This class first and foremost made me realize that I am a “gamer” even if I didn’t think so before. As someone who never really grew up playing “traditional” video games, I wouldn’t have dared to call myself a gamer, a term that in my mind was reserved for guys who played games like Super Smash Bros, World of Warcraft, and Valorant. But in reality, I had played a variety of games, experiences that I was forced to recount in the context of each of the different lectures we had in class, helping me realize that there is no one true or quintessential “game” and that in reality, most people are “gamers” even if they don’t realize it (think people who play NYT games religiously). Faced with an exceptionally busy workload this quarter, this class was a breath of fresh air that gave me an outlet for play and exposed me to many new games that I wouldn’t have explored if it weren’t for the critical plays, probably the most valuable part of the class for me. They were valuable in both forcing me to play new games and for helping me apply the concepts from class in a tangible and directly observable way. Would I have played Doki Doki Literature Club otherwise? Probably not, but I found that being forced to view the game through a more critical, feminist lens I learned how messaging and values can be embedded in stories in ways that are subtle but layer in surprising ways. I definitely want to think about how to do this in future games or experiences I make, especially as someone who enjoys narratology in general and likes to apply it to development of applications in mental health, empathy building, etc.
Before this class, I thought about play as something very subjective and had no awareness of how something like game design could be formalized. Starting with the lecture on formal elements of game mechanics and MDA, I quickly realized just how much I had to learn. The timing of this realization is likely why the earlier lectures stuck with me the most e.g. learning about the 8 Kinds of Fun, something that I think will remain with me forever. However, I think the most valuable concepts I learned in class were level design and onboarding. In my team’s final version of P2 (Outer Plates), the core of our game decision making revolved around how to ease people into the game through levels of progressing difficulty. Following the lecture on onboarding, we thought about how to follow best practices (avoiding an isolated tutorial, telling not showing, etc) for embedding learning of new mechanics into the gameplay. Time permitting, the onboarding would have been even more embedded into the levels themselves. In future game design work, I definitely want to become a master at hidden and intuitive onboarding like we learned about in Plants vs Zombies ( by far my favorite GDC talk we had to watch). As someone who tends to take some time to get the hang of new games if they’re very mechanically complex (or if they require excellent controller skills and hand-eye coordination 🥲), if I continue to develop games, I definitely want to be intentional in making games that are as accessible as possible and not intimidating for new players. Also, I genuinely loved the chance to watch GDC talks as part of the sketchnote/mind mapping exercises and am very tempted to binge watch every video on the YouTube channel. Game Design Patterns for Building Friendships was a information heavy video but very valuable and definitely contributed to the sketchnote I’m most proud of.
On the whole, I feel like I grew as a designer emotionally and cognitively, learning how mechanics and technical elements of games translate into aesthetics and experiences that leave long-lasting impressions on players and creates opportunities for joy for people in moments where there perhaps may be none. The magic circle was a concept I’d grown awareness of as an avid fantasy and sci-fi reader and as someone who has always sought out fiction as an escape from reality, but before the class I had never heard that feeling formalized into words. Being able to craft magic circles for others, transporting them to new worlds, is such a powerful gift and one that I hope I can provide to as many people as possible in the future.
