Instructor Spotlight: Richard Freedman

Tell us about your background and what inspired you to teach this course

My background is a collection of seemingly unrelated stories that have contributed to shaping who I am: a scientist, an educator, and an artist who integrates all these fields together throughout my occupation, hobbies, and side projects. These days, I am a researcher at Smart Information Flow Technologies (SIFT), a small-business R&D consulting company. Most recently, my research direction involves designing games for educational purposes with artificial intelligence systems providing personalized learning experiences.

I received my PhD at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where I studied how machines could interact with people in ways that felt natural, bridging symbolic (sometimes called classical) artificial intelligence methods with human-computer/robot interaction. I got interested in doing research through an opportunity as an undergraduate student to work on an unsolved math problem with a professor, and I fell in love with the puzzle of trying to better understand the unknown through analysis and experimentation.

I put making games aside as a hobby to begin my graduate school studies until my advisor nominated me for creating and teaching a game design course at the university. That instructor changed my perspectives on education and career paths both in the classroom and personally. You do not need a degree to prove your ability; years of experience can lead to proficiency. I began to confidently call myself a game designer to the point that it is now a part of my career as much as I do research, teach, and mentor. Teaching this course is very important to me because I can bring this opportunity to others and hopefully inspire them to realize their potential to pursue their interests and apply past experiences as part of their professional pathways. Bringing new opportunities and fun to others is what I love to do!

You have your students design their own games. What challenges does this process pose, and how might students overcome them?

There are many challenges that designing your own games pose, and the exposure to them is an essential part of the process because you learn to expect them and adapt.

One of the most important techniques for overcoming these challenges is learning to fail fast, which is realizing when something does not work before wasting too much time on it. However, this does not mean you abandon the work completely unless you have an alternative plan. Instead, failing fast means taking a step back to understand why it is not working out and thinking of a way to address it in the next attempt. That is, rapid iteration on an idea to fix the previous iteration's flaws with varying degrees of flexibility.

Games also involve lots of teamwork to create, and students have to overcome the challenges involved in team coordination and understanding how to identify in which ways their experiences complement each other. Taking on a variety of roles is important to learn how one's contributions synergize with their peers'.

This may be a cliche question, but what is your favorite game?

It is a great question, and my answer might be a bit cliche as well: there are so many great games that I do not really have one "favorite game." There are so many different types of games with their own purposes, experiences, challenges, and artistic merits, and I appreciate a lot of them for one reason or another. Even if there is an ever-growing Pareto optimal set (a collection of games that are "favorite" for one reason, but not for another), I can list a few games that I gravitate towards playing whenever I have the chance in various categories:

• Card game
  Love Letter (amazing level of complexity with just 16 cards as players trade card value for effects that help them logically identify other players' cards while obfuscating their own)
• Board game
  Carcassonne (carefully align puzzle pieces to collectively build a town, but use your resources to claim the most profitable contributions as the town grows)
• Handheld/console video game
  Rhythm Heaven (non-stop laughs as you tap and slide to the beat in a variety of songs that are Mickey Mousing wacky scenarios)
• Mobile video game
  Fire Emblem Heroes (a bite-size version of a tactical strategy game that you can enjoy in quick doses; it is like chess puzzles where the pieces have superpowers)
• Trading card game
  Yu-Gi-Oh! (manage your collection of cards' control flow [if-this-then-that] to trigger chain reactions of effects that progress you towards your win condition while slowing down your opponent's progress towards theirs)
• Roleplaying game
  All Out of Bubblegum (progress from an ordinary civilian into an action hero so epic that you eventually fail to do things as normal as turning door knobs or tying your shoelaces)

What do you hope that students will take away from your course?

At face value, I hope students will be able to apply the concepts we discussed throughout the course to be able to design their own board games and understand how other games they play work. Ideally, students will leave this course feeling empowered to use their skill sets and abilities to bring their ideas to life, bridging critical thinking with creativity. Whether they decide to pursue their passions as a career path and/or hobby, my goal is for them to be confident in themselves based on their experiences developed through dedication to their craft.

What is something coming up in your course that you are excited about?

I am very excited for the expo night we will hold at the end of the semester because the students get to showcase their final projects. Due to the additional time spent on iterative development, they are always creative, polished games that truly highlight how far the students have come in refining their design process. By opening the event up to their peers, it is also an opportunity for them to bring others together through the works they create. Everyone who attends leaves with a story to tell, be it running their table or experiencing someone else's game that left an impression!

Richard (Rick) Freedman is a researcher at Smart Information Flow Technologies (SIFT) where he combines his experiences as a scientist, educator, and artist. Rick's research interests lie at the intersection of interdisciplinary areas to understand how autonomous machines can work and play with people in ways that feel natural. Applications of his work often range from games to healthcare to education, including integrations of the three. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.