Course Reflection: Fail Faster

I have learned that playing games was a completely different perspective compared to being a game designer. I learned that the minimum viable product sometimes is the best place to go. It may not be a fully baked idea, but having some sort of starting point works best instead of trying to plan a perfect idea all from the start. The opportunity of reading about games, writing about games, playing and designing games made me feel like I could become a better developer. I learned how to analyze other games, I learned how to write about other games, I learned how to play as a designer and design a game myself and with a team.

I would say my introduction to game studies course taught me more than an introduction to games. I would believe the highlight of the course would be to "fail faster." Even though failing faster now seems like a cliche, it reminds me of what I have learned from both my technical internships and my academic career. Failing faster not only reduces the cost of development later, but also shows you that you won't have a product that falls apart later. It also showed me that you can get feedback sooner and fix issues before it becomes too expensive in time later to fix.