Task: Reflect on the game design process, what worked, what didn’t work, what did I learn, what would you I differently? I connect my process to the course readings where possible.
Although I will freely admit that this course absolutely kicked my butt, I got a lot out of it and many parts of it were both educational as well as fun!
Something I’m really glad my team did was split the group to tackle different parts of the process. It was a really good (even necessary) choice, but I personally would have been frustrated if I hadn’t been one of the people actually working on the game. To me it would have been a real missed opportunity to learn one of the game systems, even though the two of us who were designing the game ended up putting a lot more hours in throughout the week.
I loved being able to apply my artistic skills to these projects. Getting to be the person in charge of the visual design of our game helped me engage in the process much more deeply and authentically than I would have if I was doing some other part of the project. I am an art teacher after all! I also really liked that there were IP’s to choose from that were more design-oriented. All three of these projects allowed me to showcase skills I already had, but also pushed me to learn new skills that will be hugely valuable to me in both my personal and professional life. This connects so well with Kafai & Burke’s ideas in the Constructionist Gaming reading. They talked a lot about how much more valuable it is to actually create games instead of just playing them. Interestingly, they also mentioned that a “problem” with girls creating games is that they don’t seem to be more likely to pursue careers in the field after using programs like Twine because they’re more interested in the story than the coding. This surprised me because I think that other interests like writing and art are key to getting more girls interested in coding. Take my group's video game for example. I would have saved myself hours and hours of frustration and work if I had just used pre-made sprites. But that didn’t fit the story we wanted to tell and it galvanized me to learn how to create my own and then figure out how to get them into the platform and perform correctly. The same thing happened in my Twine project. I could have just changed the colours and sizes of the text and added some pictures, but I really wanted to create a visually appealing story and so I banged my head against the wall for hours and hours trying to figure out how to use images I drew, and get interesting fonts and images to work across different computers. I think with the right support, lots of artistic girls (and boys too!) would find a home in coding along with the more mathematically or logically inclined.
I now know how to use sprite programs like Aesprite, animate a walking sprite character, create a sprite sheet, re-colour and re-size both my own and others images. I also know the basics of coding in Twine for visual appeal as opposed to just information transmission, for example, how to input google fonts so that anybody on any browser or computer will experience the game exactly the same way. Although all these skills are types of game coding, they are also directly linked to my passion for art and design.
One of my favourite parts of this course were the feminist and intersectional readings, Sarkeesian’s Feminist Frequence in particular, as well as the discussions prompted by Belman & Nissenbaum’s Grow-A-Game reading. I really appreciated that one of the main focuses of the course was to design games that mean something in a broader sense. There is so much bad going on in the world right now, and I often see my students display a real sense of nihilism and pessimism about the future of our society and our planet. I often struggle with how to address these big feelings (I teach grade 6-8) because, really, they’re not wrong. Taking the time in this course to think about game design through a lens of spreading a message was a breath of fresh air. I’m planning on taking this knowledge about game design and my shiny new RPG Maker and Twine skills and creating a unit around games for change with my students next year. This year, especially with Covid, my grade 8 class wasn’t given the opportunities to effect change out in the community in the ways they normally would. Being able to harness the power of online space and communities is such an amazing way to encourage students to get excited about standing up for the things they believe in.
This idea of engaging my students also links well to Squire’s Video Game Literacy reading, the part that stood out to me most was “ How will a gaming generation react to traditional schooling?” because it’s so applicable to the age group I work with. Students love using technology in the classroom, and already the differences in the way I teach and the way I remember being taught are very apparent. I think video games have the potential to be harnessed in really innovative ways to approach learning. For example, my partner has been playing a game called “Crusader Kings III” based around the feudal system in medieval Europe. From what I’ve observed, the game is shockingly accurate. You play through multiple generations, starting as a baron and trying to become a king by accruing wealth and power. It also teaches about the intricacies of political machinations between countries as you interact with neighbouring leaders and even brings in relevant historical conflicts. For example, if you start as a member of a Protestant country you have a base-line friendship with other members of your religion. Games like this are a much more interactive way of learning about medieval European feudalism, although Crusader Kings III in particular is far too complex for the average student.
There isn’t much I would have done differently for this course other than perhaps try to get acquainted with some of the game platforms beforehand. Knowing a little bit more about each one could have smoothed the process for my group significantly. I also will never again take more than one course at a time, this intensive kicked my butt all by itself but adding another on top of that just about did me in haha.
All in all, this was a really great course with content that I will definitely implement with my own students. I kind of wish I had taken it in the longer format to give myself time to absorb the learning even more!
References
Belman, J., Nissenbaum, H., Flanagan, M. & Diamond, J. Grow a Game: A tool for values conscious design and analysis of digital games. DiGRA 2011 Conference
Bogost, I. (2011). How to Do Things with Video Games. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Feminist Frequency, Damsel in Distress (Part 1) Tropes vs Women (https://feministfrequency.com/video/damsel-in-distress-part-1/)
Kafai, Y. & Burke, Q. (2015). Constructionist Gaming: Understanding the Benefits of Making Games for Learning. Educational psychologist, 50, 4, 313-334. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00461520.2015.1124022
Squire, K. Video game literacy: A literacy of expertise. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/1317105/Video-Game_Literacy–A_Literacy_of_Expertise
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