Gaming Space Operations is a three-day course focused on how we develop and execute games that involve operations. The course will cover the basics of game design, so that students with no background can understand gaming, but will focus on building games that deal with operations in space. There will be an emphasis on the role that orbital mechanics and space flight considerations play on game design, and students should be prepared to engage with quantitative concepts.
Note that the class will emphasize manual games, with and without digital modeling assistance. This class will be strictly at the UNCLASSIFED/OPEN SOURCE level.
Objectives:
- How to accurately reflect space operations in games focused on other subjects, such as a China warfight.
- The unique requirements for building accurate, but playable, games focused on space systems.
- Building scenarios and games at the intersection of public policy, acquisition, cyber, or strategic defense.
- Representation of space graphically and abstraction of space movement and maneuver operations.
- Building strategic games on the global competition in space.
Prerequisites:
While no prior experience in either gaming or space operations is required for this course, students should have some basic experience with military operations, multi-domain operational concepts, and how conflicts on both the earth and in space might be fought. As in all our courses, the instructors will adapt the class to student’s interests and focus.
The course will be made up of lectures, student exercises, and game encounters where students will play, then redesign, games involving space operations. The course will end with a practical student design problem where students work on one of their own game problems, assisted by the instructors.