I didn’t know much about game design going into this class. I had some background in creative writing, and part of me assumed that game design would be similar to writing a short story, that the bulk of the work of designing a game is just constructing the story it tells. This was, of course, silly, and this quickly became apparent as I did more Critical Plays and worked on each of the projects. I learned about concepts like mechanics, dynamics, and the types of fun, leading me to realize how closely mechanics and storytelling are intertwined in games, and how it is impossible for good game designers to think of the two as isolated parts. As we went through our theoretical material, I thought often of Roger Ebert’s infamous remark that video games can “never be art.” I was never quite as snobbish as Ebert was, but I did have an oversimplified notion of game design as a craft and was somewhat surprised to see so much thoughtful and rigorous literature on the subject.
Ultimately, the biggest teacher for me in this class was having to design games of my own. For the second project in particular, I was tasked with much of the puzzle design and had to figure out how to provide the player with a puzzle that was not only clear and solvable, but also smoothly incorporated into characters’ backstories and dialogue. I thought a lot about the interplay between mechanics and narrative, as well as our readings on puzzles and environmental storytelling. I had to continually remind myself that good puzzles must have a Right Answer, and that the task of the puzzle designer is to obstruct the player while still expecting them to win. Putting the puzzles together in a satisfying way was challenging, but I believe it made me a better storyteller in the end and taught me how to use embedded details to both guide the player and tell a story. I would like to revisit our P2 idea someday, maybe to see how it would work as a fully digital game, rather than a digital-analog hybrid. While I’m at it, I think I’d like to give the puzzle design another try once I have some more storytelling experience under my belt. Who knows? Maybe someday, people everywhere will have the chance to get to know Cookie Palmer and Suplex Johnson and all the other misfits who call Shrike’s Landing home.
Ultimately, the thing that will stick with me the most about this class is my project group, the self-proclaimed “Rat Pack.” The five of us ended up designing two really fun games together, and I’m glad we stayed together after P1, because by the end of the course, we felt like a real team. We were all different people, each with our own tastes and talents, but what mattered was our collective confidence that our projects mattered, that they were worth doing and worth doing well. Sometimes we agreed, sometimes we disagreed, but no matter what, we were there for each other, and I’m leaving this class (and this school!) feeling so, so grateful that I got to spend my last quarter working with some of the coolest people on Earth.
great work this quarter! Have a lovely summer.