REFLECTION
CHAN SUET YEE
At the start of the Game Studies module, I was worried it would be difficult. I thought we would have to create online games, which I’m not really interested in. But after Dr. Charles explained the module, I learned it wasn’t about making online games. Instead, it focused on understanding how games work, spotting game patterns, and using that knowledge to create our own tabletop game as a group. This made the module more interesting and easier to understand.
As the module went on, I actually had a lot of fun. I enjoyed working with my teammates to create our own tabletop game. We had a lot of fun moments, like when we walked around campus to find other students for our public playtest. It was a new experience for all of us since we’d never done a public experiment before, and it was exciting to see how others reacted to our game.I’m really thankful for our group leader. She worked hard and was very creative. Whenever we got stuck, she always came up with new ideas to keep us moving forward.
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Looking back on the tasks, I learned a lot from the individual exercise. Exercise 1, where we had to talk about our favorite video games and review game developers, helped me understand what makes a game fun and playable.
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The group projects were the best part. In Project 1, we worked together to come up with a game idea and created a system for it. We used our research to come up with a game concept, and through feedback from Dr. Charles, we improved our idea each week.
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In Project 2, we tested our game by talking to players and collecting feedback through surveys and interviews. This helped us make changes to improve the game. I learned how important it is to listen to players and use their feedback to make a better game.
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Finally, in Project 3, we analyzed the feedback from our playtests and made the final changes to our game. It was great to see how our game developed and improved based on what we learned. Putting everything together in the final presentation and Game Design Document made me feel proud of what we achieved.
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Overall, this module was a great experience. I learned a lot about game design, and although I was unsure at first, I really enjoyed the process of creating a tabletop game with my team.
EMILY GOH
Link to my personal blog (have been docummenting the progress there as well):
Looking back at this module, it has been an incredibly rewarding and enriching experience. From the initial brainstorming stages to the final completion of our game, every step has been a journey of growth, creativity, and collaboration. This module not only deepened my understanding of game design but also helped me develop important skills such as teamwork, creative problem-solving, and adaptability.
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Initially, I thought the module would involve creating digital games, which made me feel slightly apprehensive as it seemed challenging. However, discovering that we would be designing a tabletop game in groups was a pleasant surprise. Compared to other modules, this one felt unique and special—we got to learn while having fun, playing games, and solving problems together. It brought a refreshing perspective to learning and strengthened the bonds within the team.
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The individual exercises were another interesting aspect of the module. Revisiting nostalgic moments, such as playing Mobile Legends in the past, brought a mix of joy and longing for the times when gaming was a regular part of my life. Assignments like researching the game company MiHoYo and analyzing the game flow of Mobile Legends helped me understand the structural framework behind games. This knowledge proved invaluable when transitioning to group tasks, as it gave me insight into gameplay frameworks and how to approach designing our own game.
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For our group project, I found it exciting to collaborate with students from different courses. This interdisciplinary teamwork brought fresh ideas and perspectives to the table, making the experience more dynamic. We began by playing various games to understand mechanics and inspiration before diving into our own design process. We faced challenges creating the story and theme, but our brainstorming sessions were highly creative. Inspired by themes like Alice in Borderland and Alice in Wonderland, we asked, “Where do socks disappear to in the wash?” This led to Sudsprite Spin, where players embody flawed characters trapped in Latherland, collecting socks (keys) to escape while facing chaotic challenges. It was rewarding to see our ideas evolve into a cohesive narrative with unique gameplay.
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Playtesting was a major highlight of the module. Watching classmates and strangers interact with our game for the first time was both thrilling and nerve-wracking. These sessions offered invaluable feedback on the rules, mechanics, and overall experience. For instance, the spin cards—which allowed players to sabotage each other—added humor and unpredictability to the game, perfectly aligning with the story's chaotic concept. Playtesting also emphasized the importance of flexibility and iteration, as we adapted and refined our game to improve its flow and engagement.
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One of the most valuable lessons I learned was how to work effectively within a team. Dividing tasks, balancing individual strengths, and finding solutions to unexpected challenges taught me the importance of clear communication and mutual support. Whether it was designing components, creating rulebooks, or conducting playtests, every member of the team contributed uniquely to the project’s success. Personally, I enjoyed contributing to the creative aspects of the game, such as illustrating the cover, character cards, and tokens, as well as refining resource card designs to ensure consistency and also designing the website.
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Overall, this module has given me a newfound appreciation for the complexities of game design. It’s not just about creating something fun—it’s about balancing mechanics, narrative, visuals, and user experience. I feel incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished as a team and grateful for the opportunity to bring our ideas to life. This experience has not only enhanced my technical and creative skills but has also inspired me to approach future projects with the same enthusiasm and collaborative spirit.
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ONG HEE THONG
In this project, I learned many things about how to develop and conduct a game-based study. I learned that in developing a unique game, we need a base game to work from and use our creativity to make something new. I also get to meet new friends which are my teammates. We communicate and work cooperatively. So, I have learned the importance of clear communication and teamwork skills in this project. All these experiences in this project boosted my confidence when participating in similar activities in the future.
