Final Reflection – Varsha Saravanan

I have never considered myself to be a game person. I was never good at video games, and as someone who likes winning, the repeated losses were enough to put me off. I must say I did enjoy board games when I was younger, but as the years flew by and life got busier, it became harder to make time for games with friends. Taking 247G reignited my interest in games and gave me a newfound appreciation for them. More than that, it gave me a new understanding of play itself; I like to think of it as the joy, the creativity, and the simple yet profound need to have fun, no matter the form it takes.

Being at Stanford is a lot. Between classes, work, and the pressure to always be achieving something, there’s barely any room to relax, let alone find the time to play. As someone who just wrapped up their junior year, the burnout is becoming very much present. 247G gave me, for lack of a better word, an excuse to play again, and reminded me just how much fun that can be. I won’t pretend I loved every game I playtested or wrote a critical play on, but being exposed to such a broad range of game genres, from escape rooms to rogue-like games to dating sims, was a refreshing and joyful experience.

In fact, my first two weeks in 247G were so enjoyable that I decided to take Read, Write, Play with Christina to continue exploring the world of games. The most meaningful learning moments for me came from designing games myself. During P1, I discovered how important it is in social interaction–based games to keep instructions clear and minimal so players don’t lose interest, to consider the context in which games are played (at parties, while drunk, among close friends or strangers), and to build in mechanics that work for both familiar and unfamiliar groups so everyone can have a good time.

Designing Let Them Eat Cake, my P1 card game, helped me put these principles into practice by implementing hidden roles, team-based competition, and prompt-driven responses to encourage social deception and playful guessing.

In P2, my small but mighty team of three, myself included, decided to learn Unity and build a 2D cozy, puzzle-based escape room. I remember our initial struggles: trying to understand how to orient the camera or upload an image as a sprite – things that now feel like second nature just a few weeks later. Through Whisk(ers), I was able to explore techniques such as interactive onboarding, hint systems, incorporating strong audiovisuals, and crafting a game with a compelling narrative. And now I can finally say I have a little bit of a grasp on Unity and am excited to add this to my skillset as I continue to make and play games.

Speaking of challenges, building games is not easy. Whether it was spending 15+ hours debugging a seemingly simple inventory logic or managing conflicting team priorities and lack of communication in P1, each stage of game development gave me a new appreciation for the games I play today. In the future, I want to challenge myself to learn 3D game development, specifically, a physics and mechanic-heavy game on Unity. I’d also be open to exploring different game development platforms such as Godot and Unreal Engine.