Before I took this class, I had little exposure to what I thought were real games. I was prepared to learn about building complex video games – the ones that only “gamers” play. I was intrigued about how to develop such games, but felt intimidated because I would not have as much perspective and experience as others in the class. Little did I know that the definition of play was not so narrow. Working on simpler analog games brought me back to childhood days where we played freeze tag, hide and seek, playing cards, UNO. I realized that this all counts as “real” play too, and that everyone has the capability to play and talk about play. Coming into the class, I also had zero knowledge of game design. I did not think much about what exactly made a game fun when I played them. In a way, starting this learning process from a blank slate helped me maintain my curiosity and open-mindedness.
The first thing I did was to play more games in my everyday life. With school in the way, I realized I haven’t properly played in a while. I wanted to remind myself of how it feels to play and to get more perspective on the different types of games as I take this class. I finished Plants vs. Zombies and both Monument Valleys within a week, played Avalon with some dorm mates and tried out a bunch of random iPhone games. I tried to apply course concepts in my head as I played the games.
In particular, these course concepts stuck with me: the formal elements and the MDA framework, types of narratives in games, game architecture, as well as more practical skills like sketchnoting, critically evaluating a game and conducting a playtest. I implemented them into my work by recognizing them in other games and incorporating them into planning and evaluation of my own games. The concepts shaped the types of questions we asked during playtests and our iteration process.
Overall, I had such an incredible and eye-opening experience being able to create an analog and digital game from scratch with my team, but it definitely came with its challenges. Firstly, although I could identify when other games are fun, it was so much harder to put design principles into practice with our own game. In the ideation process, we found it hard to make decisions and narrow down the scope of our game when there were so many different ideas. During the development phase, although it was crucial to test prototypes, we felt too scared to show our game without refining it repeatedly, slowing down the process. For our digital game, I had trouble picking up new technologies and keeping organized with all the different aspects of the game.
This quarter, I grew through challenging my understanding of gameplay, being able to analyze a game through a designer’s perspective, working out team dynamics, and being involved in developing many aspects of a game, including art, puzzle design and logic. Next time, I will be bolder and test out more creative ideas before forcing myself down a certain path. I will put more emphasis on rapid prototyping rather than waiting to try out a prototype at the last minute. And most importantly, I am eager to try more games and broaden my exposure.
