Wow… this was such a phenomenal class. I’ve always grown up playing video games, but within the last few years, I haven’t been able to play many games and when I do, it’s something I’m used to such as League of Legends. However, in this class, I had the opportunity to explore new games. Life is Strange, Firewatch, and so much more have been such memorable games. In addition, now when I’m playing video games, I have a different take on it. Rather than simply playing to play, I love to also analyze it and see what types of MDA are going on. Beforehand I would only care about the mechanics; however, now, I love to see WHY those mechanics were added, what type of dynamics they create, and what that in the overall game creates as the aesthetic. This is one of the most valuable lessons learned in this class, and I believe that it will continue to hold strong in future games I play.
I also love the groups I was a part of. I love meeting new people and creating a cool project together. Before this class, I would have never imagined wanting to build a physical game. However, during this class, I ended up building 2 physical-related games: a capture the flag game for P1 and a scavenger hunt game for P2. These games were SOOOO MUCH FUNNN to make and it taught me a lot. From actively thinking about the design decisions, how to change it up so it’s not just a game already made but rather a completely new take, and what kind of puzzles hints, and player journey we want- these tasks taught me so much and I am very grateful for this course. Overall, I believe that this was my favorite course I took during this whole quarter, and I learned so much from the design to even the technical side of creating a web app.
I believe that this skill has made me grow in a way I never thought I would have before the class. Beforehand I was expecting myself to just learn how to make cool games because I love playing games; However, all of the skills learned in this class such as rapid prototyping and testing is very applicable to many areas outside of just games. Whenever I am trying to showcase an idea to someone, I now know that it could be a VERY quick prototype < 15 mins and that would get my point across so much more. These prototypes could be very barebones, but anything works to get my idea across much easier that way my idea is clearly communicated and they can give more valuable and genuine feedback as they have clarity on my thoughts. This is very important.
Overall, This was so much fun and I love this class so much. I would 100% recommend it to my friends that love games as well ^-^
