Regarding my own work, the first lecture gave some insight when prototyping the Game Project I pitch. I tried to keep the “rapid as a state of mind” approach proposed by Purho and that made me iterate ideas faster. I was amazed by the complexity of both lectures’ projects, in particular, Hi-Fi Rush’s goal of creating an action rhythm game where everything moves to the beat seems insanely difficult, but witnessing how they managed to polish their prototypes was inspiring. They managed to simplify a complex problem with outstanding game design. Additionally, the fact that the early prototypes of Hi-Fi Rush impacted the final game in aspects like narrative, UI and environment design was surprising and it is an unexpected benefit to focus on prototyping first.

The advice given by Petri Purho on creating bad games to spark ideas was refreshing, and it took some pressure off our shoulders for the next projects. Seeing all of his prototypes come together into a successful commercial game was a unique experience and I would like to emphasize the importance of keeping a record of your own process when sharing your knowledge.

Finally, I would say that my perspective on game design has evolved after the lectures. Not only have I found new ways of testing key ideas on my future games, but also have released the pressure from my shoulders when testing ideas. In future projects, I want to try to keep the visual aspect minimal during prototypes, unless the key element of the game is the art. In this case, all the efforts will be focused on getting that crucial element right.