Final Class Reflection – Tray

Before this class, I thought about play in an abstract way and couldn’t really formalize why a game felt “good” or “bad” to play. I also prioritized playing games less before this class and was much less certain about what game development actually meant and how to do it, which was not optimal as an “aspiring game designer” (kind of like a writer that doesn’t read books.)

A lot of what I learned came from the class forcing me to actually play and make games. I remember my first time playing an analogue game in a long time in office hours. I sat down with a group of people and played Coup, and was honestly kinda shocked at how fun it was. From that point on, I grew much more willing to just randomly sit down and play a game with people in my dorm (and thinking about its MDA in the back of my mind…)

From these play sessions, I was able to incorporate creative ideas into the games I made. For example, from Coup’s social deduction aspects, me and Team Barracuda created Shrimp Game, also incorporating other class concepts we learned like unsymmetrical roles and tweaking mechanics to fit our intended dynamics of trading. Another concept that stuck with me were the different types of narratives, which I implemented into Midnight Concoctions by having both environmental storytelling with the ingredients, and the enacting type of narrative as the main character influences/learns about the customers through her potion solutions.

This class was definitely very challenging, both in the critical plays and the projects themselves which often had bugs and game imbalances we had to spend a ton of time fixing. However, I felt that everything was a valuable part of my own growth, as the critical plays taught me to write and analyze with more precision, and the projects were a never-ending stream of learning on the technical side. I grew my skills in many areas I really didn’t expect. I learned how to 3D model more efficiently. I learned how to animate and use the PRL 3D printers. I learned how to design game systems and flows, and how to detect when something needs to change. I learned how to kind of use Unity and to narrowly escape merge conflicts.

But past the technical skills I learned, I’m really proud of the games I was able to make as well. I think this is my favorite class I’ve taken at Stanford so far. The TAs were also all super wonderful and I’m really glad I got to talk to them a lot during office hours and get to know them better. Also the people I met in this class have been so insanely sweet and cool.

I definitely want to keep working on both Shrimp Game and Midnight Concoctions in the future, completing a highly-polished physical edition for Shrimp Game and a longer playable demo for Midnight Concoctions. The next time I make a game, I believe that I can approach it with more confidence that I’ll be able to make something fun. Thank you so much for the effort that went into making this class, it was a wonderful experience!