Original post by TheBuzzSaw Are there any well known game designers who are not programmers?
Sid Meier, Will Wright, Ken Levine...
I'm pretty sure that both Sid Meier and Will Wright started out as programmer/designers (that is, they were the sole/main programmer on their first games). Not sure about Ken Levine.
Levine's just a writer AFAIK, not a techie.
I thought that Wright had done programming for his first game, Raid on Bungeling Bay, but couldn't find any evidence to support that claim. IMDB credits him with almost every role but programming. Same goes for Meier.
Seeing how things work and putting it into practise I think are two different things.
For an example, a GM in a MMO, alot of players will look say, well ive been playing this game for 5 years I know everything and I could do a better job then the current GMs, when actually given the role they can do very poorly at it, resorting to cheats and the like, since they usually think they are to smart to be caught.
You can say you could design a better game, but until you have done it there is no reason for anyone to believe you and to take a chance with your idea's
And once you have done it, then getting even failed idea's published is then very possible.
So stick with indie for now get a game or two published, then you can look at approaching a studio and convince them to create to create your other idea's.
