Coming out of 247G, I thought I had a fairly adequate grasp of what makes an effective game from my own gameplay experience, independent creative excursions, and past implementations. After taking this course, I have a more accurate depiction of the elements of game design which I personally value the most, and the elements which are essential to making a functional, coherent, and meaningful game.
I won’t lie, I came into this class not entirely sure what distinguished a “serious” game from any other game; I came in with a notion that serious games would be these didactic, tiresome experiences that sacrifice fun in an attempt to hammer in a point to the reader, and was delightfully surprised by the games I not only created, but got to experience as a result of the creations from other classmates. While I learned that I was partially correct in my initial assumptions of a serious game, (I’m sorry Christina, but while I understand Epipen Tycoon’s message, fun is not an adjective I’d use in the same webpage holding it) I specifically learned to extent to which games can be serious, informative, or possess a call to action, without sacrificing gun. While I suppose I had internally always recognized this facet of games, based solely on the idea that a meaningful narrative in addition to other satisfying core mechanics and gameplay loops are typically what leads to the most popular or successful games of a year, it wasn’t until I simplified the process and expected creations I was associated with a “serious” game that I truly settled with the fact that yeah, games designed specifically for a serious purpose, such as education, or showcasing a dystopian environment, can still be incredibly fun, while achieving their serious goals.
In retrospect, I learned a significant amount from all three of the main projects of this course. In my learning game, I learned how to effectively present information in an embedded fashion in a way to not disturb gameplay. This led to a fuller understanding of how humans think, and how players absorb information through their gameplay. While I worked on writing words down, I implicitly was considering how a player would respond to certain design choices, and attempted to tailor their gameplay experience towards a certain direction/learning goal. I also learned that every design choice has an impact, and sometimes players will be unaware of the desired impact, and face frustration out of seemingly nowhere. From P1, I gained knowledge of the presentation of a game, in both its marketed text, and the visually aesthetic choices made, all of which impact a player’s perception of not only the game, but their success in playing the game. On a more literal sense, slightly beyond the goals of this course specifically, P1 also gave me significantly more experience with design and processing of analog game components—I learned how to use a laser cutter! I also gained significant practice with visual design tools such as Canva and Figma, which I had minimal experience with prior.
P2 was complete shift in my mentality, and approach to game design. Admittedly, I entered P2 lacking in motivation or key theme I wanted to work on, which I hadn’t experienced in 247G or 377G up until this point. I thought that the general criteria of creating Interactive Fiction in a Dystopian environment was a restriction on the genre of game I wanted to create, but I decided to undergo the challenge to fit into that umbrella rather than propose an alternative genre for my IF. As someone who isn’t the most fond of IF outside of visual novels, I decided to pursue a visual novel-esque game using Unity. My biggest struggle was with trying to balance creating a coherent, meaningful narrative, while also implementing dystopian elements, in a short period of time. As Amy and my playtesters found out, I think deeply about narratives I write, and that tends to result in writing for an audience expecting wordier, more story-based texts, instead of an IF game where player choice acts as the defining game mechanic. While I initially struggled to distinguish two siblings as siblings instead of dating (I am never going to forget that playtest), and also reached a point where my length made it difficult to have a wide breadth of branching choices, I ultimately arrived at something that I thought was narratively solid, immersive, meaningful in the grand scheme/dystopian message, and not a bore to experience. From P2, I learned a lot about scoping, and truly taking in player feedback and rapid iterating in a game where even the smallest change in word or sentence can significantly impact a player’s experience. I learned a lot about directing a game where the narrative is nearly the sole focus (beyond choices, which impact said narrative), and also learned how to apply prior course concepts to a different medium of game with which I had minimal experience. After I finally reached a good point where I felt that players received feedback for their choices, and that their choices were meaningful, I can say that I ended P2 satisfied with what was done, particularly given sickness and such limited time.
P3 was a less optimistic experience, and I learned a lot about working as a team, and setting clear expectations for myself and others. Ultimately, while I experienced initial confusion on the formal definition of a system going into the project, by the time the Sketchnote came, I had a better understanding of how to model a complex system where player input leads to direct feedback and visible change on said system. I also learned how to balance player agency in a digital, singleplayer game, where a player may want to do a lot of things, but every little thing would have to be particularly thought about and coded up. Unfortunately, we heavily overscoped for P3, and faced massive difficulties mandating pivots, but I ultimately learned to emphasize the early stages of development, and not to get too ahead of myself for future game development excursions.
And that arrives us here, with the completion of P4. Ultimately, P4 was a celebration of the pride I took in P1, and a further exploration into the realm of creating a high-fidelity product that not only achieved its goal as learning goals, but was also amazingly fun to play. Going forward, I will take more time and effort to try to learn new techniques, while applying my past knowledge in a new or diverse way, to get a mixture of familiarity with pride at knowing that a new obstacle was overcome, or a new skill was learned. I will also make an effort to play more games in-progress, for working with other game designers always populates my mind with new ideas. That being said, I leave this class more aware of my capabilities as a designer, more confident in my skills as a writer, and more satisfied in my abilities as a builder. I leave this class knowing not only that I am capable of making games in the future, but that I definitely will be making more games in the future.
