VG101: Videogames 101

A videogame design pedagogy built on Gesture + Aesthetic Heritage.

This knowledge base teaches videogame design as its own medium. Not borrowed film theory, not programming-first, but videogames as a medium of action with inherited craft traditions.

The goal: break the gamer taboo and accept the medium in its entirety. Not just product or entertainment, not just art. Both and neither. The creations that take full advantage of the medium know this.

Core Framework

Gesture

The surface area of contact between player and videogame. Often not a single action. Not a fixed size. The sum of everything happening when a videogame is being played. It can be a micro-moment or an entire videogame.

The 4 A's

What compose a Gesture, inseparable when played, separable when analyzed:

  • Action: What the videogame has the player do (including absence of interaction)
  • Art: Art direction, lighting, staging, camera grammar, composition, sound design, and their heritage
  • Arc: The amount of time. A micro-moment, a long moment, or an entire videogame
  • Atmosphere: The feeling and vibe experienced from the videogame

Aesthetic Heritage

Where many of the influences in each "A" come from. The lineage. What the videogame inherits, quotes, or transforms from other videogames and other media. Videogames are an aesthetic medium, and all four "A's" are aesthetic choices with lineages.

Permissions

The limits and boundaries of the experience. What the system allows, requires, forbids, intentionally or not. The container the Gesture happens inside.

Philosophy

  • Accessibility is craft, not compliance. Good design is accessible design.
  • Debugging is literacy. Understanding why things break makes you a better designer.
  • Code is material. Like clay or paint, it has properties, resistances, possibilities.
  • Videogames are neither just products nor just art. They are both and neither.

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