Before this class, I had more barriers on what a videogame was. I learned a lot about what games are, what they can accomplish, and how to design videogames to accomplish my goals.
In P1, I learned how to make games that taught the players something. I loved seeing how making game balance teach about the topic was used throughout my classmates’ games, especially Sunnyvale, CA. I walked away learning more about why affordable housing is so difficult to construct. Throughout my time as a teacher, I struggled making games that made my students want to learn or even help them learn. This class has taught me that I can figure out what big ideas I want my students to learn and integrate those big ideas into very noticeable gameplay mechanics. For example, if I wanted to teach division, I could make a competitive game where dividing by 0 is a really big consequence for the players so they keep in mind that you cannot divide by 0. I would probably incorporate other things you’re not allowed to do like have an absolute value be negative and so on and so forth.
In the interactive fiction section of the class, I learned that videogames can be used in the same vein as movies to tell a narrative driven story. You can use the basics of storytelling found in most mediums such as books and movies. The biggest thing I learned in this section was how to get the player involved in the interactive fiction. I always wondered what made people voluntarily subject themselves to another’s rules for fun. But I suppose all mediums require a little bit of submission on the consumer’s part. In any book or movie you are confined to the perspective that the author gives you whether it is reliable or not. In the same way that these mediums leverage their restrictions to give a better experience, movies use cinematography for stunning visuals but also narrative hints since the audience can’t determine where to look and books use vivid language to allow readers to conjure their own imagery where the book does not provide it. In video games, it is up to the developer to decide how to limit the player. Video games, as a medium, have the potential to have the least restrictions out of all media. They are also the most varied in how they can turn out. The designers can choose to give and take liberties from the player as they please to serve the greater narrative. I learned how to make games I am interested in and would play voluntarily. I personally do not like much setup to a game. I prefer something that hooks you in or something that gives you a short tutorial and then throws you into the thick of the story. I also realized that I do not like to read, so I tried to implement as much gameplay into my text based game as I could by stealing mechanics from similar games like The Walking Dead and Heavy Rain where gameplay is tied to the decisions so that makes otherwise uninteresting gameplay really impactful. In the future, I will use the tactics I learned about making characters fun and relatable relative to the player’s interaction with them through the game. I also learned how to use the environment to tell more of my story too. The spaces that these characters live in can say more than dialogue can, which is why I would like to make my game with visual aspects so I can use players’ full senses to get an understanding of the story.
In my systems game, I learned a lot about game balance. I have played many games that involve die rolls and I never considered the statistical likelihood of some sums of die. No wonder the robber is invoked in Catan when one rolls a seven or in Shlevens one may make anyone drink by rolling a 7, 11, or doubles. I learned a lot about game balance, particularly doubling or halving values that work and don’t work, when implementing my system game for P3. I had a good time balancing the number of obstacles, the amount of currency one earns throughout the game, how much upgrades cost, and how effective upgrades are throughout the game. I also got experience with Unity in P3, which I had never programmed with before. Through playtesting I learned how important it is to give players choice in how they play basic minigames. Many players complained about not having the arrow keys and the WASD for movement in the package delivery minigame which was surprising to me. In the future, I will keep in mind the importance of player accessibility and options for controls in gameplay when designing my own videogames. I will also try to follow the style of games like It Takes Two where narrative is also told through the gameplay and sometimes even meta commentary on the people playing itself.
All in all, I learned more about what makes games enjoyable. When I play games now, I am much better at perceiving, critiquing, and even stealing mechanics that I like and dislike. This class has been a wonderful experience and I hope to make some cool stuff with what I’ve learned!
