A Semester's Reflection: Serious Games are Serious!

My final project may be quite under the bar of what I wished that I could provide, but it is what I could do with the amount of time and energy I could dedicate to it.

You can begin your journey into my journey by checking out my project here: http://kendylld.github.io/boukenda-project/

The title may seem a bit silly but it is quite the truth to say that Serious Games are quite serious. The opportunity to learn about this kind of game design and all the elements involved was definitely one which I took with open arms and felt the struggles along the way. And as the weeks went on I learned a lot and struggled along the way to find the kind of things that I wanted and liked about the idea.

Serious Games bring about this great refreshing view to trying to get people to learn and grow off of something as simple as a game. As we grow we take for granted how much games have taught and helped us grow. Thinking outside the box, learning patience and details, and even helping us keep fit, games have always been something that needed some attention. Serious Game Design brought that back to learning for people beyond the years of playground tag and counting numbers.

Learning about Python and Django gave me a lot of hope to understanding another way to create and program things which I could use for the future and in some ways it did. The languages stretched my memory and my ability to interpret items, but at the same time posed a constant foil to my progress. This dualism proved even more valuable as it keeps the experience fresh in my mind, and a reminder that challenge usually brings with it growth, one the key points to Serious Game Design itself!

But there were a lot of things about this development which I just couldn't get a grip on, and perhaps it is just how much I am grounded in the systems and patterns that I've been use to for so long. On the onset, I was able to use a Windows system to develop a lot of my learning of these systems, but the challenge of trying to adjust to a different environment of which I had very little experience with (Linux) proved quite frustrating to my patience. The change of controls, the sensitivity of resizing windows, the disconnect between the keyboard commands I was use to reminded me that in the end I am always still a learner, and that I needed to do my best to keep up with everyone who was already comfortable with Linux, get past my gripes with what I wasn't use to and continue to grow and learn how to design these serious games.

Straight forward: It is no easy task.

Even with ideas on what I wanted to do, I found myself completely overwhelmed by the task I had given myself. Even with the knowledge I had of Japanese and of learning Japanese in levels I was not prepared to not only develop a system of learning but to implement the system into functionality. As I started to outline the factors I wanted to focus on and the concepts I wanted to keep, the challenge of maintaining the social draw to the game, the motivation, and methods to keep users involved proved difficult. Designing a system that went beyond flashcards, and was able to teach still needs to be proven, and that this system can be more than slapping game elements onto a quiz system.

So I tried to work out the kinks in my system. Implementation was far out of my mind as the content began to weigh in on me. How could I make sure that difficulty was well adjusted, that I was challenging the content in different ways that went beyond regular formatting. Many thoughts came to mind but with them came the problem with thinking of how to implement them, and that lead back to trying to define the system even more. The constant spiral proved difficult to manage on top of other responsibilities, and so several things were lost to time and tears.

The development is far from where I'd like it to be, this much is true. And every step of the way appeared to be riddled with other questions and more challenge. Adding the element of another language to the goal created another dimensions of issues in maintaining the knowledge, the authenticity and still creating the environment and challenge. I feel like there is still a diamond sparkle somewhere within this concept, but integrating so many concepts together at once might have been too ambitious, especially knowing the difficulties I've had keeping a schedule. And yet, no other ideas had come to me and I continued to push through my troubles.

Even in this final spurt, this push towards the finish line, I continue to be pestered with small but debilitating issues. While trying to upload and transfer files from Github's windows interface to my computer my internet connection continuously jittered, causing transfers to hang. Page development was becoming difficult in terms of transferring back and forth, and eventually simple development seemed liked the easier option. But upon testing the image transfer I found myself stuck there as well. Uploading images produced an incomplete upload, claiming binary file difference. Attempts to reupload using a command line proved to be ineffective as well, and in a bout of honest frustration I felt myself give up on completing my task.

(The culprit, one of many frustrations with trying to work through my own troubles with the system)

Even with all the trouble, I find myself interested in this kind of design, while this project may be unfinished, I still find myself wanting to find a way to get back to the drawing board, think up a new potential idea from scratch and try to work on that. I still have a desire to consider Japanese as it is another field of study I enjoyed, but to find the right structure and do Serious Game Design justice still feels like something I'd like to do.

At the same time I can't help but feel disheartened a little with my experiences with just about every from of development we've worked with throughout the semester. Whether it was Django, Heroku, Makahiki, or Git, there was  constantly factors that I had difficulty handling, anomalies I couldn't pin down, and content lost to the winds of back luck and careless errors.

Working through all the frustrations, the long nights hitting the flow state, and long afternoons before nights where you would hit the proverbial brick wall, it always felt like I was learning but always missing a key instance, the key to preventing those long time issues and roadblocks. And I believe that is one of the greatest take-aways I can have about Serious Game Design. The most "serious" part about Serious Game Design is not in the name, nor is it in the intention for it to help people learn or grow. The most "serious" thing for me to remember about serious game design, is that is a challenge from start to finish.

These would be the lessons I would like to pass on to anyone who is thinking about Serious Game Design, or any design in general:
-Projects need to be good, but also manageable; Do not overstep your boundaries
-The system needs to have a good layout, the key points that need to be hit need to be found as soon as possible.
-Things will not go as planned, knowing that and preparing for that as best you can is important. Things may be hard to handle, but you can't give up till the very end.
-Learn to let go of some things for the greater good, you cannot always fix every problem, and focusing on it more than necessary is detrimental to both the project and your determination.

So, while it may sound silly to say Serious Games are serious, it is no joke, one must maintain that level headed vision to the goal to survive, and accept whatever may happen from there. It is especially true for someone like me, if your natural tendency is to need to have access to that ability to undo, it is important you practice anything to do with this kind of development, as the ability to undo may not be easily accessible down the line. I will attempt to review and relearn all I can from this semester, and try to gain the ability to handle the situations that come at me quicker, refine my ideas, and try to think within the bounds of my limitations, so that hopefully next time my project may be smaller, but it will be more of a reality.

Thanks to everyone who may have been reading, hopefully you've enjoyed the journey. I may not sound like I have, but in some ways I definitely have, and hopefully we'll cross paths again.