A Reflection of my Game Design Process

I started off with the questing for equipment an idea that went nowhere fast. The idea sounded rather concrete but after weeks of feedback from family, friends, and classmates I found that there were far more flaws than not. Early on I began testing my quest system only because I felt that would be the most important and pivotal piece to what I had planned. I wrote out a sample quest, which is where things took a turn. The set up seemed more of a narrative game than an actual board game with competing against other players. Feedback from the quest made me realize how far off the tracks I went from what I originally foresaw. It was halfway done with the semester at that point so I thought, this should be the time if any, to switch gears. From then on out, I began to work on the current game which is currently called, “Spell It Out!”.

    “Spell It Out!” came to fruition after numerous iterations. During this game’s design process, I listened far more carefully to what my friends, classmates and professor had to say. I was constantly changing numbers and rules based on the brief play tests and discussions I had over the course of the last month. Sometimes I would ask people I knew in passing what they thought of this idea or that idea, and would carefully listen to what they had to say. Other times, I sat down with Matt or another classmate and pitched them a new thought that popped into my head. Based on the talks and tests, I have tried to think further outside the box or experiment with ideas that people have said to me to see if they would actually fit within my game. See, it was more than just the play testing that really helped me through the tail end of the semester to create a game that I am genuinely proud of putting together.