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"Speculative Game Design"
In this
talk I will consider a design manifesto of using games as speculative
designs through which players might explore scenarios that represent
plausible alternative presents and speculative futures. The talk will
review future orientated design techniques such as Design Fiction and
Critical Design, to create a new manifesto for Speculative Design that
is informed by other game design approaches, such as Critical Play,
Persuasive Games, and Procedural Rhetoric. The manifesto aims to provide
a design frame for desirable and productive future practice when
creating games that facilitate discussions around complex societal
challenges.
Bio:
Paul Coulton is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Design
within Lancaster University’s open and exploratory, design-led research
lab, ImaginationLancaster in LICA. His research predominantly falls
into what is considered as Game Studies, an area of research that deals
with the critical study of digital and non-digital games. More
specifically, it focuses on game design, players and their role in
society and culture. This means that Game Studies has evolved naturally
as an inter-disciplinary field with researchers and academics from a
multitude of areas, such as design, computer science, psychology,
sociology, anthropology, philosophy, arts and literature, media studies
and communication, etc. This activity is embodied primarily as ‘research
through design’ and, in particular, design theories developed through
the design of novel, hybrid, physical/digital interactive games, playful
experiences, and artefacts.