Having taken some game design classes in the past, I had some expectations for what a game would look like, how the parts of it would operate, the MDAs, and so on and so forth. However, all the projects I had done were either; A) a solo project, or B) never playtested and refined. However, this class has changed my perspective from the developer perspective of game design.
First off, I had never considered the audience or the ethical implications of games. Whereas I used to believe the point of games are simply to “have fun” and “make money”, I discovered the amount of power writers and game designers hold over the message that a game could send to an audience. It’s not that I wasn’t aware that a game could send a message, but that I underestimated the impact it could have.
Moreover, I had zero experience working as part of a team in the field of game design. I understood how to work solo, but I hadn’t ever had to rely on a teammate or communicate as part of a group prior to this class. Of course, that meant that this class came with a ton of challenges as well; sacrificing my ideas for the sake of the group, listening to other perspectives, taking heavy criticisms and actually acting upon it, etc. All of these were things I had to learn to do bit by bit throughout the quarter, but I grew a lot in this aspect. I learned how to communicate with my teammates effectively, take responsibility for action and inaction, and find solutions to problems especially regarding the division of work and compromising.
However, I’d say that the biggest growth I’ve had this quarter was in my ability to accept criticism. When one works by themselves, they won’t hear anybody say, “your idea is garbage,” or “that doesn’t make sense at all.” In a team (and with playtesters), however, you get to hear that a lot more often. Obviously, I had to get used to it, but it did take a while. It’s hard to admit that your ideas may not be as good as you think it is, and it’s even harder to give up an idea completely when a project starts heading in a different direction.
I really rediscovered my love for game design in the past few weeks as well. Originally, the idea of having to put in work when I could be playing ZZZ horrified me. However, the possibilities that this class opened up for me really changed my entire work ethic, and at times I would even think, “wow, this is really fun!” (which is an extremely rare thought for me to have when doing an assignment).
In the future, I’ll probably take all the concepts that I learned (sketchnotes are all saved now) and apply them to any other game I make in the future. Most importantly, I’ll take the playtesting feedback and will likely continue working on the game we made for P2. This was really, really fun to work on. Thanks everyone!
(featured image drawn by Yixun Su, the goated artist of team Rhizoplagiodontia)
