Final Class Reflection – Emma

Before this class, I thought about games and play mostly only in terms of the experience of playing them. I had not once stopped during a game and thought deeply about why a game I loved was fun, or what was going through the game designer’s mind. Yet I’ve always loved games: card games with friends, casual mobile games, word games, long-roadtrip-and-you’re-really-bored games, party games, but I rarely stopped to think about why certain games felt more fun than others. Play was a form of escape, a way to disconnect or disassociate, challenge myself, or laugh with others. Games were my favorite way to spend time with people I love. I didn’t think critically about mechanics, dynamics, or aesthetics; I just knew when something felt good.

Throughout this class, I experimented with games that were completely outside my comfort zone. I was introduced to genres I’d never touched before, I had not even thought about the fact that games had genres: walking simulators, exploration games, battle royales, and narrative-heavy RPGs. Coming from a background of more mainstream classic, social, or challenge-based games, this exposure expanded my understanding of what a game could be. I now see game design as a powerful yet versatile art form with constant potential to bring excitement or joy, one that combines interaction, storytelling, systems thinking, and emotion. It was genuinely transformative, to fall in love even more with experiences I already loved to begin with. 

One of the biggest takeaways for me was the power of storytelling in games. I used to associate storytelling primarily with books or movies, but I now realize that some of the most compelling stories I’ve ever experienced were within games. When games are able to suspend disbelief and immerse a player fully in another world, it becomes something more than play; it becomes a journey.

When it came to making games, at first it was weird because again, I had not really thought about game design before and the idea that I could go out and just make a game and make people play it was kind of crazy – I thought games had to be mainstream. The most indie game I’ve played is probably Overcooked. With the two games I helped design, I loved being a designer – as a designer, I started paying attention to mechanics and employing empathy in understanding how they shaped player behavior and emotion: what made people feel good during play. Through playtesting, I saw what sparked joy and what didn’t land, and that process became addictive. Iterating based on feedback: tweaking rules, adding new elements, adjusting pacing, was one of the most rewarding parts of this experience. Watching people genuinely enjoy something we created, getting super excited over seeing our playtesters get super excited during a game, was a reminder of how impactful good design can be. As someone who has taken tons of d.school and design classes and who loves the process of design so much, it was surprising how familiar the style of CS 247G felt, refreshingly illuminating principles far more similar to what I’ve seen in design classes than in my computer science curriculum — but it was far more fun forcing confused friends to play my games rather than to just have them test a prototype, even though it’s technically the same thing.

I did experience challenges, especially in balancing creative ambition with practical constraints. It was sometimes difficult to simplify mechanics or cut features we loved, but I learned how important it is to design with the player experience at the center. I always had so many ideas and visions for different paths we could take after each feedback session or playtest, but they were not always feasible. Designing isn’t just about coming up with something cool, it’s about understanding your target audience and making sure it feels good to the people playing it. I also faced challenges when it came to game types that I was not familiar with – it took more effort to buy into the game and try to understand it.

Overall, I grew not only as a player but as a designer. I now approach games with a more analytical mindset. I think about how player choices are being supported, how the game designers were strategic in making the game fun or easy to understand, how levels fit into the gameplay, and how aesthetics contribute to emotion. This shift in perspective has changed how I engage with games entirely and make me want to design more to see how I can engage even more people in different ways.

Moving forward, I’m excited to keep building. I want to continue working on games even though I hadn’t made one before this class. I want to explore the professional field of game design that I had not really known of before this class. I want to be even more intentional about how the design serves the player experience, especially in creating moments of delight, shock, emotional connection, and joy. This class taught me that play is thoughtful, fun is never accidental, it’s designed and I would love to design more games that people could love playing. It’s funny to think I took this class just as a degree requirement. I am so grateful for this class. I felt like a kid again. It’s the most fun I’ve had in school in a very long time, and I’m only sad I didn’t discover it any earlier than my senior spring. Hopefully I’ll find more time to play during my coterm year. Thank you so much!