u/Itchy_Gold8400

I was going to take game programming and game design as elective courses at my community college, but the game design course is not being offered this year. The only course that was available for complete beginners was programming, so I took it.

Can you please recommend a way to learn the fundamentals of game design independently, similar to what I’d learn in a Game Design 101 class? I see a lot of YouTube videos about game design, but most of them seem to be either devlogs or people using game design as a pretense to just talk about games they liked or didn‘t like. Right now, I’m just looking to learn the foundational stuff that all game devs have to know. I’m ok with spending some money for a program if it’ll teach me.

There’s a group I’m in and we’re playing Monster of the Week. I love the setting, my character, and all the other PCs and NPCs and the relationships they have with each other, but half the gaming group is rather frustrating, mainly the GM and one of the players. They tend to go off on weird tangents mid-game that can get rather political (we’re all on the same side of the political spectrum, so it could be worse, but it’s still really annoying). Sometimes they’ll discuss politics for like 15-30 minutes before starting the game and I have to mute my mic and do something else. Yesterday they were going off about how much they hate modern art and Harry Potter (mostly the author). My grandpa was a modern painter and he passed away a couple years ago, but I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to cause unnecessary drama. Also there was a point where one of the npcs had a French name and the GM said he hates the French because “they’ve always hated my people, but we won the war and they need to get over it”. I’m assuming he has either English, Algerian, or southeast Asian heritage, but I don’t know because we play online and i never see his face. (I’m pretty sure he was trying to make a joke but it made me uncomfortable). I really don’t want to silence anyone’s opinions but the negativity is rather tiring, as are the GM’s random offhanded topical jokes. One time I asked the GM if he was ever in a fraternity because fraternities feature heavily in the campaign. He said no and that “I can proudly say I’ve never needed drugs to get laid”. I laughed uncomfortably, and he apologized and took it back, and I told him my sister had a lot of close friends in college who were in a fraternity and she still connects with Greek culture. I could ask them to tone the negativity down, but I don’t think I can ask them to stop the political commentary because the player (idk about the GM) is one of those people who thinks it’s wrong to tell people not to talk about politics. I REALLY don’t want to leave this game because the rest of the group is cool and the game is awesome but it’s just tiring. Anyway if you have advice I’d like to hear it but I mostly just wanted to vent.