Final Reflection
I didn’t know exactly what to expect when I signed up for this class. I’ve always loved games, especially board games that I play at home with my family. I also was interested in the idea of using game design for a “serious” purpose. I took “serious” as meaning educational/for social good/or just generally not a mindless game like Candy Crush. I had no idea games like “Train” or “Oxenfree” existed, no clue what Interactive Fiction was, no knowledge of “collaborative” games (games were always competitive to me!), and I definitely did not think that I’d accomplish as much as I did over the past quarter.
One aspect of this class that I really enjoyed was “studio time”. It’s incredibly difficult to get a group of Stanford students together and I have the when2meet’s to prove it. Looking back, I’m glad I went into the class with the expectation of it always going until 4:20 — when things become “optional”, there’s always something “required” that is a conflict time-wise. That might just be me, but I would maybe wait to mention that studio is optional until roughly… the add/drop deadline? It really was necessary for most of the projects. Even for IF, I valued the time I could ask questions or get people to playtest my game. And that brings me to my next favorite: playtesting.
Learning how to be a play tester and conduct a playtest were very valuable skills that I’ll use in the future when (not if) designing games. Of course I knew how to play games, but I’ve never really given feedback on one or thought critically about the balance, motivation, etc adjustments that could be made for improvement. For each project, we made the most changes not through discussion within our group, but based on feedback from playtesters! It still amazes me how big of a difference even one or two rounds of people playing your game can help. Sometimes it would be little things that we just didn’t notice with our creator-goggles on or sometimes it would be the whole idea behind the game. I’ll admit that the second is painful, but so much better than trying to make a bad game work when the best thing to do is start over. I learned to be more open to changes and to not be too precious with my designs and ideas. Falling in love with a prototype only makes you less likely to make the necessary changes to create a better game.
Outside of this class, anyone who knows me will say (and be right) that I’m indecisive. If you ask me where we should go for dinner, I usually need at least five rounds of question/answer to arrive at a top 3. This class pushed me to try different things out more freely, not just with games — as long as I learned from my mistakes I realized my choices would always lead me closer to a solid product/end result. When we were told to make prototypes within ~15 minutes, I kept getting faster at getting some idea down and ready to test. If you told me I could make a playable game in under 30 minutes before this class, I would’ve laughed at the thought. But it’s possible! And on top of that, creating a playable game with a team.
I loved how our class was so collaborative and felt like a safe space to try anything out. I wish I’d taken advantage of that sooner, but most classes at Stanford don’t have the same environment so it took some getting used to before I was convinced. The people were one of my favorite aspects of the class and I honestly can’t tell if we just got a great group or if every class could be like this with the right nudge. However it happened, it was really special.
I learned that I can make games. Yes, that’s one of the main goals of the class, but if you think of every combination of emphasizing one word in “I can make games”, maybe you’ll understand what I mean. I also found — or perhaps rediscovered — a love of writing fiction. I wrote some short stories in high school, but between the CS curriculum and my “fuzzy” side being occupied by studio art, I hadn’t thought about writing for fun in a long time. The sheer joy I got from writing my IF game reminded me not only to keep writing, but that in my limited time left at Stanford, I should focus on shamelessly exploring what’s out there. I would (and will) recommend this class to anyone who will listen — I think everyone has something to learn from it and you don’t have to be a gamer or a coder to do so.
When I go to make games in the future… well first I should say that I will go to make games in the future! That certainty alone says something about this class. When guest speakers came to talk to us about game design, I was so interested in this whole other world that exists that I never knew about. When I go to make games in the future, I’ll reach out to my friends from this class, people in the game design world, and feel comfortable sharing ideas and prototypes with friends and family. I’ll have resources to consult in case I get stuck somewhere and the comfort of knowing there’s a community I’m now a part of where we can help each other through the weeds.
I am truly grateful to have taken this class — I learned so much and came out of it stronger and more confident.
