This year’s expectations:
During my first year of study, as the majority of assignments were group projects, I was unable to participate fully in the entire game development process. The primary reason was that I treated game development merely as AN assessment, rather than an active process of learning and accumulation. Therefore, in the second year, I aim to engage in every stage actively. I intend to conduct thorough research in advance, studying and learning from similar games.
At the same time, I want to step outside my comfort zone in game narrative and art this year, independently acquiring modelling and programming skills.
In year 2, I’d love to determine the mechanics and themes of future games based on my own creativity and observations of life. To express feelings and views that I want to express.
I imagine this would clarify my game development process and provide insight into workflows more aligned with industry standards. I would be very much looking forward to participating fully and in detail in the production of a game.
My major & minor focus:
Major: My initial fascination with game design stems from the profound impact that indie and Nintendo games’ mechanics had on me. Hence, my primary interest lies at the level of mechanics. Game art has always been another compelling aspect for me; I believe it serves as the element that allows players to tell a game’s style instinctively, and whether it is worth purchasing. These two areas are my major focus, and I intend to continue developing them.
Minor: However, during the development, I discovered that gameplay is intrinsically linked to programming. If I possess only ideas about mechanics but no understanding of how to implement them through code, I cannot truly realise them or evolve designs that can work on the game engine. I have a strong focus on indie games, but lack considerable familiarity with commercial 3A games. This term, I aim to experience more established 3A games while learning programming.
Workshop Keyword: Movement
The image I chose
Group emergent themes
Group mindmap & Worksheet
During Thursday’s workshop, we engaged in group brainstorming and discussions centred around the word “movement”. Each participant first selected an image that embodied the word according to their own interpretation. I chose a time-lapse photograph capturing the motion of vehicles; Alex selected the classic ukiyo-e print “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”, depicting the dynamic motion of ocean waves; Cindy presented an installation at the Paris Bourse de Commerce: bowls floating on water collide to produce sounds, expressing “movement” through both visual and auditory dimensions. Kevin brought a photograph capturing the most intense moment of a striking the water’s surface.
Each individual holds a distinct interpretation of the term “movement, so we collaboratively refined a mind map for this word. Then we associated related nouns, verbs, and adjectives centred around those images. By integrating these with the initial mindmap, a game framework gradually took shape. This workshop made me realise that, as game designers, we don’t need to begin by formulating a formal game brief before starting creation. Instead, we can be triggered by a single word, an image, or a sensation, then expand and diverge from there. This approach often yields more avant-garde outcomes.
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