Week 03 - Reflection

Developing our game was interesting and overall, a valuable learning experience. While our game was not successful by any means, it opened our eyes to the creative process when designing a game. Our original intentions were to make a game about identity exchange and turn it into a game where you must outsmart your opponent. However, during testing we found players playing our game to be the complete opposite. Players struggled to understand our rules, how to win, and the question system implemented in the game. As a team, we went into designing this game with the idea of a fun game hard focused on a question mechanic heavy game. In truth, it over complicated the game and caused players to ultimately find the game unfun. We completely over glossed a simple requirement to the game, accessibility. Our game was way too complicated for anyone to play or even join at a moment’s notice. Conversely, our solution at the time was to add more to the game for players to understand when in truth, we had to subtract from our game. We had to simply the game more for players to join in and have fun whenever they want. It became clear to us through our peer's games that we overshot the mark when it came to understanding folk games. Although simplifying our game may have helped us in the short term, it might be for the best to completely scrap the idea.

I believe our group did a fantastic job with the time that was given and I, in no way, am undermining the work that went into designing this game. However, as Macklin & Sharp describe in their book, Game Design, and Play, sometimes the best tool in our toolkit is the trash can. Sometimes you can have an idea and do your best to make it work, but in the end, all it’s doing is hurting you in the long run. There’s no fault in the starting over though because much of the creative design process is building off all ideas. Every so often, you have to start over to find that bigger and better idea. In retrospect, I compare the game design process to writing a script. When writing a TV and film script, you’ll often stare at a blank page in which you’ll struggle to find an idea. Once you have that idea, you’ll write till your fingers bleed and ultimately have something you’re proud of. You then present your script to your friends, and…they don’t like it. You explain, clarify, and do your best to defend your script. After feedback, you iterate a new script and new problems arise. You repeat this cycle repeatedly until you find out the best idea is to throw the script away. However, during that cycle, you find elements and ideas that only come out from that grueling cycle.

The point I’m trying to get across is that it’s okay to start an idea and throw it away in the end because sometimes a bad idea is just a bad idea. Alternatively, a bad idea can birth the start of a good or even great idea.