Week 12 is finally here and caps the end of both an equally exhilarating and exhausting three months. Although I still have a few blogs to post and some research to complete, I’m really pleased with how things have progressed so far.
After what has been years (25 actually!) of trying to study games design academically, I have finally managed to achieve this and begin my studies for an MA in Games Design at Falmouth University in September and I’m glad I persevered as I have already learned a lot more and developed more skills than I anticipated I would have by this time.
Initially, I felt a little over my head and wondered if I could actually combine study with my job of teaching Foundation students in FE and family life as I struggled to set aside consistent study time. However, after reading through the posts of my peers on the study forums and their own blogs I realised it wasn’t just me and that they had similar issues. There was some great advice and ideas of how to manage your time and this was really useful and helped me to manage my time better.
As the weeks progressed ( a little too rapidly in some cases), the weekly materials have really helped to expand my creative approach, opening up techniques and methods that I would not have experienced, nor looked for if I’m honest – having naively believed that I already had a good understanding of how to foster creativity.
One of my biggest eye openers so far though, has been the use of Miro – “an online collaborative whiteboarding platform”, which helps users to collaborate together by allowing them to video, chat, present and share. Before using it, I honestly had severe doubts about how unintuitive, unresponsive and slow it would be to use – but I was completely wrong and it blew my mind with how user friendly and intuitive it was. It made teaming up with Mikolaj for the second Rapid Ideation session effortless – something I was not expecting!
Although, I have not had the opportunity (or time) to use Miro since, I’ll definitely be using it again to help with brainstorming and visualising future projects, and I’m also considering how I can use it within my own teaching practice.
Moving forward onto the next module (IGD720: Game Development), I’m looking forward to putting my existing skills to the test and developing them further to really begin pushing my boundaries of what I’m able to achieve using multiple disciplines. I’ll especially be attempting to upskill my programming ability, as this is currently my weakest area.
I’ve already decided that I’ll be using GameMaker Studio 2 to create any artefacts with, as I feel it’s important to master one type of development software, rather than be useful with multiple types. As I’ve used GameMaker Studio 2 previously and enjoyed the experience, I think this will be especially beneficial to my time management as I should be more fluent and practiced when developing my artefact.
My goals for this module are:
· To keep up with the weekly content, make a proper working timetable and stick to it!
· Manage my time better (see above), I started well but burned out after the Second Ideation session.
· Develop my GameMaker Language (GML) knowledge
· Use the above knowledge to work towards creating “Roguelike” gameplay
· Create a polished prototype design for what I will develop into my Final Project idea.
· To push my designs skills further
It’s been a lifelong goal of mine to work within the video games industry in a creative role and despite not getting there yet, it’s something I’ve never given up on. As such, being accepted on this course has been a bit of a milestone! As mentioned previously, it’s taken me a good while to actually arrive at studying games design academically - the reasons how and why would take a good few blog posts on their own!
What is interesting now however, is that over the years my outlook has changed dramatically - especially towards games industry and where I could see my place in it. In my teens and early twenties, I’d always wanted to work a AAA developer and develop cutting edge 3D games.
However, this changed after taking a gamble on my first Indie game at the time – Popcap’s Plants vs Zombies in 2010! Which I believe I bought because it was going cheap on a Steam sale and I was after something a little different.
It had good reviews, was cheap and after playing, I found that it had a huge amount of depth and re-playability and is the first game I actually bothered collecting all of the achievements for (high praise indeed!).
Plants vs Zombies (PC) image copyright: EA Games 2020
Plants vs Zombies had changed my gaming tastes and habits for the first time in a long while and I guess changed my mind about the games I wanted to make going forward. Alongside this, I’d also add that the availability of affordable development software and tutorials had an equal impact on my game development plans.
Fast forward to now and one of my main reasons (if not the main reason!) for signing up to this course was, not just to gain as much insight and knowledge about Indie game development, but to actually use it as a way focus my creative efforts towards actually finishing and publishing a game by the end of it (as, I’ve started plenty of projects with modest aims, but have rarely completed them).
So now, I’m not looking to create a major AAA title, but something that people with similar tastes to mine wouldn’t begrudge paying £3 or £4 for – something that is enjoyable, people can connect to and want to play again and experiment with different approaches.
As I think ahead to both the next module and final project, I’m still not sure what genres or styles my final design will take but my goal is develop something that not only hits a nostalgic beat for the games of the 80’s like Prince of Persia, Golden Axe and Head over Heals that I was brought up on, but has layers of hidden depths that modern indie games such as Caveblazers, Domina, Curious Expedition and Reventure that I enjoy playing and more importantly would pay money for!
1) Prince of Persia (Amstrad CPC) Image copyright: Brøderbund Software 1990 2) Curious Expedition (PC) Image copyright: Maschinen-Mensch 2016
3) Reventure (PC) Image copyright: Pixelatto 2019
Is there a market for games like that, could I make a living from it? It’s something I’ll have to research into - looking further into game postmortems - but in all honesty that’s not what game design is about for me anymore. It’s about realising my dream of creating a game and finishing it to the highest quality I can, that people can appreciate for its unique qualities.
References: Baker, T. (2018). The Complete History of Indie Games. [online] The Indie Game Website. Available at: https://www.indiegamewebsite.com/2018/10/19/the-complete-history-of-indie-games/ [Accessed 8 Dec. 2020]
Walker, J. (n.d.). From Bejeweled To Plants Vs Zombies: How PopCap Got Just About Everyone To Play Their Games. [online] Kotaku. Available at: https://kotaku.com/from-bejeweled-to-plants-vs-zombies-how-popcap-got-jus-1844338169 [Accessed 8 Dec. 2020].
Wawro, A. (n.d.). 10 seminal game postmortems every developer should read. [online] www.gamasutra.com. Available at: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/238773/10_seminal_game_postmortems_every_developer_should_read.php. [Accessed 7 Dec. 2020].
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