Before this class, I thought of games as a primarily aesthetic and strategic experience. I had played games of chance mixed with strategy like monopoly and scrabble. In these games, the fun came from chance with other players mixed with some strategy.
When I was introduced to the concepts in MDA, my appreciation for game design grew tremendously. I had not appreciated the diversity of games and player types before playtesting games in class and learning from my peers. Puzzle games, narrative games, walking simulator games, modable games, digital games, analog games, and others – a variety I had not appreciated before CS247G.
I learned about different kinds of fun, which I had not considered before. I thought of fun as, well, one dimensional. This allowed me to then implement different game mechanics that appealed to different types of fun in the player.
Critical plays taught me how to analyze a game from a designer’s point of view, which forced me to think critically about every decision. For instance, even the beginning level of a game is a critical opportunity to implicitly introduce the player to the game mechanics. They should be taught how to play the game, however, many players prefer hints to be shown implicitly.
The impact of games on forming and deepening friendships was also something I had discounted before this class. I had not realized the intentionality required in designing a space for people to pace the reveal of personal information while building trust over time. It is not trivial to get right.
Walking simulators, loops, arcs, many other concepts I learned and appreciated throughout the quarter. I was able to build two games, one analog with cows and the other digital with trees. I was able to take the learnings from these readings, class lectures, and playtests to directly improve the games.
I experienced challenges in learning how to make a good game. Despite having an interest in the topic, I had actually not played many games before taking this class. After, not only have I approximately tripled the number of games I have played in my lifetime, I also have a newfound appreciation for narrative games and will continue exploring new games.
It was also challenging to build a digital game. I needed to learn Godot, think deeply about the game architecture, and learn how to develop ideas from four people in a team into a cohesive game. We worked around some of these challenges, playtesting a paper version of the game until the digital version was complete. In the end, I am quite proud of where things landed.
Next time I build games, or really software in general, I will be thinking about all the concepts I have learned. Even concepts like implicitly forcing the user through steps that teach them how to use the software is something generally applicable beyond games. I am excited for the next game I build, or even just approaching the next game I play (definitely moo-nopoly) with newfound appreciation and critical designer’s eye.
Research in the field (literally)
