Games as Gifts

My entire adolescence, I have grown up around game design. My school focused on it, and my friends were interested in it as well. From the 6th grade forward, I would make games as par for course with papers, presentations, and et cetera. As time went on, I stopped making games pure playing pleasure, and began to create them as gifts for friends, family, teachers, and others, strangers. A game, especially a choice based one, can be incredibly personal, powerful, and long lasting gift. From the designers perspective, it also requires a different sort of thinking than often goes into games.

When I design a game as a gift, it is solely meant to be played by one person, with the exception of myself. It’s like a letter, with all the considerations that come with that. With a game, you can express things to someone in a way that allows you to give them a perspective that cannot be gained through different media. Games that relive friendships, relationships, mentorships, learning experiences, bonds, struggles, and emotions. These can be intensely powerful, and I love seeing the look on someone’s face as they play through a game that was made for them. It isn’t a difficult process, but it takes enough time that one truly has to reflect on the ideas and experiences that they are putting into the final product, and such work can not only help strengthen friendships and bonds, but also allow for reflection that could not have been done before.

Afterwards, these games can be returned to, replayed to give a glimpse into the mindset of a person or relationship at a certain time. This can be bittersweet or nostalgic, but in any case it instantly brings back the same feelings, sounds, smells, that are associated with the given time. I believe that making or receiving a personal game as a gift is something that all should experience at least once. It doesn’t have to be grand or extreme, but the gesture can be impactful and meaningful all the same.