Back when GDC 2012 was going on, we reported that Brian Moriarty (creator of Loom) gave a lecture in which he related his experience creating and teaching a game design course at Worchester Polytechnic Institute. The research that went into putting the class together was considerable, and in his belief that game design is inseparable from programming, Moriarty created a streamlined game engine specifically for the course that the students would use to build their assignments: ultra small-scale games. The class provided as much discovery for the industry veteran as his pupils.
As is Moriarty's way, the presentation gets rather philosophical, and he spends some at the beginning looking to history to trace DNA that the "noble discipline" of games shares with literature, music and even religion.
Those of us unable to attend GDC who wanted to receive Moriarty's lecture beyond a journalist's write-up of it were plumb outta luck - until now, that is. The presentation is now up for viewing in its 55-minute entirety at the invaluable GDC Vault. For free.
Source: GDC Vault