What was the most important thing you learned this semester about game/simulation design?
The most important thing that I learned from this semester was to truly tailor your game design and development to the intended audience. While I thought I already understood this concept to an extent, having to develop a game from scratch for a client really impressed upon me the importance of aligning every detail to meet the learning objective for the target audience. The aesthetics, mechanics, and even accessing the game all have to be driven toward the goal of teaching the learning objective.
What are you most proud of from this semester?
I am most proud of the prototype that I developed. While I was familiar with a similar game engine, I used a new engine to me: gDevelop. I took this game engine and created a somewhat-dynamically generated game that is very flexible and can be easily expanded on.
What if anything will be most helpful for you moving forward (either with games for learning or moving away from it)?
I think understanding the breakdown of logic for designing experiences will be the most helpful for me moving forward. The loops and conditions I used in the prototype are very universal and will be easily applicable to my current work and future work. Being able to store and track statuses and conditions then recall them in the future to create “gates” is incredibly useful, regardless of the situation.