Hi, my name is Alexander Mishulin, I work as a creative director at the Allods Team, a division of Mail.Ru Group, which develops client games. The term "creative director" can hide a lot. In my case, this is a guide to the direction of game design in the Allods Team, first of all on the Skyforge project. Quite often we are asked the questions “What is a game designer?”, “How to become one?”, “What do you expect from a candidate for designers?”, And today I would like to answer some of these questions and tell about this profession.

What is a game designer and what does he do?

The term "designer" can hide various professions, so first we will talk about what exactly game designers do. The best definition I know sounds rather arrogant: these are the people who make the game a game. In fact, this is the case: the designer is responsible for ensuring that the player is interested in interacting with the product. He invents the rules of the game, the tasks of the player and the methods for solving them, together with the writers describes the world in which the action takes place, and does much more. Designers can work at a very high level of abstraction, creating a general system of rules, and perform tasks on the final assembly of the product (for example, working out a specific location in which something will happen, and filling it with helpers and opponents, obstacles and awards).


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When developing a game, we divide it into large elements (we call them features, from the English feature). We try to entrust each of these elements to one specific designer. How it works? Let's look at the example of our current project.

A rather large element in Skyforge can be one class. At the beginning of work we meet with the designer and discuss what is expected from the class, what role in the game he will play, what will be different from other classes, what is his archetype, what we will take examples and references from other products of the entertainment industry (movies, TV shows). , games, books, and so on). Any archetype has its own group of fans - players who only choose it from project to project. Take for example the paladin. In different projects, it may be called differently, but the set of abilities in this class will be quite similar. For example, players expect a paladin to have abilities aimed at protecting themselves and allies. The designer collects the expected features together, but if you just use the archetype, you get a “usual paladin”. We need our hero to be and look like other paladins, and have a noticeable difference that still needs to be invented. But at the same time it is impossible to cross a certain line and give him the ability to destroy the image; for example, a paladin cannot invoke undead to its aid. From all this you need to collect not only the characteristic image, but also the gameplay - to make the class playable. Find which abilities will be used and in which situation, which will be rarely used, and which often, make sure that the class performs all the expected actions from it (for example, it can kill groups of simple opponents and one strong). Thus, the designer develops his vision, which is then agreed upon. This is what can be called the first part of a class design.

The designer comes to the artists of the project and tells them about his vision of the class, what it should be, what abilities it should have, how it imagines them. Artists are preparing the concept of class and its abilities. At the same stage, it is discussed that from the proposed ideas it has difficulties in technical implementation or it will not look interesting graphically, there are trade-offs.

The designer makes the draft assembly class. As long as it contains only mechanics (the way spells and abilities work) and minimal visualization. We play it and say: here it did not succeed, but here, on the contrary, it’s excellent, let's do more of this and less of it. The process is repeated several times, and we get the class that is being played. After that (and sometimes in parallel with this), the work of other departments, which prepare the necessary components (models, animations, effects, sounds), takes place.

The designer does the second major part of the class design - calculates all the abilities: how much they should do damage, how long to last, how long to apply, to meet the requirements and be in balance with the other classes. In addition, a “build” is created - various add-ons such as talents, additional spells to choose a player, and so on. This is done so that the class can be developed in different directions and users can customize it for themselves. All this also needs to be collected and calculated.

The class is going to clean, all the components received from other departments are connected to it, after which all of this gets into the game with all the design, sound, special interfaces and other elements. All this time, the designer plays in his creation: checks not only the performance, but also how the final design works in game conditions. The effect may be too bright, and the animation - a little long; Somewhere you have to improve the ability to make it easier to use in the game. There is a setting, the class is "polished", it becomes more comfortable. A playtest is held, where all the staff in the project play as a class and give their comments. The designer finds with their help what needs to be corrected and sends it to work. This process is iterative, it requires a lot of improvements that are made in various departments, they need to be negotiated. At the same time, it is important to understand when the work will be completed, so that the class at its best can get into the game at the right time. Since the designer constantly works with the class, he knows who does what for the class, what state the works are in and when, according to his estimates, the feature will get into the game. When the class was in the game in finished form, there comes a joyful moment of the realization that the vision, which existed only in ideas and was represented as a set of references, was embodied, they were played and they enjoyed it.

