Aanika’s Final Reflection

Before taking this course, I didn’t really think of myself as a gamer at all. I had a clear idea of what a ‘gamer’ meant to me: my little cousins glued to their ipads playing roblox or my friends in high school playing fortnite all day. Through taking this class, I’ve transformed my understanding of what constitutes a game and the multiple ways in which games can shape or reflect your identity. I also realized just how much thought and intention goes into every single mechanic of a game.

When I would think about games I enjoy like Catan or Mario Kart, I thought about how much fun they were as a whole to play and interact with. However, I never spent much time intentionally thinking about what made them so much fun. The deep dive we did into MDA analysis in this course really opened my eyes into the different types of fun and emotion games can elicit and how intentional all of it is. One example that really illustrated this point to me was my first assignment analyzing the game Pico Park. It made me think more deeply about why a cooperative game like that was so much fun for me and my friends but also extremely frustrating and unenjoyable for others I had talked to about it. 

Another concept in the class that I really enjoyed learning about was the intention that goes into level design, specifically the Mario Bros example we discussed in class. It was very eye-opening to consider how much thought went into teaching the players simple mechanics like jumping and walking. It illustrated the idea that good design really does go unnoticed among players, for these were things that I didn’t even realize had been taught to me in the first place.

I really enjoyed the experience of getting to make my own games during this class. It was very exciting to express my creativity in a new way that made use of the concepts we learned in class. Specifically in P2, it was exciting to work on designing our game from scratch and inventing our own narrative. After learning about narrative architecture, it was interesting to put into perspective what kind of game we were making and what audience we wanted it to appeal to. Creating a game forced me to think beyond individual mechanics and instead consider how every design decision contributed to the overall player experience. I found myself asking questions that I had never considered before: What information should be hidden or revealed? How can the environment support the story we are trying to tell? 

Overall, this course completely changed the way I think about games. It taught me that games are not simply products meant for entertainment, but carefully constructed systems capable of teaching, persuading, storytelling, and creating meaningful emotional experiences. More importantly, it challenged my own assumptions about what it means to be a gamer. I now realize that there are so many ways to engage with games, whether by playing, analyzing, or creating them. Even though I may not fit the stereotype I once associated with gamers, this course helped me recognize that games have still been a meaningful part of my life, and it gave me a new appreciation for the creativity and intentionality behind them.