The Game Industry Part 2: The Designer
Greetings,
Since I’ve received lots of feedback (none) on my previous Games Industry article, and that Liar begged me to give another go at this column (statement entirely made up) I decided to see if I could tackle another subject. Yes, I’m still French, so I will blame someone else if lots of spelling errors exist in this text.
In a personal matter that ties in to my next subject, after several arduous battles where men, animals, deities and some apricots were slain in the process, I have finally attained the job of Games Designer in early November; henceforth, the reason why this is today’s topic: The Game Industry Part 2: The Designer.
After bashing my head on concrete walls for a couple of seconds, I’ve decided to simply stay close to the format of my earlier article (as well as the fact that bashing your skull on solid material is really not that great of an idea to begin with.) Also, professional websites such as Gamasutra exists, and I do not intend to be as informative as them, but… I thought I’d give it a more humane approach. As well… I guess I can always be found on #starmen or the forums for additional ranting.
So let’s tackle sentences that are still heard of...
“I want to become a designer, because I have great ideas!”
Very well done, it is quite rare to see, in the Games Industry, people who play games and have ideas; you should be proud to be one of those few gamers with actual ideas and not a gamer that never has any thoughts of games going through his mind at any moment whatsoever. This probably settles the fact that everyone has ideas. If you ask the said subject “what kind of ideas,” try to hear how many references to sandboxes and Grand Theft Auto you’ll hear. Those are at best, mods, not really ideas. I will paraphrase someone by saying “you are unique, just like everyone else.”
“I’ll work as a freelance Games script writer thingy.”
Frightening to hear, yet still…hearable, this alienates the fact that the subject may not be of planet Earth and live in a galaxy where pink unicorns rule with a fist of terror. As my teacher one said to the class: “If the Design Team wants idea, they’ll ask the freaking janitor, before asking you.” Where the teacher fails in morale boosting, he gains on the truth-telling meter. Someone on the inside will always beat you to it, not sometimes, not occasionally, but always. If you want to become a designer (as well as many other jobs in said industry,) you need a foot in the door. These are the low jobs that nobody really wants to do, like QA and such, but they work as beautiful portals to a better world.
“I also like to program too, heh, I’ll probably end up designing and programming.”
Heard that a couple of time…If your company is made of five people (with three people having a disease that causes them to randomly turn into chipmunks,) then chances are that you may be able to do both, otherwise, no. It doesn’t matter how cool you are or how energetic you want to be, the key is efficiency. Both designing and programming positions are full-time jobs; programmers make bugs, and designers omit statements, you will not be able to do both as efficiently as doing only but a single one.
“But I really do have this cool idea that doesn’t feature Master Chief or Aragorn.”
Yes, some people do have ideas or script made of gold, but a Designer is also in charge of….design. Keep in mind that you are the person that artists and programmers will ask their question to. How big is each image supposed to be? What are each of the elements found on each menus of the entire game? What happen if the player wants more profiles? Do we allow profiles? Can you do a flowchart of all the menus from start to bottom with all possibilities? Digressing, but yes, a Designing position does not mean that you’ll be tossing up new ideas all the time, depending of the company and scale of games, you may be using the ideas of yours everyday, 6 months or once every 4 years.
“Can you do a proper conclusion this time around?”
Well that is all for now; even though the subject is pretty big and that I didn’t say much, I think that I made a path for people who wishes to pursue some goal; the objective is simple, do not aim for a Designer Position, just of a ricochet job that will get you in the company beforehand….as well as making sure that you really do want to be a designer and not simply wanting to be an author.
Obviously any comments on what you’d like me to tackle could be interesting too.
Slashmire
Greetings,
Since I’ve received lots of feedback (none) on my previous Games Industry article, and that Liar begged me to give another go at this column (statement entirely made up) I decided to see if I could tackle another subject. Yes, I’m still French, so I will blame someone else if lots of spelling errors exist in this text.
In a personal matter that ties in to my next subject, after several arduous battles where men, animals, deities and some apricots were slain in the process, I have finally attained the job of Games Designer in early November; henceforth, the reason why this is today’s topic: The Game Industry Part 2: The Designer.
After bashing my head on concrete walls for a couple of seconds, I’ve decided to simply stay close to the format of my earlier article (as well as the fact that bashing your skull on solid material is really not that great of an idea to begin with.) Also, professional websites such as Gamasutra exists, and I do not intend to be as informative as them, but… I thought I’d give it a more humane approach. As well… I guess I can always be found on #starmen or the forums for additional ranting.
So let’s tackle sentences that are still heard of...
“I want to become a designer, because I have great ideas!”
Very well done, it is quite rare to see, in the Games Industry, people who play games and have ideas; you should be proud to be one of those few gamers with actual ideas and not a gamer that never has any thoughts of games going through his mind at any moment whatsoever. This probably settles the fact that everyone has ideas. If you ask the said subject “what kind of ideas,” try to hear how many references to sandboxes and Grand Theft Auto you’ll hear. Those are at best, mods, not really ideas. I will paraphrase someone by saying “you are unique, just like everyone else.”
“I’ll work as a freelance Games script writer thingy.”
Frightening to hear, yet still…hearable, this alienates the fact that the subject may not be of planet Earth and live in a galaxy where pink unicorns rule with a fist of terror. As my teacher one said to the class: “If the Design Team wants idea, they’ll ask the freaking janitor, before asking you.” Where the teacher fails in morale boosting, he gains on the truth-telling meter. Someone on the inside will always beat you to it, not sometimes, not occasionally, but always. If you want to become a designer (as well as many other jobs in said industry,) you need a foot in the door. These are the low jobs that nobody really wants to do, like QA and such, but they work as beautiful portals to a better world.
“I also like to program too, heh, I’ll probably end up designing and programming.”
Heard that a couple of time…If your company is made of five people (with three people having a disease that causes them to randomly turn into chipmunks,) then chances are that you may be able to do both, otherwise, no. It doesn’t matter how cool you are or how energetic you want to be, the key is efficiency. Both designing and programming positions are full-time jobs; programmers make bugs, and designers omit statements, you will not be able to do both as efficiently as doing only but a single one.
“But I really do have this cool idea that doesn’t feature Master Chief or Aragorn.”
Yes, some people do have ideas or script made of gold, but a Designer is also in charge of….design. Keep in mind that you are the person that artists and programmers will ask their question to. How big is each image supposed to be? What are each of the elements found on each menus of the entire game? What happen if the player wants more profiles? Do we allow profiles? Can you do a flowchart of all the menus from start to bottom with all possibilities? Digressing, but yes, a Designing position does not mean that you’ll be tossing up new ideas all the time, depending of the company and scale of games, you may be using the ideas of yours everyday, 6 months or once every 4 years.
“Can you do a proper conclusion this time around?”
Well that is all for now; even though the subject is pretty big and that I didn’t say much, I think that I made a path for people who wishes to pursue some goal; the objective is simple, do not aim for a Designer Position, just of a ricochet job that will get you in the company beforehand….as well as making sure that you really do want to be a designer and not simply wanting to be an author.
Obviously any comments on what you’d like me to tackle could be interesting too.
Slashmire
