Final Class Reflection | Gracielly Abreu

Before this class, I never really thought about how much thought and intention goes into game design. Throughout the quarter, I had so many chances to see how each design decision can take days to figure out, and I used to think developing games would just be something super fun, and while it definitely is at times, I also realized how much deliberation and debugging can make the process feel intense and even a little exhausting.

Play has been a really big part of my life recently. I’ve had multiple creative jobs where the ideas of flow and play, both things I had explored on my own before this academic year, became central to what I was building. This class gave me the chance to take those ideas seriously and apply them in a way that actually led to something real. I’m grateful I had the space to build meaningful projects and develop ideas that had been sitting in my head for a while, and to actually see them come together in a way that felt exciting and new.

I’ve never been much of a gamer, but this experience made me realize how powerful it is to create something narrative and enjoyable and thoughtful, and this class along with 377G really gave me the opportunity to do that. I got to focus on UI development and narrative building and learn new software and most importantly take on a whole new way of thinking about games and what it means to design for play. This class honestly felt like it was about the science of play because even something meant to be immersive and fun and free can be full of complexity and contradiction and all kinds of unexpected complications. I’m glad I got to build skills that helped make some of that complexity feel more manageable.

I also feel lucky I got to work alongside people who were incredibly imaginative and thoughtful because collaborating with others really helped make developing games feel less overwhelming and more exciting. One of the biggest takeaways for me was learning to test things and slow down when things started to feel like they were spinning out of control. Christina did a great job building in moments where we could practice that and I got to see how even testing the smallest piece of a project could change how everything fit together. I used to think that just because I had played a lot of games I could probably design one in my head, but now I really appreciate how clever and intentional good design has to be.

During this class I had a lot of challenges with debugging and time because learning new software takes so long and in a quarter system everything moves so fast, and conversations about game design with my team could stretch on while the clock kept ticking, so I had to learn to make decisions more quickly while still staying thoughtful. That ended up shifting how I communicated with my team because I realized how important it was to be clear and concise without holding back too much. If I end up working on more games in the future, I know I’ll lean on the lo-fi prototyping skills I’ve learned here to make sure the mechanics are just as intentional as the concept.