The unfortunate growing pains of completely overhauling the entire school curriculum, and having no time to "fix" those mistakes within a year, because the iterations occur annually, because bureaucracy :)
I don't have any, let alone all, answers, but I have been asking some questions to the people who do, and it seems poignant to continue that work.
I am conveniently ignoring the fact that capitalism, the internet, and social media has fundamentally altered our concepts of "learning from your mistakes", in a generally negative way
That example was me, in December and January. I tried to turn a platformer into a satirical racing game. Didn't work that well.
You seem above averagely aware of this conflict, which puts you in a position to do something about it for yourself. I've tried my best to emphasise experimentation and exploration during classes, and it's usually resulted in grades in excess of my expectations. But it has also left a hole, in my ability to exploit my skills. I have very little in terms of quality playable projects. That's my weakness, and I also feel compulsed to neglect it in favour of other ventures - but I cannot say if these compulsions are externally or internally motivated, or a combination.
The issue, in my cohort of game design students specifically, is that people went to study at an art school, and have no idea what that means for them. They just wanna make "cool stuff :)" with no introspection beyond that. Which is why I take their criticism with several grains of Himalayan salt.
I have a sneaking suspicion... that many of them have never learnt to learn properly.
(I am also a far, far worse game designer than some of them)
I have heard this criticism about the current school curriculum quite often, and have tried to get the attention of the relevant people for it. It's a multifaceted problem though, with no clear "fix" - for some other people, it is as much stubbornness or ignorance as it is pressure.
The second half of the study is intended to provide more room for this experimentation, or exploitation, depending on the specific subjects and personal ambitions.
