Final Class Reflection

Introduction:

I want to begin by saying that I really enjoyed this class, it was a completely new experience for me. I’ve never really considered myself a gamer, but I realize now how wrong I was. Games have always been a part of my life, and this class reminded me of all the games I’ve played over the years.

Before this class

Before this class, I thought a “good” game was all about challenge and fellowship types of fun. I look back at the games I played and still play (Pokémon, Chess, Call of Duty, Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Fortnite), and I never really thought about how people might want different types of fun from games. A type of fun that was new to me was narrative. Before this class, I never thought of narrative in games because, to me, that’s not why I enjoyed playing games. So it was interesting to be exposed to so many narrative-driven games and the different types of narratives within them. In this class, I got to play Esther, Depression Quest, and many more games that I would never have tried on my own. Although I still don’t particularly enjoy narrative-driven games, I have gained an appreciation for game designers who take the time to create immersive, story-rich experiences. I even looked back at some of the games I’ve played growing up, like Pokémon, and realized that narrative is very present, even if I never really paid attention. I was just there to catch my favorite Pokémon and level them up. I was so excited when I got to play Pokémon Emerald for a critical play.

What I Did and What I Learned

The class topics that stuck with me were types of fun and MDA. When I was working on the final report, it was easy to refer to these throughout my explanations. Additionally, when we were building our game, organizing and scoping a game was much easier following these frameworks. From the critical plays, I learned a lot about narratives. I felt like I constantly referred to types of narratives when discussing a game, especially because a lot of the games I played were narrative-driven.

Major Challenge

A challenge I faced in this class was scoping a game’s features. I think when having a team with so many ideas, it was difficult to think about feasibility and which would be best to drive forward the game’s mission and vision. Especially given the time constraints, it was difficult to pick ideas because many were so good.

How I grew

I grew as a game designer. I am extremely proud of the games I was able to create in this class. I enjoyed doing both a digital and non-digital game. I also grew by learning so much about games and how they play a role in our society. The ethics in this class made me think about a lot of different things. Some that come to mind were dark design and perpetuating stereotypes about race and gender. I appreciated having to stop and grapple with how I might improve a game based on many different factors. I think this made me grow a lot when thinking about how to improve products and games.

Conclusion: Next time

I think the next time I want to build a game, I will be a lot more prepared. Some things that I will carry with me from this class were the new people I met through my teams. I enjoyed working with both teams, everyone was wonderful in this class.