Who is a game designer?

Starting a series of articles on game design, first of all it is necessary to find out what it is and who are these game designers?

Game design is a set of solutions that define what a game should be. You have to make these decisions, and they can touch anything.
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What do you need to start inventing your game? You can assume that these are the skills of using engines, such as the Unreal Engine or Unity, can be knowledge of programming languages ​​and scripting or years of experience?

No, just go to the mirror and you will see all you need - head and hands! With the help of the first you can come up with any idea and tell other people about it, and with the help of the second you can write down your thoughts. It’s difficult to hold everything in your head at once, so be sure to write down every little thing that comes into your head, and then start working with it. It will also help you to tell other people about your concepts in the right way.



What about technical skills, you ask? Many games can be created even without them: card games, board games, text adventures! It’s not necessary to start your journey with Minecraft, the main thing is to start. But even creating a game on platforms such as PC or iOS, you do not need to know every little detail. In order to make the right decisions, the main thing is to present about each region as a whole. After all, the game designer is the most versatile profession in the gaming industry. We'll have to learn about everything a little.

Someone thinks that a game designer is someone who comes up with a story for the game. No, it is not. You and I must come up with not only a story, although sometimes it too, but every detail: rules, tasks, how the game looks, how it feels, the pace of gameplay, rewards, punishments and everything else that the player will have to face during his adventure .



Those. should a game designer come up with all this, write down and enjoy the result? Unfortunately, it never works that easily. Our region is the most unpredictable of all. No one can imagine how this or that idea will look like in its final form. How does she fit into the game? What will the player feel? How will the balance change? There are dozens of things that can go wrong, as you expected, you have to change your idea, adapt it to the game, or even adapt the whole game to a single idea!

Of course, the more experienced you become, the easier it is to predict what you end up with. But even those who have many years of work behind their shoulders can also make mistakes and will make mistakes so that, thanks to mistakes, come up with something even better and more interesting. Thus, you will not be bored. Even when everything seems to be ready, you need to balance this and “put it all together, creating continuous and exciting impressions for the player.

When the product is on the market, the work is still not finished, because you need to analyze how your game behaves, maybe something can be corrected and supplemented? Why do players leave it? Why do they buy this thing, but do not buy another? We will have to answer these questions with you, and after that we will localize and fix all the problems found.



So how can you become a game designer? After all, you just graduated from university, and maybe still studying? The first thing that will help you is the analysis of other games. You need to understand on a subconscious level what works well and makes your creation better and what can hurt.

So, let's say you played an innumerable number of games and understand how everything works? Then immediately try to create something of your own! Before looking for a job, you need at least to try. Before you are endless spaces:

• Read books about game design - however, this may require knowledge of English, because all the good literature is on it
• Write concepts, show your friends, put on sites, listen to someone else's opinion
• Think about how you can improve existing games, write about it on the forums, chat with the community
• Create mods for popular games, write stories and make them come to life. Skyrim will help you here first.
• Try to understand any engine and make it the simplest game, although this is not an easy task and not everyone can do it. Do not despair, someone better succeeds theoretical design - this is in the order of things
• Examples of complex engines, but they are mainly employed in companies: Unity, Unreal Engine, Cry Engine
• Examples of simpler engines for singles: RPG maker, Game Maker Studio

• Try to create your own text adventure, for example, on the Quest5 or ADRIFT engine.
• Create board and card games, play them with friends
• Create balance systems for nonexistent games in Excel, maybe balance is your vocation? In any case, these skills will definitely come in handy!
• Yes, at least go to the same Game Developer Conference and listen to various speakers, for beginners information may be useful

In addition to developing skills, everything that you can show to others will definitely help you when applying for a job. Even a cardboard board game. How to find a job? After all, you want to make games? Get settled by anyone! Tester, community manager, junior game designer, the main thing to get into the industry and develop.



What do you think younger game designers are doing? As a rule, this is a routine job of adding information to configs or databases, editing errors, the simplest level design, and many other not the most exciting work. However, this is a start. And most importantly - start.

What skills can a game designer need to create a game?

• Animation - you have to imagine what you expect from the characters, how they should move, how your design can use these features.
• Audience - you have to imagine who will play your game and what they expect from it, the most important thing is to meet these expectations
• Architecture - yes, yes, creating whole cities and worlds, you will have to be inspired by world architecture to make your locations look real and alive.
• “Brainstorm” - it’s difficult to translate these expressions (STORM OF THE BRAIN), in fact you have to create dozens and hundreds of ideas, you need to be able to do this without limiting yourself

• Business - most games are done for the sake of money and, in order to earn this money, you need to imagine what game is worth making, especially in our “Free to Play” time
• Cinematographic - in many of them there is a special behavior of the camera and the cut-scene, you have to imagine how to improve the player’s feelings with these elements
• Communication is probably your main weapon. You have to talk to people every day, every hour, every minute. Correctly explain your thoughts to the whole team - this is very important
• Scenario - not all projects have scriptwriters and, often, a game designer fulfills this role.
• Economy - in many modern games a very difficult resource economy and you have to count on it and create balance systems
• History - often the games tell about certain periods in the history of mankind, and knowledge of different eras can greatly help you
• Management - for a team to achieve good results, it always requires good management. Designers can excel in this area, helping to organize work
• Mathematics - to balance any game, you will need certain knowledge of mathematics. The better you feel in this area, the easier it will be for you
• Music, sound - a good soundtrack and soundtrack can make even not the best game a masterpiece, creating an atmosphere and immersing the player in events happening around
• Psychology - you need to make people happy, and for this you need to understand how they think and what they want
• Public speaking - yes, not everyone likes to speak to the public, but the game designer often has to do it: to tell about new ideas, to present a concept, to explain to engineers how this or that thing works
• Technical documentation - the ability to create accurate instructions for programmers and artists will help you a lot. After admitting the slightest misunderstanding, you can get a completely different result.

And, of course, the main skill is the ability to listen. You have to listen to many: your team, audience, game, yourself.

• It is unlikely that you have all the skills listed above. However, your team most likely has them all. The ability to listen to your colleagues and make the right decisions will help you greatly
• The audience is the people who will play your game. If they are unhappy, then you have failed. You should know better than themselves what they want
• The game - just carefully watching the development of the game, you will understand what went wrong, and you can fix it at the right time.
• Listen to yourself - often when you develop a game in a limited time, you do not have time to listen to your own inner voice, and when you realize that something is done wrong, it is too late

So we figured out how a good game designer should look. Someone gets it easy, someone will have to work hard, but the work is always rewarded, and if you try and develop, then you will succeed. Wait for the continuation!