Also, don’t forget that UC Santa Cruz’s 2013 “Inventing the Future of Games” symposium is focused on interactive storytelling. It will take place at the Computer History Museum (Mountain View, CA) on May 10th, featuring speakers ranging from groundbreaking game designer Warren Spector to interactive fiction author and system designer Emily Short.

The day will include a keynote from Warren Spector (Deus Ex, Epic Mickey) and closing remarks from Brenda Romero (Wizardry, Train). The first panel will discuss where current practice is going, featuring Clint Hocking (Valve), Kevin Bruner (Telltale), and Richard Rouse (Microsoft). The next panel engages next-generation tools and authorship, featuring Emily Short (Linden Lab), Asa Kalama (Disney), and Stéphane Bura (Storybricks). The last panel dives into immersive and transmedia storytelling, featuring Matt MacLaurin (eBay), Susan Bonds (42 Entertainment), and Tawny Schlieski (Intel) — with interactive storytelling field founder Brenda Laurel as moderator/interlocutor.

Finally, as with our last symposium, I expect the audience will contain a greater number of exciting thinkers and creators than the speakers list. For that reason we’ve built in lots of time for eating, drinking, and talking — including a long lunch and a closing cocktail party. I hope you can join us.

Official Announcement!

http://www.neh.gov/divisions/odh/grant-news/announcing-23-digital-humanities-start-grant-awards-march-2013

I’ve already written elsewhere about the piece generally, but I’d like to speak here to why I created a project like this as a computer science PhD student in a lab focused on something called “Expressive Intelligence.” The easiest answer is that I started the project when I was still a freewheeling hippie digital arts student, and am only just getting around to finishing it now (perhaps not coincidentally, I’ve just finished my core classes, too). But as a graduate student I’m used to delving deeper, so let’s delve.

During my MFA I was interested in moving away from the relative safety of parser-based interactive fiction, where I’d done some reasonably successful projects, and exploring new ways of making narrative text interactive. Now that I’m in a computer science program, I’m tightening that focus to be more explicitly the ways that generative methods and interesting processes can inform an authored narrative, but looking at things from the perspective of an artist (wanting to create an aesthetically pleasing artifact) rather than just a system-builder (wanting to create an aesthetically pleasing machine). If I make interesting machines along the way, I’ll be pleased (and so, I imagine, will my eventual dissertation committee) but it’s not really my primary goal. This puts me in a different space than many people working in interactive narrative, and also helps keep me sane as an artsy person in an algorithmsy environment.

Last year I made a short story called Almost Goodbye that minimally explored being both an interesting story and an interesting machine, but at first glance 18 Cadence seems to be neither of these things. It gives you a hundred years of a house’s history: thousands of fragments of events, objects, locations, and ages, but the job of assembling them into a narrative is left to you. (The granularity is smaller than in an avant-garde novel where you might assemble the pages in any order you like, but there’s less structure than a hypertext fiction with a fixed number of links and possible connections.) Not only is it a DIY story, there isn’t any fancy narrative AI system under the hood: no simulated environment a user can become embodied within, no algorithms that attempt to understand story structure or reason over character motivation. There’s a certain amount of lexical logic involved in making the fragments fluidly combinable while retaining their grammatical correctness, able to adjust their pronouns based on proximity to each other and so forth, but that’s more or less it.

Are there expressive processes, though? In a sense: there are at least processes for enabling expression. The piece allows you to remix, share, and browse stories made from its reasonably large (about 35,000 word) content library, and a lot of the affordances offered within are tools for more easily expressing yourself. Like cut-up fiction or magnetic fridge poetry, it’s a curiously restricted form of expression, but capable of surprising results. As with the editor in the 2004 film The Final Cut, you’re given a life and asked to make a story out of it: the possibility space is larger than it might seem at first. Your tools are an ability to explore how a certain place changes through time (an idea found in, among many other places, the fascinating 1989 comic Here), virtual scissors and glue, and (crucially) the ability to easily share your creations with others and browse what others have made. My goal in part is for people to not just explore 18 Cadence but also express something with it: a moment they particularly liked, an interesting juxtaposition they noticed, the story of a secret or a downfall or a quiet hero, even stories or poems that cleverly repurpose the existing text to make new things.

