Final Reflection
For me, this semester wasn't just about learning game mechanics or theory—it was about stepping into the tension between vision and collaboration, creativity and clarity, and a deeper understanding of what it means to design for real people, not just for a grade. The most important thing I learned is that good learning games don't start with flashy features or content—they start with a purposeful system—a system that helps the player think, see, or try again differently. This clicked for me when we were designing ReBoot , and I realized that the narrative metaphor—the glitching Spark School—wasn't just a creative frame. It was a mirror of real-life classrooms where surface-level learning has stalled and teachers need better tools. Designing a game like ReBoot taught me how deeply form and function must align. CT wasn't just what we were teaching—it had to be how players moved, solved, failed, and grew. I now see how feedback loops, mechanics, and story can all work to...