Bracewell/ENGL 1102/Project #4
Mining the Past: Designing a Game for the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills Archives
(Special Collections, Georgia State University)
Draft #1 of Role Due (350 words): Thursday, Nov. 6th to Canvas
Draft #2 of Role Due (700-1,000 words): Tuesday, Nov. 11th to Canvas
Game Conception Outline Due (350 words): Thursday, Nov. 13th to Canvas
Final Draft of Role Due: Friday, Nov. 14th to Wiki & Canvas
Game Design Draft Due (700 words): Tuesday, Nov. 18th to Canvas
Pecha Kucha Presentation of Game Design: Thursday, Nov. 20th
Final of Pecha Kucha & Game Design (1,500-2,000 words):
Saturday, Nov. 22nd to Wiki, Canvas, T-Square
Reflection Due: Tuesday, Nov. 25th to Canvas
Background
The Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill archives at Tech, along with course reserves, Contesting the
New South Order, the Fall 2014 class wiki (http://wikis.iac.gatech.edu/fultonbag), and other
sources available to you, will serve as general references that explain the conditions leading
up to, clashes during, and results of the Strike of 1914-15 by focusing on the constituents
who had a stake in its outcome. For this assignment, group members will work together to
synthesize primary and secondary source material to create a snapshot of life in a Southern
textile mill village and contextualize the actions, possible motives, and overall alliances
formed by individuals that were either directly or indirectly involved in the strike.
Step 1: The Roles
Working with a partner, you will research and write a role sheet for one character who
played a part in the drama surrounding the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills strike. You may
make a composite character based on many individuals who share certain very similar goals
and characteristics, or you may choose to base your role on a historical person. At this point,
since you do not yet have ways to focus on a game mechanism, you can speculate on
elements related to “gaming,” but *hone in primarily on the biographical aspects of this
character’s role and his/her main allies or potential enemies. Reference documents and
sources as often as possible to make sure that your role is grounded and historically
accurate. See Sherri Brown’s powerpoint on Canvas and Wikipedia’s page on Citing Sources
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources) for more information.
This role will be posted to the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill wiki. See the RTTP Game
Designer’s Handbook for relevant categories. Your role should include
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*Name
Office & faction (if any)
*Biography (including an image)
Objectives/victory conditions
Responsibilities
o Duties
o Powers
o Assignments (optional)
*Relationships
o With the big ideas
o With the texts
o With other people
Strategy Advice
*Selected sources
Briefly restated list of objectives
*Role-specific readings
Step 2: Game Conception Outline
With the same partner that you had for Step #1, construct an outline for a game in which
you delineate when, where, how, and what you envision for the events of the Fulton Bag and
Cotton Mill strike. Does your game unfold over several months as does the Paterson, 1913
game? Is it confined to the span of a few weeks during the summer? See April Longworth’s
(an undergrad at Armstrong Atlantic University) very impressive overview of the strike in
relation to the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations:
http://www.armstrong.edu/Initiatives/history_journal/history_journal_behind_the_strike
for ideas on how to construct a timeline for your outline. See the RTTP Game Designer’s
Handbook for relevant categories. Your game conception outline should include
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The Game Itself
o Major Issues for Debate
o Structure
o Roles and Factions
Step 3: Pecha Kucha Presentation
For this part of the project, you will work with another group (altogether, four of you will be
working together). From the two outlines each group of two has written, you’ll produce one
“new” game design to pitch to a panel. You may adapt one of your game conception outlines
wholly, mesh your ideas together, or make some sort of hybrid combination. The panel will
be composed of the librarians we’ve worked with so far this semester, Sherri Brown and
Jody Thompson, and IT specialist, Steve Hodges. *On the day of your presentation, you’ll
present in what is known as the “Pecha Kucha” (Japanese for chit-chat) style. That means
that you must create a total of twenty slides, and you must display each one of them and use
narration to accompany each one of them for twenty seconds each (so your entire
presentation can last no more than 6 minutes and 40 seconds). This discipline, though
challenging, often makes for really exciting presentations, and forces you to think about just
what you want each slide to convey to your audience. To make sure everyone equally
participates in the presentation, each person should be responsible for narrating five slides.
Remember that even though this presentation format is a specific one, you are still
presenting to people who are in front of you: engage them, consider them, present to them.
Step 4: Final of Game Design and Pecha Kucha Presentation
After (or before) you present, record your narration. *Save your PowerPoint file as a Movie
file, and upload the whole thing to the Wiki, Canvas, and T-Square. The procedure for
recording audio and saving your PowerPoint as a movie differs between PCs and Macs. For
a PC, you can go to Slide Show>Record Slide Show, record your narration as you flip slides,
and then save the file as a movie. For a Mac, you’ll need to record your audio on a separate
audio recorder such as Audacity while you record your slide transitions on PowerPoint;
then you’ll need to select the audio file as your soundtrack when saving the file as a movie.
Alternatively, you could open your Mac PowerPoint file at the library, and then record and
save it the PC way.
Use the feedback from the panel to create a more rounded version of your game or to
reconceptualize important details. Your final game design should include
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Rationale
o Timeline of real events most related to your design
o Compelling argument for your design
 What major forces and power dynamics have you accounted for?
 What has your design been obliged to ignore? Why is it ok not to
incorporate these elements?
 What will players understand after engaging with your material?
Why?
o Discussion of sources
The Game Itself
o Major Issues for Debate
o Rules and Procedures
o Structure
o Roles and Factions
o Counterfactuals
All material from other sources should be cited in the text itself and in a works cited page.
*Instructions for these sections by Dr. Noah Mass.