During the first Art of the Game seminar, we spent the class discussing what games everyone played and what genre of games they liked. As everyone went around saying their games and what they liked about them, I kept my mouth shut. I knew the games that I enjoyed, such as Runescape or the mobile game Puzzles and Dragons, were not what most people liked, and as unfamiliar game name after unfamiliar game name came out of my classmates’ mouths, I felt more and more out of place. I felt that I was not the kind of student that the professors were looking for, and that I made a mistake signing up for this seminar. I felt really apprehensive not only about the class itself, but also my ability to thrive in an environment in which everyone had a different view of enjoyable gaming than I did. A little bit about me: I grew up obsessively playing Miniclip games, moving on to games like Adventure Quest, Runescape, and eventually Hearthstone. I like strategy games and RPGs. My view of the game I wanted to build was that I would make something that a 6th grade me would’ve liked to play on Miniclip. While other people were talking about making games that involved nuance and trying to teach the players real world lessons, I just wanted to make something that would be fun, like a combat game that involved crazy characters. I think the most important lesson this class has taught me is that I need to force myself to look at my goals practically. When the American University professor came to teach us about designing games, the first thing he mentioned is that a game can be built in less than 48 hours. When I heard that, I took that to mean that games don’t take a long time to build. After building my game, however, it is now so clear to me that’s not what he meant. Rather, his point was that, given only 48 hours of time, it was important to prioritize important parts of the game and practically allocate your time to achieving the goals you set out for yourself, and to make sure the goals are realistic. This is exactly what I failed to do with my game. I initially thought that my game would end up being an extremely polished RPG with absolutely stunning graphics and meticulously drawn out animations. In addition, it would have complex gameplay with lots of mechanics, and 5 different bosses on five different worlds to beat. I thought that I could make my monkey story, a mere fantasy that I had conjured up in a moment of passing inspiration, come to life in my game, and it would be phenomenal. This could not be farther than the truth. As the semester progressed, I kept avoiding the regular pace of work that I knew would be integral to making my dream a reality, exchanging time that I could actually spend working on my project with simple “I can do it laters” or empty promises that my game would be great. Thus, my growth as a game-designer came not as a steady increase, but as sporadic jumps, as I would achieve lots of goals in one night with work that I definitely should have spaced out over the week. In the process, I faced many challenges in making my game fun. I would say that this caused my biggest growth as a game developer. I now understand, just as playing Getting Over It was supposed to teach us, that game mechanics are the most important part of the game. Although your aesthetics may lure people to try your game, whether or not they enjoy it is solely dependent on how the game makes them feel and react. This may seem obvious, but it really surprised me because I realized that it is really possible to make a game that is just enjoyable to play but has none of the qualities that we study in the “art” part of our Art of the Game seminar. I had to make several hard decisions during my creation process. I decided to go with a more basic aesthetic because I spent more/too much time trying to perfect my gameplay. My idea to have the monkey face different animals was not feasible when squared with the time I spent coding the enemies the player had to face, so I had to cut it, much to my dismay. Overall, although I had to make the decision to go with a more basic aesthetic than my ideal, I think that my game is fun, and that’s what’s important. In terms of learning through doing, I think that Elena was exactly right on the money. Unity is definitely something that has a steep learning curve for beginners, especially people who just copy code and don’t really understand what they’re doing. I was really disappointed that it took me so long just to figure out how collisions work, but pleasantly surprised that once I figured out the basics of Unity, I could apply my knowledge to make really cool things. However, I think that most illuminating moments from the seminar were from game discussions with Sarah. I learned how to approach games from an artistic standpoint, and the discussions provided me with a way to see how other people’s opinions differed from mine and learn to see things from different points of view. I think I’ve definitely grown through this class, and I look forward to making more games in the future.