Games have always been an important part of my life. Growing up, I did not realize how effectively they were quietly teaching me critical thinking and problem-solving skills. They were my hidden curriculum. Once I was a parent, I witnessed firsthand how they developed those same skills in my daughter. As a medium, games are a powerful way to connect to our world, inspire imagination, and foster interactive creativity.
My design journey began when I was nine or ten, living in Italy. I’d outgrown “kid games” like Candyland and Trouble, and even Monopoly had little appeal. On a camping trip with my family, my father pulled out a undistinguished cribbage board and dealt out cards to us. As we played, I began to see how this was a game of math, strategy, hand optimization, sacrifice, and planning. My dad never went easy on me, and it took me a while to learn to regularly win the game.
This experience was my first real lesson in resilience and risk assessment. I learned that losing wasn't to be taken personally, but seen as an opportunity, a chance to think about what went wrong, and return to the game with a sharpened strategy. This sparked a life-long journey and exploration of game experiences.
In my middle school years in Baltimore, I spent time in the public library, which gave me access to a shelf full of what I thought of as “adult board games”—a treasure trove of Avalon Hill titles. From 1776 to Dune, I played them for hours. These games expanded my understanding of what a game’s theme could be, and how they function as complex systems. I wasn't just rolling dice; I was exploring cause and effect on a macro scale. I learned how player alliances are made and broken through mutual beneficence, and how outcomes are shaped by resources and logistics.
In high school, nerd that I was, I landed in a group of friends who enjoyed crunchy war games such as Advanced Squad Leader, Star Fleet Battles, Axis and Allies, and Supremacy. Games with a dark humor, like Steve Jackson’s Illuminati or Nuclear War, fit our evolving personalities perfectly. I also collected Steve Jackson Games’ Melee, Mage, and Wizard mini-games from The Fantasy Trip series, which was my first introduction to role-playing games. This era taught me about social dynamics, negotiation, and the abstraction of real-world conflict into mechanics. Also importantly, RPGs taught me empathy and cooperative problem-solving. We were no longer just trying to beat each other; we were building a shared narrative together and learning empathy for perspectives outside our own.
"Games didn't just entertain me; they challenged my worldview and opened my eyes to the complexities of rules-based systems."
As I was playing games with my friends, I was also creating my own for fun. One I recall was a 7-on-7 chess-football hybrid game. I spent hours testing the mechanics and gameplay, pushing the system to uncover the limitations in the format. None of this was intended to be shared with others, but it was instrumental in teaching me how games work and why. It taught me the power of iteration—the understanding that a game is rarely perfect on the first take, and that truly enjoyable gameplay is only achieved after rigorous testing and a willingness to break your own creations.
In college, we continued to play board games alongside the first generation of PC computer games. I have fond memories of playing text-based games like Infocom’s Planetfall, and then experiencing the spectacle and cinematic scope of the Wing Commander series. These digital experiences taught us about the limitless possibilities of storytelling, both imagined and visualized. They revealed the power of agency, how being the active participant in a story, rather than a passive observer, heightens the emotional stakes and forces you to live with the consequences of your decisions.
At each stage of my life, I found different games that presented new challenges of perception, of comprehension, and appreciation. They were never just games; they were the tools I used to learn how to navigate the world. As I have now reached my later years, I still reach back into those gaming experiences to inspire my craft and shape my design decisions. I hope the insights I share from this journey are useful for your own journeys through life and your own creative endeavors.