Ira Fay, assistant professor of computer science and game design, is also the CEO of Fay Games, a game development studio primarily focused on games for educational impact, as well as a published board game designer.
We sat down and asked him a few questions about games, game design, and why we’ve been consistently ranking as one of the best colleges for studying game design.
1. Do you have a favorite game?
For board games it would be Agricola, a game about farming in the 17th century, or War of the Ring, an asymmetrical game set in the Lord of the Rings universe. For video games, I would say Hero Academy, since I play it with my dad.
2. What was the first game you ever made?
That probably would have been something in my childhood with my younger brother, some mashup of basketball and bowling involving a modified hoop of some sort.
3. Hampshire College was recently ranked #5 on the Princeton Review’s 2014 list of the 25 best undergraduate schools to study video game design. What is it that we do here that creates that kind of environment?
Hampshire is nicely set up for game design. When I talk about game design I view it as one of the disciplines within the larger field of game development, the process of making games from start to finish. That involves programming, art, game design, project management, audio design, and more. Because Hampshire’s organizational structure is so interdisciplinary already–Hampshire’s School of Cognitive Science has computer programming and neuroscience but also linguistics, philosophy, and others–we are already set up to bring those disciplines together.
At other institutions it is a lot harder to teach an interdisciplinary class. For instance, I currently teach a game development workshop where 24 students are split into six interdisciplinary teams to develop four games they designed themselves. That kind of class would be harder to replicate at another school.
4. For those students from other disciplines who aren’t going further into game design, how do they benefit by taking these classes?
There is so much students can get out of these courses, even if they don’t go on to be a professional game designer. In my course goals, I focus on written communication, teamwork across a team with diverse backgrounds (artists, programmers, designers), and listening and observation. We do something called playtesting, where you observe people playing your game to improve it. Fundamentally this is a process of revision, which is an important skill no matter what you do.
5. You are also the CEO of your own game company. What projects are you currently working on?
One of the great things about Hampshire is that we are able to do scholarship that we find most meaningful. Last summer I worked on a logic game as part of a Mellon Grant through the Five Colleges. I collaborated with a philosophy professor at Smith College, Albert Mosley, who teaches logic. We created a game called Logic Quest, which Al is now using in his logic class. I also co-taught a course with professor Chris Perry where, over the course of a semester, the class designed, developed, and published the free digital game Word Snack. Download it at http://wordsnack.net!
6. Why do you think the element of play is so important in learning?
I have a 2.5 year old, and he learns all the time through play, and I don’t think we really grow out of that.
7. Is there a game out there you wish you had made?
From a financial standpoint, Angry Birds! But the board game Mage Knight is one I that I greatly admire for its complexity and game play.
8. If Hampshire College were a game, what would it be?
I’m not sure I can come up with that off the top of my head, but I’ll let you know if I think of something!
