Hasta La Ideas

“Play is part of human nature,” says RISD professor Susan Doyle. “In some cases, adults don’t think they need to play. But the most creative people play all the time.”

Doyle should know: She and two other RISD professors are leading a team of students in a collaboration with Hasbro on game design. The students are studying existing games, as well as inventing their own–and playing them–to find out what makes them tick.

“We are brainstorming, generating ideas, testing them in our class among ourselves and with some guest players,” [said student Hakan Diniz]. “It’s pretty serious to design something that is supposed to be fun. Playing these games really is fun, but it’s stressful to come up with something that is fun. It’s something like the comedy business.”

So what does Hasbro get out of this? The study is providing them with “a unique window of insight into how this generation of students thinks and what game playing means to them.”

Read all about it here.

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