has played as many games as I have 
By the end there wasn’t enough time to play all the games as planned (it was a far more challenging, and time consuming, endeavor than last week’s), so instead of rushing, everyone will get a chance to test each other’s efforts next week. Plus I still need to continue the history of the industry, and go over their main game concepts, which is their finals. And at this point, I had hoped we would be playing actual video games; the classics, via MAME. I still want the chance to ask question to someone as they’re playing Robotron. Once again, eight weeks is not nearly enough time…
