Yo. (Imagine me waving from far far away unenthusiastic)
I guess I’m hooked on game design work. A few months ago, a group of college students wanted to make a board game to help lower-middle-income families have better saving habits. That’s quite a mouthful. I hope you didn’t run out of breath reading that sentence.
Long story short, they asked for advice from my organization and that’s how I’m involved. I gave some pointers on how to make their game idea playable and… it’s working. I feel joyful when I know they have successfully playtested it with target users. I’m glad to be able to help them in a professional way.
A part of me doubted our imagination to be game designers. It felt like reaching a moon would be more possible but this consultation finally prove me wrong. I really love when second-guess Julivius is wrong. It would not be my main job at the end of the day but at least, I have actual professional experience now. I’m just so happy that I could help.
It’s funny though. My skill did not improve. Like nothing really changes. I keep working like usual besides a few extra online meetings with the students but somehow, I felt validated. I’m not a self-proclaimed serious game designer anymore. So yeah, I could consider serious game design as part of my work now.
Serious games look like an asteroid back then. I knew they were there but I don’t know how to reach them. The idea of serious games was living inside my head slightly earlier before I took the master’s program. I took the first step and learned about it through the master’s program. Now, I took the second step and practiced it.
It sounds like I’m just repeating myself over and over in this letter. Thank you for reading it and see you in the next one.
Stay healthy and stay awesome.
Your nerdy neighbor,
Julivius
PS: a bad practice of documentation (but still, it is better than nothing)