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Original post by Palidine Quote: Original post by RaydenUni Now to find companies who are looking for designers who want to design mechanics, not script encounters. You will probably never find those companies; that's almost never an entry level design position. Generally mechanic design is "Senior Systems Designer" or "Lead Designer" and it comes after 2-5 years as "Level Designer" where you build maps and script encounters. -me

That's why this one position looked so perfect. I don't think I'm great at, nor do I want to, be a level designer. Designing levels and designing mechanics are two entirely different things.

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Original post by RaydenUni Sounds good. It just made me sad that my lack of experience in creative design prevented me from getting a job that was described to me as a job for someone with a tech background and no design experience. Now to find companies who are looking for designers who want to design mechanics, not script encounters.

They may not require design experience, but if you want to design, you're going to need creativity.

To come at it from another angle - designing mechanics is not a full-time job. I could - and have - designed entire combat systems in a day, and tweaked their balance in a second day. I could then spend the rest of the week implementing them in script.

What would I do for the remaining 6 to 24 months of the development cycle? I expect a lot of that would be doing what the other designers do, eg. creating content, fleshing out back-story, working on general aesthetics, etc. Design is inherently creative and while I think programmers are generally at an advantage as people who are used to abstract thinking and the creation of something from nothing, you can't get away without having the creative aspects.