As a 3D background designer and game developer, I came to Parsons to expose myself to new and different ideas that I could find inspiration in to develop my work. I want to continue to learn game development from not a technical standpoint but from a theoretical, creative view that would challenge my thought process and possibly open me up to new methodologies that I would have not been familiar with. Going forward, my interest in teaching has also been cultivated as well and I’m hoping to continue pursuing that interest alongside my exploration into new topics of relevant interest.
One of the projects that I’m proud of is the additive making project I did in xFab in the fall semester. The premise was that our xFab class had to make something using an additive process. 3D printing was allowed since the printing process fulfilled the characteristics of an additive process. Before this, I never had the opportunity to fabricate my digital works despite having worked with 3D software for years. I did go through the process once in my undergraduate, but that time my modeling class sent off the files to an outside company to print them. With this project, I had the opportunity to finally experience the process myself and see my work manifest into a physical form.
Another project that I am proud of is the series of WebGL projects I’ve done throughout my Critical Computation and Computational Form classes. This year was the first year that I got to learn and apply a new skill through various works. One of the things that interested me in working with p5.js was that library’s ability to work with 3D objects. I started exploring this topic in Critical Computation through the optical illusion project. This ended up becoming an exploration in some of my sketches in Computational Form. Being able to explore this part of p5.js created projects that I’m proud of and the discovery helped me develop a heightened interest in the potential of p5.js.
The last project I’m proud to talk about is my Major Studio 2 Project. I know I already talked about this project a lot throughout this journal, but I do want to take the time to reflect on what I have built upon this so far. I wasn’t even sure how this project was going to take form initially since my original topic was quite different from the end product. I remember that my project really took form around the middle of the semester because I was still foggy on the details. One of the only things that I wished for regarding this project would be that I would have started the entire process earlier. Throughout the development of my project, I felt as if some parts of the project were rushed since I had to prioritize to make ends meet. In the end though I’m extremely pleased with the current state of this project at the end of this semester.
One key insight that I had during my time here was that being more open with my hobbies and interests helped me ask the questions that I was interested in. This is something that I grew into during my time here since this program gave me the space to explore those interests and ask questions about them. Before coming here, I was more reserved about delving into those areas due to not having the opportunities to even reflect on them in an academic setting. It was after Major Studio 1 where a critique I got was to not be afraid to ask any question that interests me. I’m spending my time here at this program, I should spend this time really pursuing what I want to learn. If it weren’t for this insight, I think my Major Studio 2 project would have been vastly different from what I have now.
Another insight I had is being exposed to the potential of creating physical products. Before this, I fully believed in making digital works because my previous exposure to physical crafts usually resulted in long creation times. Within this program, I saw how quickly people were putting stuff together and was able to experience this first hand throughout my classes this year. xFab was the start of this me having this insight. I had the chance to work on various projects and seeing how fast things could come together. Once I got to the spring semester my game design class brought this insight into the light as I experienced physical games being crafted in a timely manner. This whole year helped me see that with proper planning and execution physical prototypes can be quickly implemented and still produce substantial works.
In the end, I want to pursue questions regarding game design and where that industry is headed. I want to ask questions about whether or not we should be in a constant race to create the most visually stunning piece, or if we should step back and work with the tools, programs, and methodologies that we have now. Going into the summer, my work is going to be tied to a season-long sessions of self-study to fill in gaps in my skillset that I have lost due to outside circumstances. Before going into 2023, I used Maya as my primary 3D modeling and animating software, but due to capitalist ventures from Autodesk the lite version of Maya (which I have heavily invested in) has been discontinued and I have been priced out of all of the other options available. I also lost the education license for another instance of Maya and customer service isn’t being cooperative. I’m looking to learn other 3D programs like Blender and hopefully have a foundation for them going into the next semester so I can return to having digital media as an option for creation. I also want to perform a review over the summer of skills that I haven’t used throughout this year, like Unreal Engine. I want to make sure that I still know how to use those skills and have them ready as well. In the end, alongside taking the summer to relax and pursue my interests I hope to not just review but also learn new skills to prepare myself for my second year at DT.
Keywords: Reflection, Self-study, Self-review, Being open, Experimentation, Realization
This is the last week that I can work on this project before I have to gather what I have done and figure out how to explain the fruits of my labor in eight minutes. Before that, I have to at least reflect on the last playtests from this week. The last playtests focused on quality of life improvements in order to provide a smoother gameplay experience, and the investments I made have paid off for today’s session. Writing the effects and having them in the cards via card sleeves helped with accessibility and reducing the need to have to reference the rulebook so often. I used card sleeves because I had prior knowledge of being able to slip in notes and cards together and the sleeve binds them together reliably without having to use any kind of adhesive. Usually this is used to take note of what cards are supposed to be proxies but I was to repurpose them for my project. The only thing I was not able to get to was remaking the board for the final playtest. Unfortunately, even though I had a plan I was not able to go through with it due to my schedule not lining up how I wanted. This is more of a small nitpick though as making the board was extra mileage. I was able to visit the board prototype I’ve been using for all of my playtests though and have been able to brush up the details on it to enhance certain elements that I haven’t addressed up to this point.
I took the time to adjust some of the new mechanics that I implemented since I left out critical details in their design. Addressing these issues before the official second playtest definitely helped out in the long run as the fixes helped to balance the game once again. Despite this though I do feel like the complexity is sometimes still absent as in some games the rules are left out. I know that the final prototype is due soon but this is something that I maybe want to keep in mind if in the distant future I want to create variations of my game. Nonetheless, in regard to the final prototype the main things to focus on from here on out are nitpicking on details in my game and the project paper. The project paper is almost done, but I still need to finish writing the piece first off before I can start to address any edits and critiques. With the amount of content that I wrote up for the paper, I feel like I can maybe trim some elements down already but I want to finish the paper first before I start making hasty edits in the name of time. Otherwise I feel like I should have everything planned out for the next few weeks and just need to stay on track. There’s only a few weeks left and it’s definitely in my best interest to not make a mad rush to the end.