Final Reflections on CS377G: Designing Serious Games

As someone who considered himself to be a highly experienced game player (and an amateur video game maker) before taking the class, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I knew that I liked most kinds of games, and believed that I could probably do a decent job of identifying what’s working in a game and what’s not prior to taking the course. However, to take a page from CS103, my least favorite class at Stanford, I’d like to point out that verifying the quality of a game (or elements within it) is a very different — much easier, I’d argue — from creating a high quality game. Most of my time, energy, and thoughts spent on 377G was about bridging the gap between those skills. Somewhat unsurprisingly, I also got to practice many of my more general design skills that I’ve been developing since taking CS147 and CS247, the Human Computer Interaction introductory classes. Although I learned a ton, frankly, I still can’t believe that I got units towards my degree for making games!

Below is a highlight real of my time in the class.

PROJECT 1 (An Inconvenient Game)

It’s not easy to pinpoint what I did in previous assignments that contributed to my learning, but that’s probably because most of my learning from projects didn’t happen at a specific moment, instead building up slowly over time. For P1 (designing a board game in a team), we were introduced to MDAO (Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics, Outcome; remarkably I recalled that off the top of my head, so I guess I really did learn it!), a framework for designing a “serious” game (i.e. one whose purpose is not solely fun) at its early stages. Our team worked through MDAO in reverse order, which we found helpful for ensuring that our mechanics resulted, at least in theory, in producing our intended outcome.

LECTURES

Lectures were so fun and engaging. To future students, I recommend not taking notes (unless that really helps you) and just immersing yourself in them. Christina’s bluntness may catch you off guard, but that’s half the fun of it. ‘Nuff said.

SKETCHNOTES

As a note to any future game designers taking 377G, I want to stress how helpful and interesting (most of) the readings are for this class. A lot of students seem to hate on sketchnotes (sketchnotes = a way of taking notes using sketches and creativity rather than boring, linear text), but I thought they were a great way to learn, and helped me get better at sketching at the same time. Sure, they take a little longer than regular notes, but, as an example, what better way is there to take notes on visual design in board games than visually? It would’ve felt wrong to take notes any other way. Plus, I actually remember the content, which is more than I can say for most notes I’ve taken…well, ever! My favorite readings were about MDAO, visual board game design, and how to balance a game. The runner up to that 3-way-tie was about creating rules and tutorials for new players to your game.

PLAYTESTING

Playtesting was probably the most common motif throughout the class — from the first project until the very end of the last. Fortunately, it felt like a lot of my experience with usability testing experience from previous HCI classes transferred well:

• Try to distance yourself from the prototype (“Oh this? Yeah a friend made it, asked me to have you test it…”).
• Observe, don’t interfere.
• Remember that feedback is about the prototype, not you.
• When possible, disguise what specifically you’re testing
• Usually it’s not helpful to ask “So… Was it fun??” to friends and family members.
• etc.

That being said, just because I’ve learned a lot of these skills in theory doesn’t mean I’m an expert at implementing them. Through all four projects, I’ve gotten lots of practice. In effect, I’ve definitely improved at facilitating testing and knowing how to interpret results.

INTERACTIVE FICTION, EMERGENCE AND PROGRESSION, AND INCLUSIVITY:

I hope that I’m not hurting any of the teaching team’s feelings when I say that Project 2 (Interactive Fiction) was my least favorite part of the class. That said, it was fun for me to explore a new medium and gain appreciation for progression-driven games (as opposed to emergent games with which I’m more familiar).

While making my interactive fiction game, I also got some firsthand experience designing something to be inclusive. (As a brief aside, I’ve heard countless talks about diversity and inclusion, but truthfully haven’t felt that many academic opportunities at Stanford to practice inclusivity as a skill.) After finishing P2, I was proud to have made a first person story that never reveals the gender or much appearance of the main character, which I hoped would make the story more relatable to folks who are often excluded from such narrative games.

SYSTEM MODELING

If P1 was a warm-up game and P2 got us thinking about immersing players, P3 felt like putting it all together. Creating a serious systems game is tricky because not only do you need to make a game that’s (1) fun and (2) purposeful (i.e. has a learning outcome), but you also need to make it reflect some real-world system. Failure to reflect the system accurately, and players may be disillusioned (and break the “magic circle” because of the game’s inaccuracies), or worse, be confused that your game doesn’t meet their expectations and not know how to play properly.

As part of P3, we also learned about feedback loops and arcs in the context of teaching — though to be fully honest, I still don’t totally understand arcs. As players internalize consequences for their in-game actions, their understanding of the game’s system improves over time. In a serious, systems game, these loops potentially teach players about a real-world system simultaneously, assuming the game’s system is sufficiently accurate.

THE TEACHING TEAM

Thank you to the most enthusiastic and fun teaching team I’ve had the privilege of learning from while at Stanford! While making games is super fun, it also had its frustrating moments and other challenges, and I’m thankful for the course staff’s constant support and upbeat attitude. Special thanks to Christina Wodtke, who always made time for our endless questions, gave some kick-ass lectures, and taught me that teachers can say “fuck” in the classroom.