Corso di laurea in Scienze della Comunicazione

The first part of the teaching will be devoted to video games and will provide students with essential skills for understanding and designing digital games.  In terms of understanding them, how video games produce meaningful experiences and convey messages through their unique features will be explained. Key concepts for understanding the sociocultural relevance of digital games and contemporary gaming practices will also be provided. From a design perspective, male and female students will learn how to write a Game Design Document, learn what the different stages and aspects of producing a video game are, and discover some software that allows them to create video games even without having programming skills. Finally, thanks to the countless examples that will be used, by the end of the course students will possess a cross-temporal and cross-genre video game culture.

Second part:

Da definire.

The expected outcomes for the first part of learning are the acquisition of the fundamental theoretical concepts for the study of videogames along with knowledge of the basic technical terminology for their professional design. Students will therefore be able to apply humanities to videogame texts both for the purpose of making analyses and to design audiovisual ludo-narratives with a strong communicative impact. Finally, students will gain a knowledge of some of the most important titles and authors in the history of video games. 

This part of the workshop introduce students to some topics concerning the organization of live music events. It is important that participants understand the key topics: developing a vision for a musical event, creating a budget, choosing the best venue and date, Identifying event partners and sponsors, planning a marketing campaign, determining tech needs and learning to monitoring the projects. Event organizers combine creative skills with more practical ones.

Classes will be held in attendance and attendance is compulsory; only 20 percent absent hours can be made.

For the first part of the teaching, students will have to hand in a paper (Word or Powerpoint) of up to two pages in which they will design a video game and justify their choices.

For the second part of the teaching, students will have to develop a simple project of an event that will be discussed orally.

First part of the course:

Lecture1: Introduction to the course and definition of video game. Lecture 2: Semiotic Excursus of the history of video games from 1958 to 1988. Lecture 3: Video game narration and narrativity. Lecture 4: Non-linear and spatial ludo-narrative of digital games. Lecture 5: Participatory culture, intertextuality and video game enunciation. Lecture 6: Economies, effort and rhetorics of video gaming. Lecture 7: Digital technology, artificial intelligence and hacker culture. 8: Classroom gaming session. 9: Classroom game creation and summary of previous lectures.

Second part of the course:

A workshop in event management teaches students how to plan all aspects of events and gives them an idea of what challenges to expect. One of the major benefits is the versatility of the skills students will gain in a variety of different fields, theoretical and practical. Main goal is to give studens key event planning steps and also giving them critical thinking tools. A guest speaker (organizer, musician, critic, expert) comes to the classroom to tell stories about her/his experience in the music business.

The bibliography will be given during the lectures.

Da definire.