I had quite an enlightening and enriching CS247G experience. Before this class, I enjoyed playing board games with my family, but didn’t have as extensive a knowledge of games in general compared to my classmates. This class taught me how powerful games can be as tools of connection and learning, as well as instruments of harm when they are used incorrectly. That’s why it’s so important as game designers to be fully aware of the ethical implications of the games one is designing. Being able to reflect on my ethics every week in the critical play assignments was very valuable for me because of this. I was introduced to a series of ethical questions and discussions surrounding games that I had not previously given deep consideration to, which I thought was quite a valuable aspect that further enriched my practice as a designer.
One discussion we had in section that really stuck with me was when we discussed the non-Indigenous man who tried to make a game about Indigenous culture, and we listened to a video of him discussing his learnings. I was struck by his audacity at first, and as I listened further I also felt surprised that he went in front of a crowd at a game conference and spoke about his mistakes and shortcomings. I think if experiences like that could be more normalized (standing up and speaking honestly about one’s mistakes and owning up to them) then the world would be much healthier overall.
One challenge I experienced was thinking through the physical manufacturing aspect of our second game. I was the person in our group with the most physical making and woodworking experience, so I took the lead on the woodworking for our project. However, even though I’ve built more extensive and technically difficult projects such as chairs, this game was a challenge in that I had to consider what specifically brings people tactile joy when they interact with a game, as well as how to make the game pieces cohesive while still visibly different. One way that we solved this conundrum was adding graphic elements to our wooden pieces, as well as using different colors of hardwood to add visual contrast such as peltogyne, cherry, poplar, and walnut.
Overall, I think this class made me into a better designer because working in a team to build a physical product wasn’t something I had much experience with before, and I felt that all of our different strengths really complemented each other so it was quite an enjoyable experience navigating how to each add to the project in different ways that would each make the game as good as it could be.
Next time, I would definitely consider scaling up the dimensions of the game so that it gets more physicality involved on the part of the player. I’m quite inspired by the delight and joy brought by “big” games such as the life-size game of Connect Four one can find on California Ave. Next time, I would want to focus on cultivating a strong sense of childhood whimsy with a game that encourages people to stand up and move around.