I’m fascinated by open-world games like Minecraft or Skyrim that let users create their own narratives out of emergent behaviors, but I feel like isolating and experimenting with that process of narrative-building is an interesting step towards building something more computationally sophisticated around it. How do we make narratives that are meaningful to ourselves, and how could intelligent digital storytellers help us in that process? 18 Cadence won’t win any AI awards but I think it points in an interesting direction for future exploration, and that, I hope, is cool too.

We have just now posted the job for the first of these positions, the Creative Director. This position includes developing the overall creative vision for the program, mentoring student projects, representing the MS program to the international game development community, and collaborating across and beyond UCSC. We seek someone who is an acknowledged creative leader in the field. The starting salary range is $88,000-$123,200.00/annually.

We’re excited to be taking Games and Playable Media at UCSC to the next level with this new degree. I’d appreciate any help spreading the word.

CHEKOFV (Crowd-sourced Help with Emergent Knowledge for Optimized Formal Verification) is a research effort to transform the problem of proving software correct into a crowd-sourced game. The overall system will input unverified code from vendors, distribute that code to several crowd-sourced games, then collect and employ the results of game play to improve the performance of a formal verification engine. UCSC is one of several performers contributing games to address sub-tasks in software verification that appear easier for people but difficult for machines. The goal of the UCSC game is to define loop invariants; algebraic/logical conditions that remain true across the execution of a loop. A prototype is available on the web. Our approach invites players to experiment with the data generated by the loop, without ever viewing the source code itself.

The UCSC team will include ~10 people (students, faculty, and staff), and will coordinate with other teams providing application expertise, a front-end portal with a game/level server, plus the back-end software verification engine. The project as a whole includes two 18-month development cycles, spanning two design, development and deployment cycles for crowd-sourced verification games.

For more information and details on how to apply, go to:
http://www1.ucsc.edu/about/employment.asp

Select “Staff Employment”, then “Search Postings” (upper left), then for Division/Organization select “Engineering [319]“. Position numbers are #1203940 and #1203954.

The Computer Science Department has a strong group in games and playable media, with six faculty and several research groups including the Expressive Intelligence Studio, Natural Language and Dialog, Computational Cinematography, and Augmented Design. Computer Science has three core graphics faculty specializing in image-based methods and information visualization. Additionally, the Center for Games and Playable Media (CGPM), consisting of faculty from many departments across the university, provides support for developing global strategies for games and playable media work at UC Santa Cruz, connects research at UC Santa Cruz with the games and media industries, organizes a weekly lecture series bringing in speakers from academia and industry, runs an incubator, and provides staff support for core faculty. It is expected that this position will be a core faculty member within the games and playable media cluster within Computer Science, as well as a core member of the Center for Games and Playable Media.

Please view the attached PDF flyer for full information, including qualifications and application instructions.

Next week, among the redwoods of the UC Santa Cruz campus, we will host the Media Systems gathering. It will be the first joint activity of the NSF, NEH, and NEA — and we are also sponsored by both Microsoft Studios and Microsoft Research.

Some might wonder what such disparate funders, not to mention the people they are bringing together from different fields, could possibly have to say to each other. In ten years I predict we’ll ask, instead, “What took so long?”

I understand why that might be a surprising statement. The range of work that has made our participants leaders in their respective fields is pretty wide: artificial intelligence, game creation, reimagining scholarly publishing, interactive installations, art history and visual studies, software and platform studies, educational innovation, digital art, design augmentation, transmedia narrative, cultural probes, feature film production, procedural animation, and more.

But I would say one thing brings us together, something that I believe will be more and more central to our thinking about computer science, digital humanities, and digital arts in the coming years: seeing computational processes as part of culture.

The purpose of our gathering is to bring together people from different fields, who have been approaching this view from different directions, and have in-depth conversations about the ideas and projects that could take things to the next level. Of course, we’ll also be looking for ways for our colleagues, and our funders, to initiate the next level of communication and collaboration that will be needed for this interdisciplinary work to succeed.

