A lot of my play before this class came from competition. I found the most fun through beating friends, climbing ranks, winning matches, or proving that I was better at a game than the person across from me. That is why games like Brawl Stars, Clash Royale, Smash, Mario Kart, and sports games were so easy for me to enjoy. They gave me immediate feedback: win or lose, dominate or get dominated, improve or fall behind. Before CS247G, I mostly understood games through that lens. A good game was one that felt exciting, competitive, and skill-based.
One of the biggest shifts for me was learning the formal elements of games and MDA. Formal elements helped me see that games are not just “fun”. They are built out of objectives, rules, resources, boundaries, conflict, and player interactions. MDA helped me understand the relationship between what designers create and what players actually feel. A mechanic like dashing is not just a button press; it creates dynamics like retrying, mastering timing, and reading hazards. Those dynamics then create aesthetics like challenge, frustration, flow, or mastery. This was especially clear in our P2 game.
I also experienced the adrenaline of building something that people enjoyed. This class felt completely different from many of my previous CS classes, where my satisfaction came from passing test cases. This class, was watching someone else play the thing we made and seeing whether they laughed, got confused, felt motivated, or wanted to keep going. It was exciting seeing our first playtest for P1, where the players were interested in the social deduction and laughter.
The hardest part was learning how to iterate from critique. We could not just add features because they sounded cool. We had to ask: What are we trying to learn? What kind of fun are we trying to create? What problem from the last playtest are we responding to?
I grew by learning to see games beyond competition. I now appreciate games as designed experiences that can create discovery, humor, emotion, curiosity, and social connection. I also learned that iteration itself can be enjoyable.
I don’t think I’ll be getting into game design after this, but this class was truly one of the best classes I have taken here at Stanford. From this class, I’ve learned that I really enjoy social deduction games 🙂
Design is hard, game design is insane! Even if you don’t continue making games, I’ve glad you found your playful self!