On April 7, Feehan High School students got a visit from someone who actually helped make some of the board games we all know, Monopoly and Clue. Ava Garfinkel, a game designer at Hasbro and a Feehan graduate from 2018, came to talk to Mr. O’Brion’s Marketing class about her job and how she got there.
After high school, Ava didn’t really know what she wanted to do. At first, she was deeply interested in math and science in high school, so she decided to continue that in college, but it didn’t turn out well for her, which led her to choose something she was passionate about, which was building things and being creative.
She went to Brown University and ended up joining a toy design group there. That’s when she realized she wanted to make toys and games, no matter the age group they were for.
Now she’s been working at Hasbro for over a year and a half. As a lead designer, she’s helped create new versions of classic games like Monopoly. Her job is to make sure games look good, are fun to play, and feel like a complete experience. She’s in charge of the rules, the gameplay, how the players feel during the game, and even the emotions the game gives you.
What Is Game Designing?
Ava explained that game design is a long process. It takes about 1–2 years to finish a game from start to end. First, the product manager does research and figures out what kind of game they want. Then a game designer, (like Ava) makes it come to life. There are lots of people involved, like narrative designers who help with the story, graphic designers who make it look cool, etc.
After the game is made, it goes through a bunch of tests to make sure it’s fun and works well. Sometimes they test it many times and change things over and over again until it’s right.
The Challenges/Struggles
Even though designing games sounds awesome, Ava said it can be tough too. Sometimes product managers don’t know what they want, or they have different ideas from the design team. Other times, they just don’t “get” the game.
There are also moments when you work super hard on a project, present it to the team, and it doesn’t get picked. Ava said this happens, and it’s okay.
Ava’s story showed us that it’s okay if you don’t need to have everything figured out right after high school. She didn’t, and she’s doing something amazing now.
Mr. O’Brion chose this specific person because of her job and how creative it is, it takes a lot of brainstorming to lead to what you really want to do.
Her words of advice were
