Konner Rooney

10/2025

2258-CAGD-370-01-4196

Blog Post 1

    Ever since I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming a Game Designer. While I wasn’t sure if it was a realistic path for me, my curiosity about how games are made drove me to study the field.

During the Fall of 2025, I was given the privilege to be chosen as the Lead/Level Designer for a prototype of my game concept, "Color Clap!"

 

The game's core mechanic revolves around defeating enemies that come in six different colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue. When you defeat an enemy, you absorb their color and can take advantage of the color's associated abilities to enhance combat and solve puzzles to advance further in the game. 

As exciting as this opportunity is, it was essential to acknowledge that it is just as much of a privilege as it is a responsibility. It is my idea that the prototype is being built around, meaning my team would have to rely on me to properly help bring my vision to life, as well as ensuring its success as a product to sell later down the line. While I like to think of myself as a visionary, I am certainly not the best at explaining what's in my head. Therefore, I had to push myself to grow as both a communicator and collaborator, learning how to translate creative ideas into clear, actionable plans for my team. It’s been a valuable process. Familar due to my previous studies, yet also different from anything I’ve done before! 

The process of creating a paper prototype felt very similar to the time I did so during my first state college semester, which entirely focused on the concept of games as as whole. As a result, preparation for laying down the groundwork was familiar to me. However, I now had to consider how those concepts could be adapted in digital form. This is where my experience in my first two programming classes came in handy! I am far from the best programmer in the world, but messing around in the Unity and Unreal engines helped me become more comfortable with exploring ideas to incorporate in game in a realistic manner and keep expectations in check. When coming up with these ideas, my first thought would be, "Okay, what would the step-by-step process in coding it? Would it be something me or my teammates be able to do with our skill level?" Due to this, I felt like I gained a much better understanding on how the brainstorming and idea phases should be done. While it wasn't easy, I believe I was able to learn the general idea of how coming out with ideas, and deciding if those ideas would be both fun and prorgamable!

.