Prior to taking this class, I had come into the class as an avid gamer, frequently playing games such as Valorant, Overwatch, Minecraft, COD, and Overcooked. Despite coming in with many hours of gaming experience, I always approached games with the mind of a player rather than a designer. The games that I mostly play focus largely on mechanics as well, so I also had little experience with designing games that center around a main narrative. Hence, the idea of building a game sounded quite intimidating and complex to me, since I was used to playing complex game with complex mechanics and design. Although I was interested in designing games, I was unsure where to start, and what to prioritize in designing games.
Major class concepts that stood out to me included MDA and 8 types of fun, game design patterns for building friendships, and thinking about game architecture. MDA and 8 types of fun was fundamental to my success in the class, because it got me to start thinking about the intentionality of the games I designed, as well as narrowing down what kinds of games I even wanted to create. Learning more about game design patterns for building friendships also stuck with me, especially since the games that I played, such as Valorant or Overwatch, often did not prioritize building friendships and created toxic environments between players. Ultimately, both these concepts were fundamental to helping me build the social mediation game, and understanding directly how my choices as a designer would influence players’ actions as they play the game. For example, we added specific rounds in our game that allowed players the chance to trade with one another, and capitalized on that interaction. In addition, learning more about game architecture helped me think more about how to incorporate a narrative into the mechanics of a game, which was especially important for P2.
As I progressed through the class and learned deeply about the game design process, I also ran into challenges as I helped my team design games. One thing that we struggled with in P1 was creating a balance amongst different mechanics for the win condition. We played around a lot with how many points to make certain cards and completion of certain missions, as to not have one player dominate over the other and prevent players from having a chance at winning. Overall, we were able to overcome this challenge by continually playtesting with different point criteria, and consistently implement the feedback that we got from play testers. Another challenge that came up in P2 was deciding the scope of the game itself. Given the time constraint of the project, our team struggled with figuring out how to limit our project in such a way that we would be able to create a high quality product by the end of the class. Ultimately, this required flexibility on our part: initially, we had a complex storyline and idea for different parts of the game, but decided to narrow down the game in order to achieve a high quality outcome by the end of the quarter.
Overall, as I progressed through this class, I learned an incredible amount about how to design a game, change the game based on feedback from play testers, and most importantly, working together with a team to design a fun and engaging game. One of the most important takeaways in this class for me was the importance of playtesting; it’s impossible to know exactly how a game design or mechanic will pan out for a user until it is directly played by a player. Not only did this class help me design games, but changed the way I think about a game and its mechanics as I am directly playing a game. Next time, I want to be more creative with my game designs, and challenge myself to create interesting mechanics that help players interact with one another. I’m interested in continuing to develop digital games, and also incorporating social mediation into digital games by creating a game meant for multiplayer. Overall, I had such a great time learning and growing from this class, and I’m excited to continue designing and playing!
