Project Exposition Day

Getting to play every group’s game and hearing them talk about their project was a really fun way to end the course. It was interesting to see how many different directions we all went in–for everything from interface to storyline to art design. One of the most memorable parts of class to me was when Professor Parham asked which groups designed their Makey Makey controller first and game second, and which groups designed their game first and controller second. That was surprising to me, because for our group it was almost automatic to focus on the game first and a controller after, so I had not even considered the alternative. That different approach to the design process opens up different opportunities and could be reflective of different priorities. For example, the tumbleweed game group new they wanted to incorporate that plastic toy into their Makey Makey and built the game around that but my group didn’t have such strong inclinations and initially focused more on ideas of how to make the game multiplayer. These are both valid approaches, and experiencing and witnessing them both made me more aware of some of the practices involved in game design and creation that I had not ever considered before.