Self Reflection Essay "GAMES"

When I look back to the video the games that I use to play when I was young, many of the images were passive. Two of the most memorable games that I remember were Donkey Kong and Super Mario Kart. When I played these video games my main focus was always on the main characters. I never put much attention into the surroundings of the game and all the background components that had made the video game “lively”. The background designs were made up of the simplest forms of shapes. For example in the Mario Kart version of 1992; the mountains horizons were simply triangular and the grass was square blocks put together. An even simpler design that comes to mind was the Donkey Kong version of 1986. This games levels and surroundings were made up of straight lines and triangles. With this the video game designers were able to create platforms and ladders. After they set up the levels they inserted the “barriers”, which were the barrels Mario had to avoid.

Many of the images that made the video game fun were very simple but the strategically way the designers placed them, made the game pop-out. The games had simple designs to make the video game a challenging/fun experience. For example the power-ups in Mario Kart were items such as stars, mushrooms, flowers, bombs, etc.… These are simple ideas, but the items made the game more intriguing. As I mentioned earlier barriers are also another concept which made these games interesting to play. From the barrels rolling in Donkey Kong to the mud spills in Mario Kart these barriers were kept me playing the video games. I wouldn’t have continued to play the game if there were no challenges.

I plan on taking some of the easiest concepts of these video games of my child hood in order to make my game in DMF 203. Some of the ideas that I plan on taking over to my project are the power-ups, barriers, backgrounds, and character design in order to get some ideas to make my game intriguing. I’m going to create my own color scheme to make the game have a smooth feeling in order to keep the addictive playing happening. I have a lot to learn about the process of making games, but hopefully with the collaboration of old ideas and new ideas I will be able to make an interesting game.