Teaching Play: What Mentoring Game Animators Taught Me About Creative Courage

When I first agreed to mentor for Animation Mentor’s new Games Program, I thought I’d be teaching. I quickly realized I was there to learn.

The students came in wide-eyed, ambitious, and a little terrified. Many had never touched a game engine before. Some had never animated interactively. Yet every week, they showed up. Ready to test, fail, and try again. They reminded me what creative courage really looks like: the willingness to be bad at something new in the pursuit of getting better.

My job wasn’t just to teach animation principles. It was to help them unlearn the perfectionism that often follows artists from film into games. To embrace iteration, discovery, and imperfection as part of the process. We talked a lot about intentional play, the kind of exploration that leads to happy accidents and new ideas.

By the end of each term, I watch them start to move differently. Not just their characters, but themselves. They become more at ease in the mess, get curious about feedback, and grow less afraid of their technical limitations and creative obstacles.

Mentorship, like animation, is a performance of empathy. It’s listening closely, adapting to rhythm, and finding timing that helps someone else shine. And just like the worlds we build, it only works when there’s room for wonder.