Ever since I took CS247G two years ago, I’ve had 377G planned on my class schedule and was looking forward to taking it. I was so excited to get back into making games and tap into that sense of play again. Like I wrote in my 247G final reflection, games have always been a way to connect for me, especially with my brothers, who are much older than me. That class helped me realize that play isn’t just a nice-to-have or something we leave behind in childhood, it’s essential to life! I promised myself then to make more room for play in my life, and this class was the perfect way to do that.
I was curious how 377G would build on those earlier lessons, and I’m so happy with where it took me. I think I came away this time with a deeper understanding of what games can do, who they can be for, and how many more ways there are to design meaningful experiences through games.
One of the takeaways for me was realizing how many different categories of games I’d never really thought about before. Learning games is an obvious category but I usually thought of them as black and white “educational games,” like trivia or fact-based games. But designing a learning game made me see how intentional you have to be as a designer since you’re not just giving information, you’re designing what even counts as understanding in the first place. While making 1792 (prev. let them eat cake), it was really interesting to design learning assessments and decide on different kinds of learning, like more concrete knowledge such as how gentrification works vs. something fuzzier like the emotions of a revolutionary. That nuance made the whole category feel much more interesting than I expected, and honestly way more difficult in a good way.
I also really appreciated P2 for pushing us to explore interactive fiction. Usually I gravitate towards making games that I personally enjoy playing, so interactive fiction was unfamiliar and I was intimidated by the tools (+ Butch’s description of the many many hours he spent in Unity for his game). But once I got into it, it genuinely expanded my sense of what “a game” could be. Ren’Py was more beginner-friendly than I expected, and the ability to add visuals made my game feel alive really quickly. I also loved seeing what other people built in Twine and Unity and I started to realize how accessible making a game can be since everyone had such amazing games just using free software.
At the start of the quarter, I was a little overwhelmed by the timeline. 247G already felt really fast, so seeing that we only had two weeks per project plus a P4 felt wild. But somewhere along the way I got into the groove of constantly playing games, whether that’s my game, someone else’s game, or a published game, and I loved it! I found that it really pushed the limits of what a small team of 4 (or just myself) could do with a few weeks and a vision. It forced us to push past design fixation with constant playtests, be decisive, and also just build confidence in ourselves as designers. It is really satisfying to be able to say “I made 3 games” in 10 weeks, and it’s games that I’m genuinely proud of and want to share with people.
Like in 247G, sketchnoting was really central to how I learned. I spent admittedly way too much time on mine but it made me look forward to doing readings and creating my own visuals really helped all of the information stick. It was exciting to see older concepts from 247G show up again here, but more deeply embedded. With Stayin’ Alive, I was constantly thinking about things like difficulty curves and balance, and they started to feel less like vocabulary and more like things we were actively thinking about and trying to build on with every iteration.
One thing that I really appreciated about this class especially was being reminded how much work happens after a game is “made.” It’s so easy to forget that finishing the build is only one part of the journey, and hearing Louis talk about Map Maker and the Kickstarter period was awesome. That talk honestly inspired me to think bigger for P4. It sent me down this rabbit hole of researching how to make an itch game more successful, which was fun because it flexed different muscles as a game designer.
The smaller class size also made a huge difference! We got to playtest so many games, and I learned so much just from watching other people work. I was building in Ren’Py and didn’t even realize how much more it could do until I played Amaru’s Conclave and saw the journal system they built. That moment really pushed me, and I ended up adding screen shakes, music pauses, and just leaning into what the platform could offer. I also loved seeing the power of a well-told story in Tianze’s Burning Memory, and the creative potential of modding in Battle of the Bands, which had some adapted Balatro mechanics.
Ultimately, I’m really grateful to 377G for giving me more tools and helping me step into the identity of a game designer and not just a student in a class. I think this quarter not only taught me how to make games but importantly it taught me to believe that I can make great games.
Wins of the Quarter:
[games that I’m proud of and want to share!]
[getting creative with sketchnotes!]
[people playing the game even after playtesting!]
[Stayin’ Alive Slack emotes!]
[nina pets!]
