Week 8 Reading and Writing
This week, I am looking back on my blog and reflecting on the various readings on game design and development that I have written about.
So far, I like the reading assignments as they always cover relevant material to the course and to the game I am making. I like that they don't only tell you just how to make a game, but why certain games are made in certain ways and how this is decided and researched, for example, I quite like the readings on the concept of "fun" in game - it seems obvious on the surface what "fun" games are, but diving deeper into the theory and concepts is very interesting.
It's definitely taught me a lot about game development and now I find myself looking at games I am playing in more detail and asking questions such as "why do I found this game so fun?" or "which of the eight types of "fun" does this game have?" and referring back to the readings.
I think my biggest accomplishments so far in this module is learning how to use Unity to a degree much better than I thought. It's still quite difficult for me to use sometimes as there are so many controls and options involved in it - but I think I have learned a lot, especially since I never used Unity before this module. The C# especially can get a bit difficult for me as it's quite unfamilar, but I'm definitely learning.
My favorite reading so far has to be on the kinds of fun in a video game and the one on games descisions. It's got that mix of theory and general psychology that I love, for example when they talk about the "flow" state someone playing a videogame they find fun gets in, and how this state can be achieved by doing any task that requires similar concentration.
Another way I have found to research is to look up some video games that I love to play and read about what makes them so popular and fun to play. I almost feel like a video games tester when I then go back and play it and see all these things for myself!
My favorite image that I found while doing my readings was a a very simple graph that was included in the "games desicions" reading:
Basically, I really like the idea behind it and what this graph represents when talking about this "flow" state and how the challenge you're doing has to be balanced somewhere between easy and difficult. It must be just challenging enough to not be too frustrating, but also not too easy.
So far, I think the readings have done a lot for me in terms of teaching me a lot about game theory, which has really grown on me and I've found to be very interesting. In the future, I definitely would like to keep learning about it, and apply this knowledge to any games I might make in the future, no matter how simple.
So far, I like the reading assignments as they always cover relevant material to the course and to the game I am making. I like that they don't only tell you just how to make a game, but why certain games are made in certain ways and how this is decided and researched, for example, I quite like the readings on the concept of "fun" in game - it seems obvious on the surface what "fun" games are, but diving deeper into the theory and concepts is very interesting.
It's definitely taught me a lot about game development and now I find myself looking at games I am playing in more detail and asking questions such as "why do I found this game so fun?" or "which of the eight types of "fun" does this game have?" and referring back to the readings.
I think my biggest accomplishments so far in this module is learning how to use Unity to a degree much better than I thought. It's still quite difficult for me to use sometimes as there are so many controls and options involved in it - but I think I have learned a lot, especially since I never used Unity before this module. The C# especially can get a bit difficult for me as it's quite unfamilar, but I'm definitely learning.
My favorite reading so far has to be on the kinds of fun in a video game and the one on games descisions. It's got that mix of theory and general psychology that I love, for example when they talk about the "flow" state someone playing a videogame they find fun gets in, and how this state can be achieved by doing any task that requires similar concentration.
Another way I have found to research is to look up some video games that I love to play and read about what makes them so popular and fun to play. I almost feel like a video games tester when I then go back and play it and see all these things for myself!
My favorite image that I found while doing my readings was a a very simple graph that was included in the "games desicions" reading:
So far, I think the readings have done a lot for me in terms of teaching me a lot about game theory, which has really grown on me and I've found to be very interesting. In the future, I definitely would like to keep learning about it, and apply this knowledge to any games I might make in the future, no matter how simple.
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