Final Reflection

Before this class I thought of myself as a gamer, but was reluctant to call myself a game designer. Coming from a non-technical background, it was easy for imposter syndrome to set in and convince me that I was more consumer than creator. This class has been incredible at breathing life into my creative spirit, and pushing me to keep building. I remember reading the 247G syllabus in the winter and not being able to believe that a course like this existed. I scrolled through the Mechanics of Magic blog and saw references to my favourite games (Hollow Knight, Slay The Spire, and so many more) everywhere. This class felt tailor-made for me and I’m so grateful to Christina and the teaching team for offering it. 

The biggest value add from this class has been giving frameworks and vocabulary to analyze concepts that I have understood intuitively for a long time. Being able to break a game down into its Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics to understand its core components will continue to be a practice I use in my work. I have tried my hand at game writing for fun before, and now feel like I have a whole new toolkit with which to write about games (and other playful experiences) that I enjoy. I was digging through my google drive and found an essay on the difficulty curve in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. I’m excited to rewrite that in the critical play style to see how much more I can get out of it. 

This class actually came at the perfect time for me as I transition in my career from adult learning and professional development to play-based learning for children. It’s a strange place to feel like both an experienced professional, and beginner at the same time, and CS247G was a huge catalyst in this transition. The quality standards the teaching team held were so important for this, as it would have been so easy to have this be a class where submissions were effectively check/no check. I appreciated the attention to detail, deep rubrics, and robust qualitative feedback that we got consistently throughout the course.

The concept that stuck most with me was self-determination theory. In reading back through my critical plays, I realized this is the concept that I find to be most central to how fun and engaging a game can be. The ability to create an experience that draws a player in and allows them to feel in control, appropriately challenged, and connected with others is also at the core of learning experience design. I can see the parallels between game and learning design much more clearly after this class, and am excited to apply my learning as I keep designing for kids. 

I was also surprised by how compelling I found the difference between toys, puzzles and games. The subtle difference in goals has helped explain why some previous designs I have tried could have struggled, as I was building a puzzle when I was aiming for a game.  

The iterative process through both P1 and P2 were some of  the biggest drivers of learning in the class. Going from rough ideas to paper prototypes to higher fidelity products was exhilarating, and I’m so grateful to the Rat Pack (aka Rhizoplagiodontia) for their teamwork throughout this quarter. I couldn’t have asked for a better team to play with.