What I’ve Done (and Learned) This Summer
I have done quite a bit this summer, or more specifically, this summer semester. This summer I only took one class, a capstone class for system design (the way DigiPen does things is that there are 6 sub-disciplines under the design umbrella, you have to take a level one class of at least five of them, then a level two class of at least two of them, then a capstone for the two you choose to specialize in). This capstone class was very helpful to me, as it was as much about polishing a system design project as it was about expanding your resources and getting certain important things (like this site) set up. This summer I created or expanded my professional tools, learned a lot about the games industry and how to be a part of it, and I’ve met and talked to some really cool people.
The first major thing I did was getting my site set up, although I worked on it consistently throughout the semester. Obviously I’ll keep updating it throughout my career, but for now, I have it in a pretty solid spot, at least solid enough to have it publicly available. That doesn’t mean I’m taking a break from it though, I still need to improve it, for instance I have to make it mobile friendly.
I have learned a lot during this process. One of the first things I learned was that you need your site to look good, but that shouldn’t be your absolute top priority, as the substance of the site is the most important part (though let it be known I don’t specialize in UI or UX, if I did this aspect would be way more important). Early on I spent a while trying out some fancy things like scrolling text. I took a step back and realized that I just don’t need to go that far. Not only would I be spending way too much time on trying to be flashy, but that flashiness could be distasting or annoying to anyone on my site. Especially as I am someone who is just entering the industry, I don’t want to be known as the one guy with a site that is trying way too hard. Maybe in twenty years or so I’ll make my site super gaudy because at that point this site will be less crucial, but I’ll make that decision when the day comes.
One of the other things I learned was that, much like most things in life, quality is much more important than quantity. I initially planned on having something like seven different project pages, and I feel like that was just too many, especially so early into the site’s life. I will probably separate my site into featured projects and minor projects one day to expand the amount of work I’m able to show off. But for now, having a few high quality pages takes precedent (for me) over many smaller pages.
Another thing I learned is that brevity is often the best choice. Now, if you are reading this post then there’s a good chance you have read or at least looked at other pages on my site and, assuming you did, you would be calling me a liar right now. And to that I say, fair. I tend to write a lot as I really like to get all my thoughts out onto the page (see my blog posts). Though, I spent quite a while on my current project pages, and a good chunk of that time was rereading it and getting feedback from people and then editing them to be more clear and concise. Don’t worry, I don’t plan to leave the current pages as they are forever, I’m going to revisit them soon and do another pass of improving and cutting down unnecessary info. After all, just about any creative process starts with a rough draft that’s subpar to fine, and only becomes good after many iterations.
To help communicate info on my pages, I do my best to limit the amount of info delivered at once by having a project summary on the home screen and a read more button if you want the full run down, and then that info is chunked into sections. For my project page for my game “One, Two, Kickout!” I actually added short summaries of the sections, I did this after it was suggested by a friend, and I think I will go through and apply this elsewhere too, as it is very helpful to people who don’t want to spend too much time reading, but still want to know more about the project.
Besides this site, my other major project for the semester was the previously mentioned table top RPG “One, Two Kickout!”. Specifically, the project was taking that game and making a new edition that fixed a bunch of issues that the previous editions had (check out the project page here) and to create a simplified edition that was faster to play and aligned more to the initial vision for the game. The major change a substantial revamp to how combat works, moving from a more rigid ‘pick a move’ style into a faster and more open style that encourages role play. I also made many small changes, ranging from tweaking stat values to improved readability. Overall I think it turned out very nicely. And testers seem to like it better.
One of the major things I learned was how to properly predict how much time a project (and specific tasks within that project) will take when my work is largely self planned and guided. I thought that the new edition would take a lot less time than it ended up taking. I actually planned on getting a separate TTTPG game to a solid ~15 page prototype this summer, but that had to be largely scrapped. I still did some work on it, and I will talk more about that soon, but I definitely overestimated how fast I would be able to work on that project. This is a lesson I have learned before and will probably learn again. But, each time I learn it I get better at judging scope and time commitment, so each time the variation is less and less. For instance, as the summer went on I got much better at planning out and sticking to my tasks and time commitment for the week. I feel that this is a good lesson to learn now instead of in the future when I would be getting paid to be accurate about these things.
Overall, I’m pretty proud of the work I did this summer. I think what I learned and the work I did has helped me a lot now, and I’m confident that this positive effect will only compound on itself as I move forward and continue to work on my site, my projects, my career, and myself. I think one of the most important things I learned this semester isn’t exactly a lesson, but more of a mindset that I have obtained. That is that I feel much more confident in myself, my work, and my future in the industry. As I move into my senior year at DigiPen and look towards entering the industry with a career, I’m going to do my best to retain and foster this positive momentum.
I heard a great piece of advice a few weeks ago, I don’t remember the exact quote but it was something like “compounding interest is one of the most powerful things in the world”. It is literally about finance, but the best part about this is that you can apply it anywhere. As long as you are improving a little bit each time, your overall growth gets greater and greater each time. If you're learning a language for example (something I have been working at) it can be discouraging if you think about it as you get 2% better each month, but once you realize that it isn’t just 2 more “points” but a 2% growth of what you were already at, well then it goes from discouraging to extremely encouraging. If you start small and build these systems for yourself, they really pay off. I find this really motivating and have been working on doing the same for myself. And I’m not going to lie, it’s not easy. I try to practice every day, and sometimes I don’t, cause it’s really hard. But it has helped me a lot to try to shift my thinking into compounding. I know this sounds just like every other self help thing, and to an extent it is, but I thought it was cool, so I wanted to share.
Alright, time to sign off. Thank you so much for reading, expect to hear more from me soon.
- Gabe
