Hi, and welcome to the first module in the course of Video Games design the Autonomous University of Barcelona is teaching here in Coursera. Well, as you can see this first module is called General Concepts, its objective is giving the student a theoretical base and some tools powerful enough to help with the creation of a video game design. This theoretical base is very relevant, very important, as if we don't have this theoretical base what might happen is that, during the design and implementation process of a video game we might find errors and results not wished or unexpected. Let's see this first module's contents. We'll start trying to define what video games are, separating the main elements. On one side we have the technological elements and on the other side the ones related to the traditional game. In the 2nd unit we will explain with more details the contributions and studies on the traditional game that come from other disciplines, which will really give us a very interesting content to concrete what exactly is playing and what video games are, and so, also video games. Next in unit 3 we will focus on video games history. We will try to make it briefly and specifically, as video games history contains a lot of information. That's why we will focus on the many technological innovations, their impact at a social level, the contents evolution, and also how the different business and exploitation models have appeared and changed. Next in unit 4 we are going to see the many aspects and dimensions video games realize in a social level, at a society level, their impact on the industry, as an entertainment option, as a cultural product, etc. These aspects are also important, as video games play a very important role in our society, and we can't omit that. We need to take this into account, to know exactly the role of the video games, in aim to get the major benefit and make our product the most appropriate for the audience we want to focus. In the unit 5 we will try to give a look at the different platforms in which we can play video games, as at a design level we are interested on knowing the differences between these platforms, to make the product suitable for this platform. In unit 6, we will talk on the video games industry. This is very important at a design level as if we want to design video games we need to know how can we sell and take advantage of our product. We will also take a look on how a development studio works at a basic level, with the main departments it has -programming, art, design- and how they interact with each other. Along the same lines of what we just commented, on the development topic, we will find on unit 7 some information on the roles in the design team. Focusing on this design team, we will see how they get organized, what kind of roles exist, also depending on the kind of studio, as there are small studios and bigger studios. Next, almost at the end of this module, in unit 8, we will focus on the design task. In the beginning it might look like everybody knows what design is, what designing a video game means, but usually people only think of the creative part. Here we will try to explain that, apart from this creative part, there are many different tasks related to management, communication, organization, etc. Finally we have the small unit 9 in which we will try to analyze some of the theoretical concepts we've seen during all the module through a video game existing in the market. And these 9 units will be the first module. I hope you like it and that you gladly follow this course.