Highlights

  • A good game needs a clear goal, balanced rules, perhaps a good story, and definitely constructive feedbacks. Course project: Survive! Cheetah (click to see)
  • Content is the king, so is form
  • Being helpful is a skill

Course information

I found this course Introduction to Game Design on Coursera. It was given by Fran Krause, who is a faculty in the Character Animation Department, California Institute of the Arts. What I found special about this course is that I can first create a simple game, then modify it using what I learn along the course, as suggested by the assignments. I can really see how my own game gradually comes into shape, which made me highly motivated during the process and satisfied at the end. Highly recommended.

I created a one-paper game about time-management for the assignments, which can be found here. With the wonderful help of my peer students, my grade achieved of this course is 93.8%.

What I learned most from this course

Content is the king, so is form. Because I am determined to make serious games, it did not take long for me to think up the goal and rules for my game - just look around and think about what aspect of life people need training most. The theme of time-management enable my game to have a more profound effect on the real world, and also provide with some kind of frame that inspired me. When I reviewed the work of my peer students, I found some lacked a deeper thought, resulting in little room for improvement. However, having only a good wish is not enough. A game designer has to choose the right form to deliver his/her message. For example, the lecture mentioned that in-game discovery would be a good way to show the player how to play the game. But it is nearly impossible when the game is on a piece of paper. In this case, making it into a video game may be the better choice. For another example, if the game is about city planning, using the first-person angle and making the player spend all the time on running across the vast land with a hammer in his/her hand does not look like a good idea.

Being helpful is a skill. Because game design is all about how the player feels, feedbacks can be really helpful. I am grateful to all the reviewers of my game, especially those who got down, really played my game and left detailed, encouraging comments so that I can do better next time. Although I love constructive feedbacks, I found it hard to write one at first. I have to try my best to understand the rules of other student’s game, sense the good intention behind the design even when something is wrong, think up a possible solution, and organize the words into a friendly tone. It took me quite a while to learn to be a helpful reviewer, but it is worthy. After experiencing the review process, I now more appreciate the feedbacks that I get.

Syllabus