Long before this class I was a player of Pokemon games, but this joy and indulgence slowly faded as I became bogged down with work and the more serious aspects of life. Coming into this class I saw myself as a designer, hoping to leverage my skills in product design and mechanical engineering to reinvigorate my passion for making games that I had done so often with my younger brother in my younger years. Surprisingly though I ended up rediscovering my passion for playing games – especially those different from the ‘traditional’ first person shooter. This may be my favorite take away from the class 🙂
Throughout this class I was able to try on different hats in different groups to create games, this class in particular I found myself using my skills as a graphic designer and animator to create assets and environments to create a mood and inform the gameplay. I loved learning how to animate and expand my knowledge of figma and photoshop to create beautiful physical and digital games.
Some of the most salient class concepts for me were mechanics and how they inform dynamics. The idea that a game feature informs an emergent type of player behavior was fascinating to consider. I utilized these extensively in the design of my social game–considering how different rules might encourage or discourage conversation and flexibility in gameplay. With our game in space, I found myself focussing more on the aesthetics and overall message of the game. In general I found the digital game very difficult to scope and put boundaries on–this is definitely something to consider going forward.
I think I grew a lot as a group member in this class. I found myself taking a less leadership role and exploring what it is like to be more of an individual contributor. At times this felt comforting as I could narrow in on my focus and work hard within it; at other times it was difficult–especially when there were so many good ideas in our team.
Hopefully I have the opportunity to work on more games in the future. In these situations I would encourage myself to be less concerned with how I might sound and more concerned with the passion I communicate when I speak. I think there were times I had ideas I was really excited about, but felt like I couldn’t communicate them eloquently enough and proceeded to be timid with my delivery. Going forward I would like to focus on the passion with which I communicate.
Overall I had an amazing time in this class and rediscovering my love for games and play, and I hope to keep reminding myself of the value of play and to maybe even bring it to others going forward through design.
Thank you Christina and the teaching team for a great quarter!
Happy summer!!
