As the course comes to a close, I want to create a short reflection on how the course has prepared me for game designing and my future plans with the knowledge I've gained. Throughout the course, we created a puzzle game, a narrative game, and a serious game. Among these, I especially enjoyed making the narrative game. Despite its short length and the limitations of Bitsy (the program I used), I found great satisfaction in forming dialogues and engaging the audience in a story-driven world. However, I felt that Bitsy's constraints prevented me from telling the best possible story. Moving forward, I plan to take a slower, more deliberate approach to learning the programs I've used so far. My goal is to write a more concrete and engaging narrative that is not limited. 

I envision my games as mostly fictional, set in immersive fantasy worlds. In the upcoming year, I would like to learn how to implement a battle system with various elements into my games. Additionally, I want to start designing pixel art, which I became inspired by my increased exposure on X (Twitter) and the pixel art games discussed during the course. While some of these games discussed throughout the course had missing aspects that made them bland overall, their art style alone made a significant impact.

Finding a good pace between each level difficulty is also a must. I found that finding a good pace in games can be more difficult than it can look, especially if it is a puzzle game. The game I made was difficult to program because I could not envision each level and how the next level would differ from the previous level. I kind of just made a level and fixed the placements to make it difficult and decided where the level would go. I would like to become better at designing difficulty in a game and how I could add concepts to make the game more interesting.

Finally, I want to speak from the perspective of someone who plays games. Games are made to be fun. I will always keep this in my mind when creating games, and I hope that my games will always be enjoyable. I enjoy games for the purpose of entertainment and to relieve stress when I feel like it. I would hate to force the players who play my games into a game that is not fun.