I never expected myself to take a game design class at Stanford, but now that I have, I can say it is one of my favorite classes here. Before the class, I perceived game design as something very different from my interests. I had a limited understanding of what a game is: I was thinking mainstream video games, mobile games, maybe gamification of tech products.
However, I was immediately hooked on the first day. Coming from a design and HCI background, I saw so many connections between the design processes I’ve learned and game design — I learned that game design is not all that different. The iterative nature, hands on process, and human-feedback-driven methodology all feel very familiar and fun to me. What’s more important is I realized what I learn in game design is very applicable to all other kinds of design. This class challenged me to think in terms of designing dynamics. The artifacts I work with might be very bare bones (e.g. a hand written set of rules), but being able to think of abstract systems and understand how to adjust them to foster different dynamics is very powerful for all kinds systems thinking challenges.
As intense as it was, I really appreciate how the class got us to engage in four sprints. I think it helped me become less precious with my work and be more experimental. Since this was my first game design class, it’s also nice that I can get some of my early bad games out of the way. Now that I look back, I could have been even scrappier with my work and be more intentional about how to prioritize in a limited amount of time. I will definitely be evaluating that more carefully for any sprints in the future.
I also really appreciate the variety of games we played in class. I appreciate that we dedicated time in class and had Read & Plays to help us learn from other games. Seeing how other professionals approach game design really expanded my understanding of what a game is. Previously, I thought of games as systems where one party wins under some conditions. While that is not incorrect, the Rise of the Video Game Zinesters captures the shift in my understanding well: I now realize games can just be bodies of ideas from different people, just like any kind of art. The participatory nature of it makes it such a powerful medium for any serious ideas. I’ve also come to realize that many things in life are also games depending on how you frame the rules. Seeing all the games on Itch.io really honed in this realization. Going forward, I would definitely be browsing itch.io just like how I like going to Zine fairs, and make my own as well.
There are certain frameworks that I find particularly useful and I will be applying them to other design projects in the future. MDAO was really useful for grounding me in the big picture goals and not losing track amidst implementation details. I can see MDAO be used for any sort of project that has some kind of outcome goal. Learning about the information design taxonomy for board game design was very useful for any kind of information design, especially physical ones. I find that boardgame design can feel very similar to creating design research exercises. The design research exercises often have a certain research goal and aim to create the dynamic of having the participant talk about a desired topic. These exercises often have physical artifacts to guide conversations, and good information design there often looks kind of like a boardgame. On the other hand, as someone with little creative writing experience, the writing brainstorming exercises were also helpful for getting rid of writer’s block.
After making 3 games and refining one over the quarter, I have learned the following lessons:
(1) When in doubt, always simplify. I really like what Luis talked about in their guest lecture — it’s important to simplify a game to one or two core ideas and abstract away the noise. This learning hit hard after running multiple early playtests where both the moderator (me) and the playtesters were confused about the rules.
(2) If you have a feeling something else might be better, pivot as early as you can and see if it works out. Sometimes I get a sunken cost fear or a fear of additional work when contemplating whether I should adopt a drastic change. For example, I had dilemmas around whether to shift my P4 off twine into code and around how much visuals I wanted to include. Pivoting to code ended up saving me many hours of manual labor, and had I pivoted earlier regarding the degree of visual media I wanted to include, I could’ve adopted the writing media even more towards the visual interactive web experience style. To sum it up, this learning is about not being afraid of scrappy prototypes that might break everything or make your life 10x better.
(4) I’m more capable than I thought I am!! Game design brings together different parts of my skillset (art, design, coding). Also, I realize AI tools are so powerful these days that not knowing how to use a digital tool is really not as big of a hurdle as it used to be. This class got me to practice making in very short amounts of time, and that process improved my ability to quickly pick up skills and mesh my existing skills.
Thank you so much Christina and Butch for teaching such a cool class!! I really appreciate how much of a community the class became and how everyone just ends up having fun together in class.
