In this article I will be going over the following:
The dictionary definition of a game designer is a person that designs the rules, art direction, and contents of a game from beginning to end in the development life-cycle.
In a sense, if something is in the game, the game designer must sign off on it.
My personal definition of a game designer however is a person that crafts experiences.
I like to think of game design as a partner dance.
It could be any type of partner dance; such as bachata, salsa, lindy hop, or even west coast swing.
In a partner dance, it’s you and someone else, in many cases it will be a leader and a follower.
You, the game designer, are the leader, while the person playing your game is the follower.
One thing to note is that all followers are unique, and what I mean by that is that no two followers are the same.
In a sense, no two players are the same.
While you are dancing your dance, you must adjust yourself constantly throughout the dance, for the sake of your follower.
You must dance in a way that your follower is comfortable with.
If your follower tells you through body language you are doing too little, then do more.
If your follower tells you through body language that you are doing too much, then pull back.
But at the end of the dance, you will be judged.
You will be judged on a scale between 1-10.
If you get a score of 10, the follower will ask you to dance immediately to the next song.
If you get a 0, the follower will never want to dance with you again, and reject any attempts you may have on getting a second dance with them.
It’s tough, but that is your job as a game designer, to craft and design experiences that your players will love.
Game designers have many responsibilities. Besides understanding level, combat, and artificial intelligence design,
I believe a general understanding of the following will aid you in your game design journey.
Psychology is the study of the individual mind and behaviour.
Game design has a lot to do with human psychology, becasue a human individual will be playing your game.
The one aspect of psychology you need to understand is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Anthropology is the study of humanity in both the past and the present.
Similar to pshychology, it differs in that it cares more about behaviours of groups of people based on their location and time in history.
For example, Americans of today (2021) do not behave the same as Americans of 1867.
Your game may have stories.
It will do you well to understand the basics of storytelling and fiction.
Your game may take place in a world.
Their are different ways of going about creating unique worlds that may intrigue players.
Some games are based on time periods.
One such recent game is Ghost of Tsushima.
If you are planning on making a game based on events of the past, it will serve you well to at least study about it’s history.
History and Anthropology go great together.
Level design is at its core based around the ideas of space and objects.
Learning about Architecture will aid you when it comes to level design.
Sometimes you may have to deal with the business side of things when it comes to game design.
You will be in charge of people and dealing with management at the same time.
It’s a juggling act when it comes to balancing the artistic side of game design and the budgeting of making a game.
Game design is all about collaboration, and collaboration is all about knowing how to talk to people.
Sometime, being a game designer is learning to listen.
Artist get stressful, and learning how to handle that through careful consideration of words may help you bring down tensions.
Your game may possibly have art in them.
Learning how to get from sketches to a computer will speed up the art development pipeline for games.
In conjunction with art, learning the process of animation will help when coordinating tasks between an artist and programmers.
Your game may have music.
Knowing how to express your wants and needs when it comes to music will help when coordinating with music and sound designers.
Game design is all about iteration.
Learning about usability testing will help you build the best possible game.
Learning how to code the basics will help you understand the issues programmers face while also understanding the technical limitations of your game design choices.
Here are the following hats that may add you in game development
World building is a complex task, but with proper world building you set yourself for a higher chance of success.
Game development is all about proper budgeting and planning.
Learning about business will aid you on making the best possible move in a room full of the worst choices.
In game development it is crucial that you are able to communicate effectively your thoughts.
This is crucial especially when dealing with freelancers.
The best games are ones that have some sort of usability testing strategy.
As a game developer you are tasked with building the best game possible while keeping within budget.
Game programming is what brings game to life.
If you are a solo developer, I would strongly suggest you learn to program as the more you know, the more game design choices you are able to bring to life.
Now, the goal of a game designer is quite simple in theory.
It’s your job to determine the goals and vision of a game while simultaneously making sure that you don’t stray away from your goals and vision during the process of the game development life-cycle.
The problem is, unlike partner dance where feedback is immediately given back to you, in game design, you can only get feedback until after you have a tangible object in which your players can play with.
Basically, you need to build your toy out first.
This leads to several problems.
First, since you cannot test out your game ideas until you have a tangible product in your hand, you need to allocate resources to building your game.
If you are a solo developer, this would mean dedicating your time, and even money, to building out your first tangible prototype.
However, as with most plans, the first one usually never works out, so you must iterate.
The more you iterate, the more time and money you spend.
The more time and money you spend, the faster you run out of budget.
This leads to a very serious problem, and that is game design may lead to cost overrun, also referred to as budget overrun.
However, there is a solution that aids in avoiding this.
The solution is simple.
That is to understand the planning and procedures of game development along with using game design techniques to aid in building and iterating games cheaply.
Understanding game development and game design only mitigate failure, and does not guarantee success.
From here on out, we will go over things that fall into one of these categories.
Starting from the basics of games and game systems, all the way to planning out worlds and stories.
Lastly, this series is made with the intention of inspiring, sharing knowledge, and breaking down barriers of entry.
They are made simply to guide, not to tell you how to do things.
Lastly, game design is a choice that only you can sign off on.
So follow your heart and your gut.
If something sounds wrong to you, then it most likely is.
I want you to think of a game you want to make, and then pick an existing game that is close to the scope or quality you want to make.
Then I want you to research who the game director of that game is (basically the singular person who took credit), the amount of people that worked on that game (both freelancer and employees), and the length of time it took for them to make that game.
In addition, if you pick a game made by a solo developer, or an indie team (company or group of less than 10 people), then I want you to research more personal information such as living and financial conditions.
After, contemplate on how you can achieve the same thing.
This homework assignment is not to judge, but to showcase that some games you may want to build may have more to it than meets the eye.
I will do a homework assignment as an example, but I will tell you the takeaway of it right now.
It’s that if you currently have a job; then keep your job. Don’t quit for the sake of making a game.
I’ve heard, read, and talked with people on some regrets of making games. One of them is quitting their jobs to pursue creating a game, because they heard that someone else made riches without understanding how or why that was.
Here is an example homework, and I chose Stardew Valley, solo developer named Eric Barone.
My source of reference is the book called Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier, which by the way is a great book, and I highly recommend you buy it.
It’s an eye-opener.
Stardew Valley is a game made from 2011 through 2016. The creator Eric lived with parents for what seems like one year, then moved out and lived with his girlfriend who supported him by taking care of rent and food . This was achieved by working two jobs while simultaneously going to undergraduate school. After graduation in 2014, she was able to support Eric with a better job.
Eric would spend about 12 to 15 hours a day, 9 hours of sleep time, seven days a week.
Eric did not hire anybody, neither employees nor freelancers, to create Stardew Valley.
Eric got a deal with Chucklefish in late 2012 as a publisher, who handled all legal aspects of the game (and much more).
Basically, Eric did not have to pay money out-of-pocket to legally protect everything to do with Stardew Valley along with marketing costs and PR.
Towards the end, Eric started getting lazy, some days refusing to work.
So a few takeaways for me, with a full-time job I don’t have 12 to 15 hours a day.
Since I am the breadwinner, I don’t have the luxury of stopping.
Perhaps even more so if I had children.
However, a few ideas on possible solutions come to mind, one being finding a partner, or multiple partners.
Perhaps finding employees or freelancers to add extra hours that I cannot give.
Perhaps finding a publisher or bank that will loan money upfront.
Even if I work on it alone, perhaps I should expect production time to be 10 years instead of 5 years.