School
for
Poetic
Computation
The Browser is Already a Game Engine is a coding class for aspiring and practicing game developers of beginner and intermediate skill levels who are interested in learning how to use web development tools like HTML DOM elements to build games that are also websites.
Images courtesy of teachers.
How do we draw the boundaries of what is and isn't play in digital space? How do we play with others through distance and time? What does it mean to be "online?”
The Browser is Already a Game Engine is a class that begins with the idea that web browsers possess all the interactive elements that define game engines, and then follows that thought to consider what kinds of games can be made directly in the browser, by hand—no frameworks and no libraries required.
By using hyperlinks, iframes, synchronized clocks, HTML DOM elements, spreadsheets, CSV files, CSS, hotlinking (and yes, some Javascript), we will be exploring and building games that are also websites.
With an even split between theory and making, we will also consider the handmade substructure of the playful internet—from fan forums to email chains, Wikipedia talk sections to home pages—and how the quiet connectivity of being online is never being completely alone.
2–3 hours a week on playful experimentation and project work
Some familiarity with basic coding principles and/or website construction may be helpful, but is not required. Web programming fundamentals will be covered. This is a class for beginning and intermediate students. Advanced programmers may find some lessons to be basic.
Computer
This class may be for you if you:
Everest Pipkin is a game developer, writer, and artist from central Texas who lives and works on a sheep farm in southern New Mexico. Their work both in the studio and in the garden follows themes of ecology, tool making, and collective care during collapse. When not at the computer in the heat of the day, you can find them in the hills spending time with their neighbors— both human and non-human.
they/them
· website
· twitter
· instagram
Tee Topor is a human collaborating with machines and people. Although a jester of many trades, they primarily like to design computer generated graphics and simulations for the web. They use 3D modeling applications, game engines and digital and analog fabrication techniques to weave together research and writing on labor, ecology and the digital-self. Currently they are interested in technologies that complicate our understood realities by being inefficient, messy, and honest. They are a studio member at LARPA, a worker rented studio space that hosts various experimental community events, from dataset karaoke, to algorithmically manipulated screenings of well known films. They are based in NYC, for now.
Applications open until Applications closed on April 27, 2026.
You can expect to hear back from us about the status of your application on May 11, 2026. Please email us at admissions@sfpc.study with any questions you have.
For 10 classes, it costs $1200 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule monthly payments of the same amount. First and last payments must be made before the start and end of class. *Processing fees apply for each payment.
SFPC processes all payments via Withfriends and Stripe. Please email admissions@sfpc.study if these payment options don't work for you.
For more information about what we look for in applicants, scholarships, and other frequently asked questions, please visit our applicant FAQ.
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