Before taking CS247G, I typically only thought of games in the context of planning a game night or in remembering childhood moments playing board games with my family. That was one of the main reasons I decided to take this class, I wanted to learn about the work that goes behind bringing the joy and happiness that I associate with board games and games in general. Moreover, knowing just the pure fun that can be produced from playing games, it inspired me to learn about the work that goes into producing one. Additionally, in terms of play I did not think that there were levels to the concept. In terms of design, I did not know that much thought went into designing a game and thought the process ended with coming up with the rules and concept of the game. Some of the biggest aspects that stayed with me from this class are the amount of iterations it takes before you settle on a final implementation, the number of times one must playtest to figure out the bugs and even just how hard it is to come up with an idea for a game.
Throughout the class, I was excited to see what was once an idea become a full-fledged game. For both projects, one of the biggest barriers to beginning our design process was coming up with an idea. Moreover, coming up with an idea that all group members agreed with proved to be even more challenging. However, once an idea was set the ball started rolling. Delegation of tasks was more straightforward in the first project than in the second. Since the first had the option to be analog or digital, going with a fully analog game enabled a more evenly split division of the work. On the other hand, due to the fact that the second project had to have a digital component most of the programming work defaulted to the group member with the most experience in Unity. I think one of the most valuable things I learned was the ability to adapt to the changing needs of a project. Although I had a vision for where each respective project would go, in the end I was forced to be more flexible in order to maximize the potential for the game to be fun for the most people. Ultimately, I think next time going in it would better to have a semblance of an idea so that we can spend more time actually fleshing out the concept.
Overall, I think that this class has taught me a lot about design thinking and the intersection between technology and fun, innovation and simplicity, and creativity and enrichment. Going forward, although the class was specifically about games, this class will aid in changing my mindset when approaching the design process overall. I really want to say thank you and I that I appreciate all of the life lessons that I was able to garner and synthesize from this class.