If you’re interested in short updates, I (and perhaps others) plan to tweet to the #MediaSystems hashtag from now, as we make the final preparations, to next Wednesday (when the meeting concludes). In the future we will have more detailed information available, including a whitepaper and video of some of the sessions. You can also see the official announcement and, for further background, my Inside Higher Education editorial.

We look forward to taking a step toward a more deeply interdisciplinary future.

The full job posting is here:

The Center for Games and Playable Media (CGPM) invites applications from outstanding game designers for the position of Game Designer in Residence at UC Santa Cruz. The Game Designer in Residence has two main roles: (1) individual game design research developing innovative interactive works, and, (2) participation in the academic community of the Center at several levels, most notably by teaching undergraduate level courses focused on game design.

In research, the Game Designer in Residence creates original game design concepts which are then realized into working games. The Game Designer in Residence will also work collaboratively with faculty and graduate students on experimental research games. Activities may also include software engineering, as well as providing critical feedback and design guidance. The Game Designer in Residence may also contribute design ideas and provide feedback to games being developed as part of externally funded research projects

In teaching, the Game Designer in Residence is the primary instructor for one or more courses on game design. Viewed broadly, in this role, the Game Designer in Residence provides critical feedback and constructive suggestions to game designs made by students. Courses that may be taught include Foundations of Interactive Game Design (CMPS 80K), Game Design Practicum,(CMPS 179), and Game Design Studio I (CMPS 170). Foundations of Interactive Game design is a freshmen-level course providing an introduction to game design, and involves the construction of a small novel computer game. Game Design Practicum is a junior-level course focused on practicing design through rapid prototyping and game-making exercises and involves instructing
students on game technologies as well as design. Game Design Studio I is the first of a three-course sequence where senior game design majors work in teams to create substantial computer games. The initial course is focused on game concept development and refinement. In addition, he or she may provide feedback to the senior capstone course projects and to other student game design projects throughout the year. The Designer may also present lectures, talks, or one-off seminars at special events organized by the Center.

RANK: For those holding a terminal degree, appointment will be as a Visiting Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor. For others, appointment will be as a combination of Associate or Full Research Specialist (encompassing the game design research activities) and a Lecturer (for the teaching aspects of the position).

SALARY: Commensurate with qualifications and experience and subject to availability of funding.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: The successful candidate will have demonstrated background in game design, implementation, and production; and will be able to blend experimental design and technology ideas with practical application. Candidates must have a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching. Candidates must have demonstrated significant, original, and creative expressions of new ideas in working game designs, as well as demonstrated ability to communicate complex ideas and to work independently. For appointment as Research Specialist/Lecturer, B.A. or B.S. in Computer Science or equivalent in Computer Science, Digital Arts/New Media, New Media, or closely related or relevant field. Appointment in the Visiting Professor series requires a Ph.D. or
terminal degree.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS: Five or more years research or industry experience in game design. Experience teaching courses, leading workshops, tutorials, or classes. A portfolio of experimental games.

TERM OF APPOINTMENT: The initial appointment is for the 2012/13 academic year, with the possibility of renewal for the 2013/14 academic year. Should the hiring unit propose reappointment, a review to assess performance will be conducted. In addition, reappointment is contingent upon availability of funding.

POSITION AVAILABLE: October 1, 2012.

TO APPLY: Applicants should send a letter of application, curriculum vitae, copies or URLs of game projects, and the names and contact information for three references who will be willing to provide letters of recommendation* to:

Associate Director Jane Pinckard (jpinckard@soe.ucsc.edu)

by the initial review date of August 17, 2012. Email applications are strongly preferred. Please refer to position #T13-02 in all correspondence and materials.

Alternate Mailing Address:
Associate Director Jane Pinckard
Baskin School of Engineering
University of California – Mail Stop: SOE2
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA, 95064

*All letters will be treated as confidential per University of California policy and California state law. For any reference letter provided via a third party (i.e., dossier service, career center), direct the author to UCSC’s confidentiality statement at http://apo.ucsc.edu/confstm.htm

CLOSING DATE: This position is open until filled. Initial consideration of applications will begin on August 17, 2012. Applications received after the initial review date may not be considered.