Final Class Reflection

Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved video games. Altogether I can’t imagine how many collective hours of video games I’ve played prior to this quarter, from FPS’s like Call of Duty, RPG’s like Skyrim, walking sims like Firewatch, fighting games like Super Smash Bros to apps like Tiny Wings or Flash games on PC. I think the most impactful thing about this class for me is I almost want to go back and play all of them again. Particularly because after doing so many critical plays and getting a grasp of the formal elements and types of fun within a game, it feels like I opened my third gamer eye! When I play games now it’s almost like I see things that I never saw before. Take the example of Tiny Wings. I played that game for the first time when I was in middle school and I played countless hours of the game without thinking twice about it. In some ways it was a very pure type of fun but I really didn’t realize the sort of feat it was, especially since it was one person who did the whole game. It speaks to the degree of complexity and thought that goes into creating a good game. The one developer had to come up with a theme like the baby bird who can’t fly and instead glides through hills and then gamefied it. Not only did the raw physics had to be decided on and playtested, but there are also little mechanics like the concept of “coins” that extend your time and orbs that make you fly further. Even the menu’s had to be designed deliberately as well as the onboarding. It just really blew my mind playing it again, and I feel like I could totally re experience a bunch of other games that I know I will have a reborn appreciation for. Thank you!

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Comments

  1. the true gift of learning is to see the world with new eyes. I’ll never forget the class that taught me to enjoy poetry. I’m happy to have made play a bit more rich for you. Keep playing!

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