Blog Post 9: Course Reflection

I learned that there is more than I expected when it comes to creating games. I mostly play PC and mobile games, but never think about the mechanics until I put myself in the developer position this semester. When working on my final project, I thought about logistics like how hard a boss is depending on the level because bosses need to be more difficult over time. Another thing is where health potions are placed; are there too many or too few, and are they spaced out according to possible damage taken? The mechanics and idea for the game was definitely influenced by the class material, especially the MDA paper. For example, the aesthetics that we thought were most suited for our game were Challenge (navigating through each level is like an obstacle course) and a bit of Fantasy (the story of the Wizard getting back these orbs that the Witch stole).

From the final presentations, I learned about how different the process of creating a game is for different teams. I was very fortunate to have dedicated teammates but I realized a lot of my classmates were in different situations where some worked out but some didn’t. All in all, I definitely “read about games, wrote about games, played games, and designed games,” and learned more about games than I expected to.