Before this class, I thought about play and games as something I did once in a while and more in the past, perhaps with an occasional board game with family/friends or game of Among Us or Mario Kart. I often saw myself as being friends with “gamers” since many of my friends play games such as League of Legends and Valorant, but I never saw myself as a “gamer.” Game design then felt even more distant, as I felt like I had limited experience with games, which would likely hamper my ability to design them. Over the course of the class, I discovered that I had much more “experience” than I originally thought, and I re-discovered my passion for play.
I played a variety of games through critical plays and sketched out interesting concepts related to play through sketchnotes each week, parallel to working on two projects that allowed me to put the concepts into practice. The concepts of formal elements and aesthetics certainly stuck with me, as I thought about them within different contexts for each critical play. The formal elements and types of fun informed my work for the two projects by shaping how we thought about basic interactions and elements that would contribute to the larger design. For the second half of the class, the different types of narratives stuck with me, and we drew inspiration from embedded narratives for our project, similar to walking sims we played. A bonus concept that will continue to stick with me was our exploration of addiction and learning about what really goes on behind the scenes with slot machines, as I learned about so many misconceptions and surprises. Our project did not include similar mechanisms relying on luck and randomness, but this topic—as well as many others, such as “ready player two”/feminism in games—was valuable to consider from an ethical standpoint.
I experienced many challenges, including working with different groups/group dynamics, finding the right balance/time management for tasks, and trying to come up with valuable yet feasible ideas. For the first project especially, I remember the obstacle of trying to come up with a solid idea and later struggling to improve on an idea we felt stuck to. For the second project, the challenges were perhaps more with creating connected puzzles after we figured out our narrative.
Throughout this quarter, I grew in terms of technology, design, games, and as a human. For technology, I am glad I gained experience scripting and creating with Roblox Studio. I also grew as a designer and player through the projects and critical plays, and as a human, I gained even more experience with working with others and engaging with valuable real-world issues.
Next time, I will have a strong foundation of familiarity with game design concepts but also a greater level of confidence and better mindset for taking on things I might not traditionally think of myself as being capable of. If I keep working on my games, I will iterate and add to what has been started; especially for our second project, there is so much room to go beyond a single slice. I am grateful that I was able to create/design with other students through this class and immensely appreciate the teaching team for allowing it all to happen :))
