I came into this class loving games, video games, board games, card games, everything. Because I loved games, I wanted to make games, but I didn’t really know how. This class, among other things, taught me everything that really goes into making a game(turns out it’s a lot).
One thing I very much appreciated about this class, was that despite being about the art of making games, much of what we learned was very practical. I found that learning about a design concept in class, and then playing a game and analyzing it allowed me to observe these patterns in real time and really deepen my understanding of games and their design. One lesson I found particularly enlightening was the video about onboarding in Plants vs. Zombies, as not only did it help me immensely when designing levels in our P2 project, but also ever since watching the video I’ve been thinking of how all the games that really hooked me with their gameplay used these clever onboarding tactics. Going back a bit to earlier on in the course, I think the concept of mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics really reframed how I thought about games and helped me better understand how games work from a designers perspective. I’m glad it was one of the earlier lessons, as I found it constantly came up when designing and analyzing games throughout the course.
On another note, I think something that makes this course really special is that you get to take something away from it, namely the games you make in P1 and P2. It makes sense of course that in a class about game design that you would design games, but in so many of the classes I’ve taken in the past, its all about learning and memorizing, and not about actually doing, so this course was a nice change of pace. I am very much looking forward to subjecting my friends and family to both the games I made this quarter with my groups.
Aside from the course itself, this class was a space I felt very at home in, and I would like to thank the teaching team(Nina included) and my class/group mates for making it that way. It was so nice for me to be in a space where everyone else is as knowledgeable and passionate about games as I am. I’m really sad that I have to leave all this behind to go back to the nightmare that is Junior year of high school(wish me luck). Nonetheless, from this class I will take away many lessons and memories, and I will continue to play (and hopefully make) games for many years to come.
