You might be already doing it, but modding existing games is pretty easy and can get you noticed.

For example, the mods on HalfLife like Counter-Strike as an obvious example. Other less obvious examples would be Oscuros Oblivion Overhaul for Oblivion, which got the creator a lot of attention, he was even interviewed by a games magazine and had his interview and mod linked on a Bethesda blog.

Modding requires very little programming experience if any. But you'd have to learn to use their SDK, which shouldn't be that difficult.

Why not get Skyrim and the Construction Set and start making some Skyrim mods?

Scale and ability at the moment. I am working on one of my own game designs (prototyping at the moment). A lot of the ideas I don't have the capability of implementing by myself at the moment. This wasn't a question of "what should I do?" it was about how can a game designer showcase his game design ability.

To showcase your game design ability, you need to do a project from start to finish. Then use the game to showcase your design ability.

You need to run a project from start to finish, and produce a game because Game Design is an iterative process. As a Game Designer, your skill is to be able to output useful design at all stages of production, not just at the start. Without a track record of producing a game from start to finish, no one knows how good of a Game Designer you are at, for example, the very last stage of production.

Working within constraints is also a vital Game Design skill. You need to showcase that you are able to make use of limited resources (current programming skills), to produce a fun game. When you join an indie or even commercial team, you're not going to get unlimited resources to produce your design. This will show that you are resourceful and is able to design in a practical, constrained environment.

I would personally suggest that you design a very simple flash game, code it (flash actionscript can be picked up in a few days via online tutorials), then upload it to Newgrounds or Kongregate.

To showcase your game design ability, you need to do a project from start to finish. Then use the game to showcase your design ability.

I am working on a game that I have designed, as I said at the moment it's in the prototype stage, but I will finish it and get it distributed somewhere. While I'm doing that, I'm studying to improve my ability with a new language. If I can I'll move on to one of my more advanced ideas, if I can't handle those I'll design something which I can produce at the time.

I am working on a game that I have designed, as I said at the moment it's in the prototype stage, but I will finish it and get it distributed somewhere. While I'm doing that, I'm studying to improve my ability with a new language. If I can I'll move on to one of my more advanced ideas, if I can't handle those I'll design something which I can produce at the time.

Sweet. I look forward to playing your game. Good luck!

A thought just occurred to me:

It is almost always the case that a game developer, or indie team, is full of ideas that they want to realize but requires a lot of programming work. However, it is almost never the case that there are excess software lying around waiting for game design ideas. The bottleneck is always the programming.

E.g. We hardly see people asking: "I programmed a 3D MMORPG engine and its ready to launch but I don't have a game for it. can anyone please help design an MMORPG for us?". On the other hand, there are a million people asking: "I have these fantastic ideas for an MMORPG, can anyone program a 3D MMORPG engine for it?".

In my humble opinion, because of the forces of supply and demand, pure game designers will have an incredibly hard time, especially in indie game development where everyone is resource strapped. In other words, there is simply little demand for pure game designers.

let's form a team dude..

most schools in the field of game design look for a portfolio of both freehand and computer generated artwork, as well as experience.

It is almost always the case that a game developer, or indie team, is full of ideas that they want to realize but requires a lot of programming work. However, it is almost never the case that there are excess software lying around waiting for game design ideas. The bottleneck is always the programming.

E.g. We probably hardly see people asking: "I programmed a 3D MMORPG engine and its ready to launch but I don't have a game for it. can anyone please help design an MMORPG for us?". On the other hand, there are a million people asking: "I have these fantastic ideas for an MMORPG, can anyone program a 3D MMORPG engine for it?".

I would say that the bottleneck is usually programming, occasionally artwork. I think that you do get people looking for teams to join - in all roles. Programmers and Artists looking for a project to work on to further their experience, or to widen their expertise. For a designer, this would mean effectively acting as a project manager (I would expect this to be true of most people looking to work as a dedicated designer) - having a GDD, and gathering these people looking for a project, to work on your project collaboratively.

I agree that this is rarer than the usual case of programmers making their own engines/games based on their own ideas. But I don't think it's impossible.

The only proof i would see that you would need to show is that your great at "designing" for example if you would like to use my services of helping you "design" a plan to achieve the goal of starting a group without knowing how to program I could assist with that and use my judgement to determine if i think you would be a great game designer and could go from there. I have a few solutions but want to see if I ask you the right questions if you can see a way around it yourself. It basically boils down almost like a craft to be able to ask the right questions or to ask them the right way to find out an answer that an extremely low percentage of people can do good. Hope that makes sense not hear to say i'm better then anybody by any means i just have a different branch of the tree of intelligence that outweighs the other branches

I recommend reading this
http://newcdn.flamehaus.com/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf (especially page 40). It's Valve's internal New Employees handbook. Definitely not a standard industry appoach to things (but maybe that's why they are so profitable as a company).

I recommend reading this
http://newcdn.flameh...book_LowRes.pdf (especially page 40). It's Valve's internal New Employees handbook. Definitely not a standard industry appoach to things (but maybe that's why they are so profitable as a company).

Heh, already read it. It definitely sounds like a great place to be working.