Final Reflection – Jeffery Cai

Throughout my life, games have been a central part of who I am as a person. When I was young, I learned how to speak English from YouTubers who played games. I grew up playing games like League of Legends for basically my entire life. As I get older and have less free time, I realize that my relationship with games has changed from an unhealthy obsession to a distant fondness. However, CS247G has reframed my perspective of games in yet another way. The class has forced me to think of games from the POV of a designer. It has forced me to behold and understand the messy and intertwined difficulties when it comes to making a game.

Before this class, I thought about games as a pastime. I loved interacting with the mechanics of games and playing games to the highest degree of skill possible. I felt that being passionate and deeply involved in discourse regarding how to play games was the most rewarding part of being a game. Now, having finished CS247G, I’ve developed a rich vocabulary in describing what it is about games that brings me joy. I’m able to have discussions and talk about specific MDA, narrative design, types of target audience, and so much more with my friends. By doing so, I feel like I no longer have to spend a ridiculous amount of time grinding a game to feel like I have some stake in discussing it.

By making Golden Ark, I learned about the importance of balance, economies, and fun through fellowship. The long nights we spent as a team pulling our hairs out over how much money to give each player has burned those concepts into my memory. In making ReelLife, I learned about how to communicate a narrative to the player. I directly grappled with implementing an embedded narrative structure, breadcrumbing pieces of information so players can have a satisfying eureka moment when they piece the story together.

Along the way, I experienced pain like no other class has ever brought me in the past. In both projects, my team and I over-scoped by an insane amount, and I felt like we constantly spent all eight weeks chasing our own meteoric ambitions. I felt the pain of trying to invent new rules and overhaul the role system for Golden Ark, under a strict time pressure, when we made changes to the rules at 4PM before the writeup was due at midnight the same day. I felt the pain of having to push out features for ReelLife despite being horribly busy with other work, because we constantly needed to make great leaps to make sure we had a new version of our game at every playtest session.

But that pain wasn’t all for nothing — I felt that I grew a lot as a teammate. I realized that I had to make some sacrifices to make the product that I envisioned. During this class, the tension between having ambitions and maintaining a reasonable relationship with my work has annealed me. I also felt like I grew as a communicator. I really loved the team norm alignment exercise, which made me more cognizant of what types of communication my teammates preferred.

I intend to take Serious Games in the fall. Next time, I will try to scope games that are more reasonable! If I continue working on my games, I will make sure to have a healthier relationship so that my love for designing games is sustainable.

Hope my reflection wasn’t too pretentious! It’s been a great quarter. Major thanks to all of the course staff, and my wonderful classmates who made this class an amazing experience. Go Reithrodons!!!