Gamestorming #12: Reflections

As the semester draws to a close, I have been thinking back on the wealth of knowledge I have accrued from my classes and experiences. This class in particular has quite the lengthy list of lessons learned. For one things, I am thrilled to have been given the chance to get back into game blogging. I originally started this website as a platform for my "Writing/Editing in Print and Online" course I took as an undergraduate. It involved into a fun platform to express my thoughts on various gaming topics after that; however, as I began graduate school, I lost the drive to continue with it.

Upon starting my game design class, I saw a great opportunity to continue this blog with the required weekly posts. It was different from the previous class in that I have been free to choose what I want to write about each week--a difference that I have greatly enjoyed as it allows me to write down whatever ideas come to me. I have certainly come to see blogging as a wonderful learning tool that gives learners the ability to jot down their thoughts without the stress of writing more formal papers.

Additionally, I have had the opportunity to critically examine some of my favorite games through the lens of learning theory and official game design terminology. The book chapters were particularly helpful as they broke down facets of character design, world building, game balancing, mechanics, and various other topics into terms that I could easily apply to my favorite games. I believe my favorites were the various point-and-click games, in which we tested our choice of games before analyzing aspects of them. It was a great way to practice with the material.

Third, I enjoyed exploring the process of conceptualization and prototyping. Engaging with the visual aid prompts in the discussion board helped me to plan out my game and gave me an idea of how each piece fit into a system. Specifically, it greatly aided me in determining the sequence of steps for my gameplay since I was able to see it rather than struggling to write it out. Prototyping has also been tremendously fun and I had the chance to play with Canva, one of my favorite free design tools as I decided on the aesthetics of my cards.

While it is good practice to consider what has been accomplished over these past few months, it is also important to imagine future directions for these skills and knowledge. How might the students of this course continue to further their skills? How might they apply them in the future?

ISLT's ASKe conference was a great opportunity to see professionals in the field of IDT--particularly, the keynote speaker who applied gamification to his training. This led me to realize that podcasts and case studies are a fantastic way to see in-depth examples of how games can be used in the educational realm. This is a great way to keep up-to-date on this topic as well as spark ideas for our own instructional design tasks.

Furthermore, I can continue with my own gaming hobby by trying out various games--educational and recreational. With each of these game types, I can practice my newfound sills by examining their mechanics, story functions, aesthetic appeal, and learning/support systems as we have done with many games throughout the semester.

Overall, I think this course has given me fantastic cognitive tools and a new framework from which I can evaluate an incredible learning tool--games.