Final Class Reflection

Before this class, I was already very interested in games. As a longtime gamer, I’ve been fascinated by this world for quite a while. However, I’ve since realized that most of my approach towards games was from the perspective of a player. I liked games because of what they made me feel and think. But I’d never really spent a lot of time analyzing how they did that. That’s why I found this class to be so amazing. It forced me to adopt a different point of view for a subject that was already near and dear to my heart. As a game design class, CS247G is rightly focused on answering the how, and I think every bit of the class is perfectly crafted to help in that pursuit.

I learned to think of games from the lens of formal ideas like MDA, balance and theme. It has helped me realize just how many moving parts there are to the simplest of games.

For starters, I think the Critical Plays are such simple yet novel exercises. In the past, I’ve taken some Film Theory classes that do similar things with movies. And yet, the thought of applying the same principles to games and breaking down how they achieve their goals never occurred to me. I learned to think of games from the lens of formal ideas like MDA, balance and theme. It has helped me realize just how many moving parts there are to the simplest of games.

I’ve realized how great sketching out ideas is to gain clarity of mind and also remember things more clearly.

I also loved doing the sketchnotes, which I find funny because as someone who’s not really an artist, I expected to find them to be challenging and even tedious. But I definitely ended up warming up to their value – I even started making some sketchnotes for my other classes to help me understand concepts better! I’ve realized how great sketching out ideas is to gain clarity of mind and also remember things more clearly.

…I’ve found it hard to find a community of people who’re also interested in making games. That’s why the class projects were so fun. I got to work with some of the most incredible and talented people on projects that we were all super excited about.

Finally, I found the class projects to be every bit of what I’d hoped for and more. As someone who wants to head into game design/dev for a career, I’ve had some prior experience with making games. But one frustration I’ve had being at Stanford is the limited array of academic offerings in this sphere. The biggest problem that arises from this issue is that I’ve found it hard to find a community of people who’re also interested in making games. That’s why the class projects were so fun. I got to work with some of the most incredible and talented people on projects that we were all super excited about. For Project 1, I loved how everyone of us was always on the same plane and got along perfectly right from the start. Shoutout to Angela, Mary and Pablo for being amazing partners. For Project 2, I was awestruck by how welcoming Josh, Grace and Graham were even though I was not in their team for Project 1. Everyone in that team was invested in making the best game we possibly could for Project 2 and I felt that in every one of our meetings. We also frequently joked about publishing our game on Steam and becoming big-time game developers B). But if pursuing that ridiculous notion means I get to work with the three of them again, I’d gladly come onboard that ship.

In the future, I hope to use the lessons I got from CS247G to become a better game designer/developer. I was playing Uncharted 1 the other day and I immediately started noticing how the game’s entire first level is basically a well-crafted onboarding experience for players to learn the game mechanics. This kind of analytical ‘designer’ perspective to playing games that CS247G introduced me to is what I hope to become better at. I will also channel the lessons I learned from being in a game design/development team to improve myself as a team-player and as a person. And as cliched as it sounds, my hope is that at some point, I’m able to work with a team and make a published game that could be used an example for future students of this class :’).

Thanks to Christina, Kally and Vincent for being a wonderful instructor team and creating one of the most insightful and enjoyable classes I’ve taken at Stanford!