[Juno Log]Web development and making video games

As someone who took computer science as a major back in the university, programing is no stranger to me, and I also had the chance to learn the basic principles of web development. But, in the first two weeks of the boot camp, although I encountered some familiar concepts and technology, I was also amazed by the depth of the course. In addition, some of the ideas that instructors had implanted into my mind had made me reflect on my game development principles.

“Accessibility and UX” is one of the topics covered in the early phase of the Juno boot camp. The main idea and logic behind “accessibility” is that minimizing the interaction's difficulty makes the main content of the application more accessible. The less time and brainpower users spend on the UI, the better the user experience is.

Video games are similar to web applications because they both are programs running on machines, and user input is required for both to function. Knowing that accessibility is so important to web development made me reflect on some of the design choices I have made on UI design in the past. However, as I play through some of the games I have developed, I notice that I can improve just by changing the UI and makes the game itself more accessible.

Not just UI, the idea of accessibility had given me some inspiration on level design. By cutting down unnecessary content in the level, trying to make the “fun” content easier to access could be an excellent idea to have in mind when designing a level (I haven't had the chance to prove it yet).

It is fascinating to see the connection between new knowledge and old hobby. I’m very excited to see how learning web development can change my view on game design further down the road.