Elevator Speech

Going on the air with ELPO - ELPO stands for Emeralda: Learn Printmaking Online—a project that has been years in development. Now there’s a chance to give an elevator speech on the radio, and the concept designer tries his hand at writing text for the team’s great, idealistic notion.268 Words. sp100210. ©2010 Bill Ritchie.

Curious Sense

Taking a look at an interesting game company - The author, ever on the lookout for a partner to develop a printmaking learning game, focuses on one of the companies that made the casual game for REO Speedwagon. Having completed the game after weeks of play/deconstruction, he discovers a nice surprise. 772 Words. ps100208. ©2010 Bill Ritchie.

No Telling

Show—don’t tell - This advice is engraved in this artist’s memory as he plots a course taking his fifty-year career into the world of digital games. Ever the art professor, he will link games to his native art form, which is printmaking. He is inventing a printmaking game. 400 Words. pp100207. ©2010 Bill Ritchie.

First Class

Consider this an online course - While completing a four-part tutorial he calls Mastering the Art of A Digital Game, the inventor considers offering his tutorial to people who invested in another one of his invention designs—a miniature etching press—which he believes to be interrelated.328 Words. os100206. ©2010 Bill Ritchie

Obstacle Course

Printmaking is a universal language among artists - At his gallery again, the inventor of a game for printmakers sits down to his routine task of playing a video game and learn from it what the next move might be for his brainchild, a computer game which, when you play it, you learn more about printmaking. 432 Words. mr100205. ©2010 Bill Ritchie.

Hidden Messages

On the trail of a game - This art professor—who has no university—would like nothing more than to create a digital game for learning that is a work of art as well as a wonderful, meaningful game. He wants to hide all his assets in this game for students to find. How can he do it? 983 Words. vp100202. ©2010 Bill Ritchie.

Back Story

A great game needs a great story behind it - The path to making a great digital game is a long one, beginning with a story and setting in motion a hero’s journey. The same is true for a learning game. A game for teaching printmaking is uppermost in the author’s mind as he writes a back story for it. 358 Words. ri100201. ©2010 Bill Ritchie

Sunday Paydirt

Hitting pay dirt in a game - It seems to him like he’s hit pay dirt at last. “Pay dirt” comes from the gold rush days, when you find gold in your diggings. Digging into a casual game to find clues in making a printmaking game, the author comes to a mini game that seems to be useful. 334 Words. sp100131. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Meaning and Meaningless

Organizing snapshots in a casual game - In the game by REO Speedwagon called “Find your own way home” the player finds several instances of arranging snapshots in some order. Often there is no meaning to the order. It’s arbitrary. In order to make a serious game, some meaningful order is needed. 631 Words. ri100130. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Another Minigame

Adapting a casual game to a serious game - His project stretches his creativity. Inventing a truly new game is like that. On the other hand, he knows there’s nothing new under the sun. Yet all around are ways to make a new way of learning printmaking easy and more entertaining—like computer games. 432 Words. ps100129. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Your Mission

Four steps to game analysis and adaptation - The game inventor must practice every day with a four-part exercise in game analysis and adaptation. With a popular game by another artistic group (a classic rock group in this instance) he or she must complete four tasks in an hour or less and report it. 696 Words. os100127. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Adaptation Game

Your ability to change is in the cards - In a commentary on the failure of the species Neanderthal, this artist—a printmaker—illustrates how to play a card game called Adaptation as a way of adopting new technologies to teaching, learning, researching, practicing and providing community service. 386 Words. mr100126. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Closet Musician

Let the music be heard in a printmaking world - He postulated there is a connection between printmaking and music. In printmaking you make plates and print them repeatedly. In music you write the score, or improvise, and do this over and over. A good game needs music, and he finds an idea how to do it. 789 Words. es100125. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Story Arc

Good games have good back stories - An Emeralda Game Inventor has a routine going for him. To invent a game, he must play it. How do you play a game that hasn’t been invented? It’s like asking, How do you follow a star that hasn’t yet risen? It’s the artist’s way, and game invention is art. 359 Words. vp100123. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Boring Games

Boredom sets in this time around - His self-assigned task is to play a computer game out to its end, but it gets tougher and tougher because the games follow the same form. Halfway through the game he’s had it, but there is still work to do—which is to come up with his own printmaking game. 684 Words. sp100121. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Reverse Engineering

Taking a game apart and putting it together - His morning routine is to take a computer game apart and put it back together, but changing the pictures in the game. He takes a classic rock music group’s game, lists how many mini games are in it, and draws a new design for a game about his printmaking. 628 Words. ap100114. ©2010 Bill Ritchie

MOO Power

Harnessing human creativity in mediums-of-origination - Fifty years after his initial lessons in mediums of producing graphics, photography and text in his high school annual class, this author’s sure it is the power of MOO (Medium-of-Origination) is central to multimedia arts—including computer game creation. 1954 Words. os100107. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request.