When it comes to game design, I find that one of the most important things is communication. In order to be able to communicate different aspects of a game effectively, there needs to be proper documentation of a game through its development.  Within the Fullerton chapter “Communicating Your Designs” there were a few styles of documentation that are common in game design for sharing ideas with others.  One form is a Flowchart to help map out the path of the game.  For my group project, before writing out my narrative I created a flowchart of the choices the player would get to make and the separate paths that were possible. This helped me to stay on track with my narrative and note where the parts of my narrative would intersect with the other narratives that my group members have made.  One communication tool that I have yet to personally try but seems important is wireframes. That is because “wireframes are an excellent communication tool between the designer, the artists, and the UI programmers” (451,452). This is important so that multiple departments working on the game can have a specific vision of what the game will be.  This helps everything to flow more smoothly and for the finished product to be more polished.

Finally, I feel that another very important thing when designing a game is to be able to pitch it to others. In class we worked on creating a short verbal pitch and delivering it.  When making my pitch it really helped me to pull out the most important aspects and takeaways from my game.  It also helped me to realize certain aspects of my game that I needed to finalize and work on because it was harder for me to put into words and explain that specific aspect over others. The more condense and straightforward a pitch is, the more appealing it can come across to the person who is listening.  I feel that to make a proper and impactful pitch, the person needs to have a deep understanding of the game overall.  It is something that I definitely need to work on and improve on for the future.

Works Cited

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: a Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. CRC Press, 2019.