TEO MEI HUI
This module was incredibly fun! I enjoyed how we got to play various games in class and eventually create our own tabletop game. For Project 1, where we analyzed an existing game and designed our own gameplay framework, I realized just how complex it is to create a good game—a perfect balance of strategy and luck, simplicity and complexity, logic and narrative. In the early stages, I struggled a bit with overthinking the intricacies of designing a viable gameplay framework. Fortunately, my capable and kind teammates helped me clear up my confusion and gain better understanding throughout the iterative process of developing our gameplay.
For Exercises 1 and 2, I had a great time presenting one of my favorite childhood games and reviewing a game company whose work I admire. Talking about Minecraft brought back so many nostalgic childhood memories and reminded me what an incredible platform it is for creating art and bonding with friends. Meanwhile, presenting on miHoYo helped me appreciate the importance of immersive storytelling and stunning visual design in creating beloved, highly-rated games.
One of the highlights was Project 2, especially during the playtesting phase. Sabotaging each other with Spin Cards, character abilities, and sneaky strategies made the experience so enjoyable as we were playtesting among ourselves. It felt amazing to see our game turn out to be so engaging! Asking strangers on campus to play our game was also a unique and memorable experience.
For the final project, after extensive playtesting, analysis, and iteration, we finalized the abilities, Spin Cards, and overall gameplay framework. Seeing the entire game come together—designing the cards and components, creating a demonstration video, and recording our final presentation for Sudsprites’ Spin—brought an immense sense of accomplishment. I deeply appreciate and admire my teammates, who worked so hard to make this happen. This has been a remarkable experience, and I’ve learned so much—not just from the module but also from my team.
TIEW YUN YUE
I really enjoyed how this subject pushes you to turn your ideas into reality, finding collaborators and resources to make it a tangible product that you can hold in your hands. It was really amazing to work together with the design students in our team that were essentially strangers in the beginning. I was motivated by the passion and the grind that they showed through their work, which gives me a lot of hope to emulate their positive qualities in the future. Even so, it was strange that I’d been nominated as the “leader” in our group considering how incompetent I felt I was compared to all the experience they’ve garnered. But I learnt that we make up for each other’s gaps and all that matters is what we can accomplish together as a result. It was more difficult to communicate when we weren’t meeting each other in person with all of our busy schedules and constant public holidays on Wednesdays but as someone with an inconsistent work ethic, getting to know the way that design courses force you to keep pulling out your progress brought me out of my comfort zone and I did learn a lot from how they were able to survive for so long. I wished however that we could have had more collaborators on the website rather than being restricted by the free plan as I felt like I was sometimes being a little annoying by texting members to add simple things that would be quick to do on my own not just out of impatience but also my worries about not finishing things ahead of the actual deadline.
The iterative process of playtesting and changing the game was both very meaningful and rewarding for us since we were able to get out on the field constantly and see how much fun people got out of our efforts and toil. We had to reject ideas that we spent fair amounts of time fleshing out like the Situation Cards and the previous hunger-games-esque premise that wasn’t very solid. As painful as it was to discard these things, the improvements that it brought to the game were much greater and it helped reinforce that people-minded or user-oriented experience we wanted to actually provide in our game.
I found myself subconsciously influenced specifically by the research I had done in Exercise 2 (Will Wright and his simulation games) especially since I’d been stuck pondering on his philosophy for a long time before pumping out its video presentation with Exercise 1’s. It was very interesting to find myself falling into the same traps that I’d criticised him for in the story of our game. I wanted to draw inspiration from the way he tries to make mental models or tools for strategy in our game (placing ourselves in the shoes of the players) and how he satirises society’s worst faults. I was slightly worried that by encouraging competition as a gameplay mechanic, the critique would fly past people’s heads quite like how the Sims and Monopoly taught people the bad parts of capitalism but eventually fell victim to it.
That’s when Exercise 1 came to the rescue as the game Neko Atsume felt like a game that didn’t have that extreme need for control and was all about letting go. From both this and playtest data, it felt comfortable to say that the key to enjoying our game was letting go of possessions and enjoying the journey, not necessarily to win (though that may be the goal for certain players). I think it was really fascinating to shift my mindset of “How can I make winning feel more rewarding?” to “How can this be a game that connects people and gets them talking?”.
If we were given another opportunity, I think placing more genuine feelings at least into the characters (backstories/abilities) would really ground the game as one that criticises how real the people are in a false, made-up, absurd system that gets us to forget how tough or gory the roads we’ve walked on were and still are.
Design-wise, I think I learned a lot about how games and the systems within should be structured (layers, networks, agents) to make an immersive experience in Exercise 2 but also the flipside that capitalises on the desire for casual play (that is also more trendy nowadays) and the ways we can make the game seem more harmless/simple to approach (much like the cat collecting mechanic/emotional responses to games explored in Exercise 1).
I do feel like compared to the exercises and playtest data, I didn’t really allow the presentations in Projects 1 and 3 to influence me as much. It was really difficult to articulate everything that was necessary to make our game as attractive as possible in a shorter and easily digestible way for watchers. It caused a fair bit of anxiety since a lot of peoples’ first impressions of the game are that it appears too complicated with multiple systems at play. I find the need to improve on the storytelling of our presentations to be very present in projects later down the line especially since all people see is the end product and not necessarily all the hard work that has brought the team to this point.