Despite playing a lot of video games with my siblings as I grew up, I had never thought about what it would be like to design the games I was playing. I knew that I really enjoyed games, but I never put much thought into why that was the case or what made those games good. I also viewed “play” as more of a fun pass time rather than something deeper and meaningful.
From taking this course, the types of fun and MDA class concepts have stuck with me because those are the concepts that ultimately drive the design of your game. Working on P1 made me realize how powerful fellowship games can be for building connection and enjoyment between people. Play can be a fun pass time that has its deeper meaning defined by the game’s intended types of fun. For P2, my team wanted to create a game that emphasized narrative, challenge, and fellowship. The mechanics of our puzzles that encouraged collaboration while conveying a story helped us create the desired types of fun in the game. The LaptopLarry puzzle I made tells players his story while also challenging them with a learning quiz!
One challenge I faced was figuring out how to convey narratives in unique, exciting ways that aren’t boring or dreadful for the player. Growing up, I remember that I would click through all the dialogue in games because I wanted to actually play the game instead of reading. I’ve learned that players seem to prefer it when they’re immersed in the narrative rather than having to read it or being told the narrative.
Regarding growth, I’ve been much more thoughtful of the design choices being made in the games I play. Most recently I’ve played The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (TOTK), and the class lecture about tutorials repeats in my head because TOTK does an excellent job at teaching players the mechanics of the game through doing rather than through reading. I also feel like I’m more appreciative of the narratives being told throughout games after having to write narratives in my own work this quarter. I pay extra attention to details in the visuals and audio to try to see how the designers intentionally made choices to convey a certain mood.
Knowing now how intentional game designers are about all the different aspects of their games, I’m excited to pay attention to these things as I play games moving forward, drawing inspiration from the games I play. I hope to make a mental note of all the genius choices I see designers making in the games that I play, such as how they embed tutorials, their choice of music, their hint system, player onboarding, etc. If I ever design more games in the future, I know what to look at for reference and draw inspiration from in order to create an enjoyable user experience. Games can be so great, and taking CS 247G has made me very appreciative of this fact.
