Before this class, I never really thought about games at all. I remember the first week, I turned to my friend in the class and admitted that I didn’t really have an answer for my favorite game, because I hadn’t played an extensive one since 2011 (Loved nintendogs + cats!). More than a decade later, I can amend that statement. I still don’t have a favorite game of all time, but I’ve played quite a few in the last few weeks, and Life is Strange was kind of life changing.
I loved learning about games in the context of addiction. I think before this class, I didn’t really understand how and why gambling was as prevalent as it was. With the context of how intentional game design is, particularly in the space of monetary gambling, I have a new perspective that makes me feel much more informed about the internal workings of games like that. I also really enjoyed learning about game mechanics earlier in the quarter. It made me look at games like more of a cohesive system that I continuously kept at the forefront of my mind the entire quarter. I wanted all of my game’s mechanics to make sense with each other, and interact in a way that allowed for meaningful game play.
The biggest challenge I experienced in this class was how difficult I found novelty. There are so many games, and it seems like every good idea has been done and iterated. However, it made me really appreciate my creativity as a game designer — I was able to come up with ideas that I would never expect to be able to flesh out into an authentic game. I also was able to detach myself from some of the ideas that I was excited about, because I gained an understanding that some ideas just work better as games, especially with the financial and time constraints we were under this quarter. I did not expect the ideation stage of game making to be where I thrived, but I definitely think it was my favorite part of each project.
The biggest way I grew is that I no longer strongly identify as a non gamer. I really do think there is a game and game genres for everyone, and the entire field of gaming is so broad that it has a space for everyone. I’m so excited to continue to explore my preferences in gaming.
If I keep working on my games, I would want more practice with some of the more technically demanding game engines. I think there is an inevitable ceiling with some of the simpler ones that would be really interesting to try to break!
Thank you for an amazing quarter 🙂
