Games for Good

a Discovery Core Experience

May be taken as either a BCORE 110 (Natural Sciences) or BCORE 104 (Arts & Humanities)

About This Course

Games are simulations. Games are narratives. Games are puzzles. Games are advertisements. Games are commentary on social issues. Games are all those and more.

Games are a form of rhetoric, a chance for the game designer to present to the player their world view.

We will explore how games tackle social issues, everything from climate change to politics to education to cancer. You will play games, dissect their meaning and build your own game using GameMaker software to share with others.

Together, we will explore computational thinking and storytelling through the lens of game design.

Dr. Yusuf Pisan (he/him/his)

School of Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics

About Professor Pisan

Pisan is an Associate Teaching Professor in the School of Computing & Software Systems Division at the University of Washington Bothell. Previously he has worked at University of Technology, Sydney, and has been a visiting professor at Harvey Mudd College, University of Southern California, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), IT University of Copenhagen (ITU).

His research interests include enabling technologies for computer games, the design of virtual environments that support collaborative work, and computer science education. He founded the Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment conference series and helped foster the Australian games community. His list of publications can be found at Google Scholar.

Yusuf has a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from Northwestern University. Before moving to Seattle in 2017, Yusuf lived in the Chicago area for 10 years and Sydney for 20 years.

For more information, see:

Contact

Phone: 425.352.3741 (email is better)
Email: pisan@uw.edu