Final Reflection

The studio class has been greatly enjoyable. It's been really rewarding, despite differences, to undertake a large year long group project. I've learned a lot about myself and the ways I function in a group dynamic, most surprisingly my desire for control. If this were the film industry, you might say I'm a real auteur, aspiring for the role of director. Compromising on ideas or otherwise scrapping them altogether has been the largest challenge for me in the whole project. Seeing the values of others and the ways in which they work has also helped me to be able to distinguish who I am as a designer and what I value in a game design, as well as what traits I would potentially seek in considering a game development collaboration: that being excellent coding skills (thanks Tom) and primarily very similar ideals and vision.

If I were to suggest changes to the studio unit, it might be to allow a higher level of freedom for the students to determine their group sizes and development platform. I feel that individual projects could be just as rewarding and contain valuable lessons for the individual, however there is a wealth of lessons to be learned from a group dynamic, as I have found. Specifically for me, it would be interesting to undertake an individual project (given the right choice of platform that would negate my lack of coding skill) and discovering my level of competence at creating a full featured game based on my own skills alone. This is rather something I should be doing as an aside from studio however, and as such it's likely preferable to keep the group specification.

Most notably interesting about studio classes is the dynamic between the tutors Matt and Derrick. Given that they have such differing approaches to not only teaching, but also games and life in general, it has been really interesting to witness the dynamic, and at times conflict, between them and the ways in which it plays back into how they influence the students. Discussion of design ideas and witnessing the sidings taken by Matt and Derrick have been the most entertaining (if frustrating) part of the studio classes. In future, whether it remains both Matt and Derrick or someone else entirely, I would most certainly argue that having 2 tutors present for the classes is valuable and beneficial to the experience.

As for my future, given that I aim to continue study at Monash to complete my unfinished Bachelor of Arts degree, I have no immediate plans to jump in to the game development industry. My interest in game design has only increased as a result of undertaking this course and I have particular aspirations to one day see through many game design concepts I have been developing. The lesson I've learnt from the course as a whole is that it may be prefereable for me to persue such endeavours as an individual rather than entering into the industry, particularly given its focus of late on uninspired franchise iterations designed primarily for maximum market penetration. Either way, it'll be particularly interesting to witness the direction the games industry takes in the future, as it evolves as a relatively young artistic medium in the face of political opposition and despite over saturation. I've especially got my eye on the independent game development stream.