Hi everyone! My name is Trini (she/her) — I’m a senior at Stanford studying Design (Digital) and TAPS (Theater-Making) where I focus in lighting design. I’m also a CS coterm on the HCI track. I am very passionate about worldbuilding — especially narrative video games and branching structures, and I’m so excited to be taking this class!
My favorite video game of all time is definitely Hades — I have Zagreus’s sword tattooed on my right arm lol. I first played it right when it came out of beta in 2020, and at the time I was interested in Greek mythology, so I was curious about the subject — but was immediately sucked into the storyline and its overall accessibility to non-roguelike players. I always loved point-and-click walking simulator type games, as I never really found myself super talented at dexterity-based control. I hadn’t played any roguelikes before, but I felt myself improving at the mechanics of the game as it went on, and truly began appreciating the gameplay elements — not just the narrative — and especially how the gameplay structure itself reinforced the narrative themes of dedication and the ability to grow as a person. Every design aspect about the game excels at its purpose, and getting to experience such a well-crafted game brings me incredible joy!! A close second is Outer Wilds, which I really love. I find a similar connection between it and Hades’ mechanics of trying and failing in a time loop again and again, building purpose both for the player and the playable character through discovery and effort.
A recent game I’ve enjoyed is Hogwarts Legacy — I just completed the main storyline. I didn’t grow up reading or watching Harry Potter, so I binged all the movies in a couple weeks, and my partner was playing Hogwarts Legacy at the time, so I decided to try it too. I thought the world of Harry Potter was pretty interesting to explore. It’s the first open-world style of game I’ve played in this way, with quests and an overarching story but mass-customization in a wildly immersive world. I found it interesting to (also) improve at the fighting mechanics, and explore the open-world to discover little secrets. I’ve always also loved simple RPGs made through RPGMaker, so it was cool to see similar concepts at such a high-fidelity scale.
