Essay assignment – Iterating the Royal Game of Ur

Abstract

This essay will present basic historical information about the Royal Game of Ur and several iterations of this game in a games workshop during the “Critical Game Studies” class of the “Computer Games Design” course at University Campus Suffolk. The iterations will be discussed upon and at the end a new set of rules will be agreed upon for this ancient game. The terms “Mechanics”, “Dynamics” and “Aesthetics” refer to the work of Hunicke et. al, “MDA: A formal approach to game design and game research” and will be used as such. In their work, “Mechanics” refers to the state of the game before the actual play session, including all the game bits and rules of the game, “Dynamics” refers to the emergent player behavior during the actual play sessions, while “Aesthetics” translates into the emotions that the players are experiencing as a direct result of playing the game.