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I have specifically chosen this particular WRIT 340 section as I knew beforehand that students would not only use blogging and other online mediums for developing their writing techniques in a more modern and contemporary fashion, but more importantly because they would be able to choose the topics they were going to be writing about. This to me seemed crucial, as I do not plan on becoming an acclaimed writer (that too in areas of which I have possibly minimal interest) and felt that if I am to be taking a writing class, it may as well be relevant to what my main passions and interests are. Being a Computer Science (Games) major and therefore part of the Viterbi School of Engineering, my advisor and various others had pointed me in the direction of the ‘Writing for Engineers’ section, but the idea of writing technical documents about more core and traditional forms of engineering seemed drab. 

So, here I am, ready and enthused to be writing about the art and science of game design instead for the next fifteen weeks. I am not worried about this topic’s ability to fuel me with ideas and interests for the duration of this class, as it has already been doing that for the last six years. What was once a fan oriented fixation has become an academic and professional focus. Though my academic discipline is more concerned with game development, and is far more technical in nature than the lofty abstractness of design, my passion has always been with the latter. As a result, I’d imagine that most of the essays and posts I would write in this class would not be about the technology that allows for digital games, though perhaps I might be tempted to write about the implications of what this developing and complex technology can do for the evolution of game design.

In case you are curious as to what game design entails, you can think of it as the craft of creating interactive experiences between users and systems in which there are goals. The ways in which this is does varies greatly among different platforms; board games ‘play’ very differently than physical games such as tag or capture the flag, or commercial digital games such as Super Mario Bros. I am mainly interested in digital games, but that is not specifying much. Digital games come in all shapes and sizes, depending on their genre, how experimental they wish to be, and the audience they are geared towards.

Topics which I have interest in potentially covering include education and game design, digital immersion, critical analysis of both modern and recent commercial and independent games, and much more. Game design is an extremely topical subject as its medium is constantly evolving. Furthermore, I am actively developing games and interactive experiences, so I look forward to writing about my own works and thoughts as well. 

One of the key responsibilities of a game designer is to produce a game design document for the project at hand that the whole team must follow. This document is often large and incredible detailed, and it is crucial that the vision of the game is delivered to the team. I hope that this course will help my technical writing ability, but also my thought process in creative expression so that I effectively communicate my visions as well.