Sounds like you have issues with your designer that you should probably try to resolve with him. If you feel your designer isn't doing anything then I'd recommend you talk to him about it rather than brood and sulk. Or maybe talk to his manager.

Either that or else you're ill-informed and need to learn what a game designer really does.

Also of note, game designers seldom make large sums of money; they're generally on par with anyone else on the team.

Charles Galyon

[edited by - CGalyon on October 1, 2003 1:50:30 AM]

geez, i wanna be a designer now!

(notice, i only have expiriance in general application software, not games, but concept should be similar) In the company i used to work for (read: quit) the lead designer was responsable for making sure that everything worked together and was in check with the actual application design. Propositions for inclusions went through the leads of various fields, and were brought to the designer for review before inclusion. The designer also had to go between the different groups, and create and maintain active design documentation, release memos, and make sure everything "fit" as planned. The designer was also responsable for releasing weekly (dayly during crunch time) progress notifications.

quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
Actually, no, in my professional development experience designers do none of the above things. Someone else often comes up with the idea, and the designer has to turn it into a game. The designer doesn''t dictate how the code will be architected, nor does he determine what textures will be needed: lead programmers and lead artists do that.

This is proof that the ''game designer'' position is a fictional one; it''s a catch-all term that means very little in itself. At one company, a designer is more like a producer, at another company they''re the ones who build the maps, and at a third company they might write the skeleton of a code interface and leave the details to the programming team. I think that ''game design'' is actually quite removed from being the ''game designers job''. Game design for the purposes of this forum is, in my opinion, about the rules, ideas, and structure of a game before it hits the implementation level. But a game designing position may involve a lot more.



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