Creating Videogames. My Experience in a COIL Course

The pandemic meant a change in our way of living and seeing the world; we had to adapt ourselves, and education was one of the areas where this need became evident. Virtual classes began to gain momentum and when faced with the impossibility of student mobility, many schools switched to the virtual modality.

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) courses are a good alternative for those looking to take that first step toward student mobility. I will tell about my experience in one of these courses, on video game creation, and how it evolved from a virtual class to a face-to-face event with students and teachers from different countries.

Getting to know each other
We took the COIL course on “Video Game Creation” with Professor Julio Broca from the School of Arts and Design (FAD, Spanish initials) and two professors from the LUCA School of Arts in Belgium, Veronika Romhány and Carina Erdmann. Our group included eight FAD students and one LUCA student.

Our first class was on November 2. In Mexico we celebrate the Day of the Dead on this date, and we thought it was a good idea for some of our classmates to show up in costume or make-up according to the date. When our foreign peers saw us, they were very surprised and told us that people in their countries are not used to doing this kind of thing, at least not in a classroom. That was the first contrast between us and our new classmates.

The language was a barrier at times because Veronika and Carina do not speak Spanish and I sometimes had difficulties expressing my ideas or understanding what they were asking us. As for the English language, I am grateful to my classmate Oriana because she helped us when we had problems communicating with our teachers. I liked this first experience very much, but, at the same time, it left me wondering what the course would be like with the three teachers, and the challenges to come.

Some challenges
One of the challenges we faced was to agree on what to do, and what our video game would be like. We had just experienced the Day of the Dead virtual Game Jam event and wanted to continue with that project, but if we did, we would not be fulfilling one of the requirements of COIL which is to share our cultures and to learn from each other. What we proposed was to start from our first project, “Xiux: the Warrior’s Path,” based on Aztec culture, and mix it with our classmates’s culture. Veronika introduced us to a character from her culture: the Taltos, a shaman from Hungarian mythology. In the first part of the course, we focused on conceptual development: how this character could fit in a coherent way into our mythology. In the end, each one made a proposal and worked on it during the semester.

The schedules and platforms sometimes worked against us, because we had a bad wi-fi connection, the video calls were interrupted or each one’s schedules were not coordinated. However, we were able to agree and found a time when everyone could connect.

The couple of months of online international collaboration were extremely enriching. Shortly after the end of the semester, my classmates Damaris, Aylin, Angelica, and I participated with Professor Broca at the FAD Research Day, where we shared our experiences. This opened us up to the possibility of continuing the course for another semester.

Second cycle
After two months, we wanted more and agreed to look into the possibility of a next opening. My classmate Damaris and Professor Broca were in charge of coordinating everything. We were given the possibility to continue, albeit with some changes. Kiiba, our classmate from Belgium, and some of our FAD classmates could not continue, but we were joined by a new member: Karla.

The project also had a radical change: we continued with the Taltos character, but we thought that mixing him with the Aztec culture was not the best option, so we rethought the work and decided to make a new story, set in presentday Mexico so that the game would take place in Mexico City’s Metro tunnels.

Throughout the course, we dedicated a lot of time to planning the story and defining the message we wanted to convey, so we went out of schedule. Fortunately, Professor Veronika share with us an interactive narrative program which allowed us to finish on time.

Puebla
One of the objectives of COIL methodology is to exchange ideas and cultures, to learn from each other, and, most importantly, to establish contacts, because you never know what projects or experiences await you out there. We were fortunate because we ended our course in a face-to-face meeting in Puebla. Not only were we going to meet in person, but we were going to meet students and teachers from universities abroad. I am grateful to Professor Broca for organizing this event, which was very enriching, both academically and personally, for all the participants.

The Game Design Development experience in Puebla was something new for me; in a few words, it was a “small mobility” that enriched me in many aspects.

