Hey everybody. I just want to introduce myself. Right now I am a technical college student, viying to become a game designer. Now, needless to say, I did rush into a technical college with the this province of thought (Programming = Design). Now I am stuggling to obtain the skills to actually become a designer. Anyway, I have some questions posed for those with experience out there. Here they are; What does a game designer actually do? Is it REQUIRED that he/she be an artist? Does programming experience help, or does it matter? Are there any apt institutes where I can receive an education on this career choice? What kind of attitude is well suited for a game designing career? Don''t hesitate to impart with any knowledge that you have on the particular matter.

Having knowledge of programming & artistic ability does help, but is not required to be a good game designer.

Good imagination & the ability to express your ideas so that others can understand them are 2 of the key abilities of a good game designer.

Most designers will encounter scripting systems at some point in thier career, which is where programming knowledge can help out.

Having a background in the type of game you are developing really helps out. For example, if you want to design a strategy game, play alot of different strategy games out there. This includes board games as well as computer games. See if you can figure out some of the design concepts that exist in those games ( reverse-design(?) ).

Any educational requirements I should look into, or am I on my own for this one?

The main thing you will need is experience. The ability to show your design capabilities.

Now the reality side. Unless you a famous designer with a bunch of successful titles behind them, your going to need other skills.

At our company, one of the designers is also a 3d art guru and the other two designers are also programmers, maybe not able to generate a engine by themselves, but can certainly code basic 3d concepts etc.

You are going to need other skills. Alternatively, you may want to join a company in another position and move to Game design.

You should know programming, that way you dont make stupid demands on your prgrammers.

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Ever find this beachboys record at a pawn shop for 2 dollars, then you buy it, only to remember you don''t like the beachboys?

That's a good point. Being familiar with your intended technology medium allows you to design with that in mind. This keeps you from not understanding why certain great ideas are simply unnattainable right now (why can't I have photorealistic real time rendering???), and will ultimately keep you from charging into a doomed project.

The Tyr project is here.

[edited by - OctDev on October 30, 2002 8:56:52 PM]

quote: Original post by OctDev
That''s a good point. Being familiar with your intended technology medium allows you to design with that in mind. This keeps you from not understanding why certain great ideas are simply unnattainable right now (why can''t I have photorealistic real time rendering???), and will ultimately keep you from charging into a doomed project.

Yeah but the issue is technology shouldnt be a factor in design. If the term rendering comes up in a design document it would automatically be shredded at our company.

Design has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with gaming.

After the design, then there are specification and technical archecture documents. However, in these cases we''ve found it best to team the designer with the programming lead who will lead development in the next phase.

Also watch out for the gotcha clause, never let a designer code a part of his own game where he sets the deliverable. He can code bits that the Programmer lead sets but never let the designer decide whats needs to be coded.

Thinking about technology during design leads to games that are ho hum and like everything else on the market.

quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
Thinking about technology during design leads to games that are ho hum and like everything else on the market.

...or games that are actually possible to make. You have to know how far the technology can be pushed. It probably should be thought about during design, but only to keep the design realistic, not dictate the design in any way. I agree with the above post, exgept that he made it sound like knowledge of technology was worthless for a designer.


[edited by - Kugels on October 30, 2002 11:01:33 PM]

quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
Design has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with gaming.

Thinking about technology during design leads to games that are ho hum and like everything else on the market.

Those two statements are absolute rubbish (when it comes to electronic video games). You can come up with technology first and then design the game around that. There''s nothing wrong with that. Why would that necessarily lead to poor gameplay? Think of Wolfenstein. Carmack creates ray-traced pseudo 3D engine, and it opens up the possibility of creating a new type of game. You take that new technology and design a game around it. Think of Project Ego (Fable). XBox comes with a hard drive, and it opens up the possibility for lots of saved data. Molyneux uses it to design an RPG game that lives and breathes around you.

Why does thinking about technology necessarily dictate bad game design? It doesn''t. If, let''s say, a company spends most of its budget on technology and doesn''t spend good money on hiring good designers, that might lead to a bad game. But that''s the poor budgeting that is creating a bad game, not technology. Technology can allow for new types of design.

True..But I think your confusing design with specification.
Design is the structuring of a fun game.

Specification is the archectural and coding structures.
Production is the actual platform specific components being built and integrated.

Many designs never get further than design because of technology issues, market or legal issues, or just the industry isnt ready for it. But these decisions are made on a completed design, if you base your design around what you think the technology is then 99% of the time you are headed for absolute failure.

Note: If you get 30 game developers in a room, and ask them opinions you are going to get 30 different responses. Attempting to design by committee is a big NO-NO.

You may as well have the publisher design the game.