ENG218H5 | Interactive Storytelling and Worldmaking
This course examines the deep history and extraordinary diversity of interactive storytelling, with a focus on narrative art in digital games, transmedia/cross-platform projects, alternate reality and pervasive games, theme parks, and immersive performances, as well as literary texts and films. We will consider forms (e.g., riddles, parables, metafiction, branching narratives) that require participatory agency, choice-based and emergent storytelling, as well as genres (e.g., creation myths, planetary romances, travelogues, adventure fiction, Expressionist cinema) that discover or assemble a narrative by traversing a world. We will also explore the contexts and theoretical grounds of reader- and player-centric approaches.
ENG263H5 | Play and Games
Why do we play? Game designers, philosophers, sociologists, and performance theorists have long argued that play can tell us about our development as children and adults, our search for freedom, our relationship to animals, and the values and problems of our societies. This course introduces students to Play Studies and Game Studies in the humanities by considering the reasons we play in relationship to the objects we play with, including things that are more normally thought of as games—card and board games, sports, toys, video games—as well as other sites of playful thought and action, like paintings, films, and short stories. Students in this course will encounter major scholars of play and games and key terms and concepts in the analysis of play and games. We will play and design story-rich games and we will discuss effective narrative design primarily in digital games. Students will also consider problems in play and games like cheating, addiction, and gamification.
ENG279H5 | History of Video Games
This course introduces students to the history of video games from early arcade cabinets and personal computers to home video game consoles and mobile devices in everyday life. It considers the role of culture, technology, and marketing in the formation of interactive texts, genres, and play experiences. Students will be exposed to unique primary sources in the Syd Bolton Collection of video games and the Electric Playground Media Archive of historical game industry footage through course content, lectures, and assignments.
ENG319H5 | Sexuality, Race, and Gender in Video Games and Gaming Culture
This course investigates representation and identity in and through digital games. Students will primarily consider gender, race, sexuality, and the non-human world in relation to the complex circuits of desire, projection, and disguise that exist among players, avatars, non-player characters, and other gamers. Students will interpret and critique both blockbuster AAA games with large development budgets and production teams as well as small-scale indie and experimental games and will learn about expressive, critical, and avant-garde design and play practices. The class will also discuss games as instruments of persuasion, protest, social change, and community formation.
ENG324H5 | Special Topic in Game Studies
A concentrated study of one facet of Game Studies, such as a genre, mechanic, or era in gaming, an aspect of game design, production, or reception, or the application of a specific critical approach. Topics may vary from year to year.
ENG328H5 | Writing for Games and Narrative Design
This course introduces students to the planning and implementation of writing for video games as well as the role of the narrative designer in game development. Students will practice multiple collaborative forms of game writing (e.g., flow charts, quest outlines, character descriptions, flavour text, non-player character dialogue, cut scenes, storyboard scripts), level design, and player experience creation. Students will learn to use design and editing tools as well as iterative processes of revising game writing to augment gameplay and game features. Students will also learn to analyze and critique diverse game narratives and will discuss careers in game writing.
ENG410H5 | Seminar: Critical Game Studies
Advanced study of a topic in critical game studies that addresses urgent and evolving questions in critical approaches to games, e.g., defining games, play and players, game production, violence in games, and the social and pedagogical benefits of games.