Game Magic
Speaker: Jeff Howard (Game/Narrative Professor – Dakota
State University)
--
Preface:
1) Game Magic Systems -
representations and design in games
2) Magic books
Game magic and magic books are interrelated - learn about one,
learn a lot about the other
1)
Player fantasy - fall inside of a book
2)
"All fantasy creates an alternate reality; All
occultism creates both augmented reality and alternate realities; Games can do
both"
3)
Augmented reality - projection of virtual info
onto the real world
a.
Magicians have been trying to do this for millennia
4)
The Tree of Life is an overlay on the existing
world
a.
The ToL has numbers, colors, letters, and
information that represents real-life forms and functions
Read: Alan Moore "The Voice of the Fire"
Magic overlays a vision of imaginary symbols onto the world;
concepts are drawn from this that cause results that otherwise may not exist
LED contacts; Google glasses
1)
Sight - The Eye of Horus
a.
used to represent mathematical fractions
b.
used to represent senses
2)
Evil Eye - focusing hard enough to 'see' a
symbol in your world
Gestural systems trace symbols into the world - can be 2D or
3D
Grimoire - Middle-English for grammar
1)
combine symbols to construct meaning
2)
energize imaginative practice
3)
a guide to doing things in the world
4)
not all are created equal
a.
many are poor
b.
the few good are really good
Books:
Occult authors/books/publishers create interactive experiences;
game designers can learn from this!
Living - give into the book
(falling into stories)
Demon - enslaved by it (falling into
stories)
Talismanic - take from the book (etc.)
Final thought:
Computer Programming is like communicating with a spirit; it
needs to be precise, and if it is successful, it will do what you need it to do
in extraordinary ways.