Getting to know other places in the country is always good and, in this case, visiting Puebla was something new, since I had not had the opportunity to be in this state. At first, it seemed very similar to Mexico City, mainly the Zocalo, but as the days went by I realized that Puebla has its own identity and characteristics that make it different, such as the food, the names of the dishes, and the organization of the streets which is by numbers, making it easier for us to find our way around. We had the opportunity to visit other places besides downtown Puebla, such as Angelópolis, and the forts, and as we went from one place to another, we could see the difference between these three places. We also visited museums, such as the Amparo Museum and the International Museum of the Baroque. This small mobility could not miss Puebla’s famous cuisine. All these elements were fresh air for us, opening our panorama and making us see beyond what we are used to. We have to thank the Alfonso Vélez Pliego Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla, which inaugurated with us, UNAM students, its residential facilities for researchers at the Casa del Libro Gilberto Bosques cultural center. We stayed there for five days without making any expenses.

Trying new things
The feeling of insecurity was part of the experience in the beginning. Talking with my classmates, we all had concerns about the event because we had never had these kind of practice before. Traveling alone to another state, living and sharing with people we didn’t know made us think twice if it was a good idea, but we decided to go and, in the end we all agree it was worth it.

My first face-to-face meeting
Something very meaningful for me was meeting my classmates and professors in person. Because of the pandemic, we were taking online classes for a year and, when I saw them, I felt a deep emotion —it is very different to see your classmates on a video call than to see them in person. We imagined ourselves in a certain way and, when we met, we were different. This is a small anecdote that also meant a lot.

During the week we worked hard. First, we helped setting up an exhibition where we met two of our guides and new friends, Gaby and Karen. Setting up the exhibition was quite an adventure because we didn’t know all it entailed: the museography, handling materials, etc. It’s not just sticking up a poster and that’s it. A funny anecdote was about a totally black poster and we inadvertently ended up smudging; we had to spend all day at the set up and in the end we learned something new and different about video games.

Learning
During the week we had conferences and workshops where we learned theory and practice of video games design and other areas of design. In the conferences, we learned about the technical and narrative elements to develop a video game, such as the lore (scope), textures, shapes, and the best means to communicate our message. Something interesting was that, in Jonas and Carina’s exhibition, the narrative part was approached from a philosophical point of view, because they talked about the world as a living being and how it is nourished by elements of the culture of each country. Each one, from their point of view, enriched the perspective on video games. In Agata’s explanation, we learned how to use visuals to represent what has already been established in the story and how the correct selection of shapes, textures, and color palette impacts.

These presentations helped me to better understand what we had worked on in Xiux and Taltos because they made me see that we were not just putting assets and tilesets to fill in, but we must be careful that the graphic and scripting components can stand on their own.

Presentations by Veronika, Wout, and Grzegorz showed us how they work in other countries and the difference with Mexico: one is stricter and based on hierarchies, while the other is more open and based on listening to the other. In these exhibitions, I realized that for both sides, foreigners and Mexicans, there is the problem of culture shock and different methods to develop projects, and that the challenge is to mix the different points of view to be able to teach and learn from each other. Finally, with Jair, I learned the before and the after of the video game creation process. The before can be summarized with the questions “What? Why? For whom?” Then he explained how to use technology to help our project reach more people.

The technical part is worked on in workshops given by students (Jair, Wout, and Jonas) and teachers (Iwona and Kaja) from Germany and Poland. They showed us tools that are hardly used in Mexico or are not very well known. We learned about applications for 3D modeling and enhanced reality, as well as new ways to make photomontages. These internships made me realize that we always have a lot to learn.

Although the courses were introductory, they are a good basis to start and continue practicing. I think they are a good extension of the programs we normally use at FAD because we don’t stay in the two-dimensional image, but we move into 3D and start exploring enhanced reality. In a world where technology is advancing ever faster, it is important to keep up to date. I also learned with Jair that, even if we handle a program and are used to solving problems in a certain way, there is always an alternative that can be equally or more effective and faster.

The experience
In general, this experience helped us see where we stand as designers and what we need to improve in the Mexican educational system and our curricula, and that we as designers should not just stick to what the school gives us, but also learn by ourselves and always update our knowledge. The most important thing is to form bonds with people from whom we can learn and whom we can teach as well, to grow together.

I hope that the FAD continues with this type of program and is open to accepting video games as part of our training since this market represents job opportunities for us, in which we put into practice much of the knowledge we learn during our degree. I would also like to invite, not only the FAD, but all faculties, to give a chance to COIL courses that allow us to have several perspectives, and not only learn as students, but also as teachers.

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