They come to the designer to tell how cool it was to do something, and where else I would like to modify it a bit. As a result, the designer knows not only how to play the class, but also what are his brightest moments. Throughout the development, the element remains assigned to the designer, who leads it and, if necessary, polishes it during the project. In essence, a designer is a classroom information center that can be requested at any time during a project. And yes, this whole example was a bit simplified: I threw out some of the tasks and approvals from this already long story.

The example I have cited concerns combat mechanics designers. For designers of another major gaming system or location, the story is about the same. Designers are united by two features: the initial vision of how the game element should be implemented, and the responsibility for the selected part of the project. For managers, this is also very convenient - all information on the feature is held by a specific person, which means that you can rightfully approach him at any time and ask: “What about this?”. And, if a specialist is good, he will tell what is happening now and what will happen in the future with the element for which he is responsible, how he is going to change it, and so on. There are people who, many times, even in their free time, recycle, finish their part of the work simply because they want to achieve the perfect result. Within the framework of the initial agreements (which ensure the docking of the game elements with each other), we give the specialist complete freedom of expression, so that he tries different options, chooses what best suits the project and likes it more.



This is just one of the approaches to the organization of game design. I came across options when a tougher task is put: specific details of the game element are described in detail, and the person works with it. The project turns out to be the embodiment of the ideas of a small group of people, with a low degree of independence within the studio. Especially Asian game developers are famous for this. This has its pluses and minuses. This requires a slightly different mentality and a different training of specialists, but the option itself is quite viable.

Summing up, the ideal game designer is a person who can take responsibility for a large game element, make it interesting, fun, exciting. The designer must be responsible for any work related to the interactivity of the game, with the construction of the interaction between the game and the user. Calculations and the creation of mechanics, holding a playtest, the psychology of the player, the elements of screenwriting are all elements of game design. On the other hand, the development of the project is a team matter, therefore a considerable part of the work is devoted to communicating and communicating one's point of view to other people. Therefore, the designer should be developed and communication skills.

How do we select game designers?

Based on the above, there is a set of qualities that we appreciate in a potential employee. It:

• Communicativeness - we try to recruit active people who can speak well, convey a thought, and present it in detail from A to Z, capable of promoting a common vision.
• Game erudition - a person should know how different games are arranged, what solutions were used, what is happening in the industry, what are the latest trends. With a rich gaming experience, he accumulates knowledge about the solutions used to solve various tasks in different projects. As a result, when faced with a similar problem on a current project, a person will imagine how to approach it and what the consequences will be from a particular decision. The same is true in the opposite direction: if a new idea appeared for the current game, you can imagine how it would look in an already released project of the same genre and see how good it is and where its weaknesses are.
• Skills peculiar to the specialization - it all depends on what position the applicant claims. If a person specializes in role-playing systems, in combat, he needs to be able to count well, to understand how probabilities work. If a person wants to work on creating locations - he needs to understand how locations are built in different games, what approaches are used, how to convey this or that feeling from an open or closed location ... and so on in all specialties
• Analytical skills - the designer needs to understand why he makes this or that decision, what consequences he will have, why this or that game element, what is its place in the overall picture.
• Psychology - the designer is very important to understand the psychology of the player, what is important for him and how he will behave in different situations
• A vision - designers should not lock themselves on games. The computer games industry is part of the entertainment industry, where we all compete for the same resource, free time. A person will choose what gives him the most vivid impressions. So, we need to know what impressions our competitors offer, be it movies or books, tourism or sports. Moreover, only a small part of the games are so abstract that they are not based on our reality, which means that the designer needs to understand how this or that element works on our world, on which a certain fragment of the game is based. Therefore, the designer should know a little bit, see or study the most diverse disciplines. Literature, geography, biology, philosophy, physics, history — everything can be useful.

It becomes clear that we are looking for a sort of hybrid between the techie and the humanities, and they are quite rare.

During the selection of employees for the position of designer, we first give candidates test items. The task is related to the intended specialty: we ask mission designers to create a mission that satisfies our conditions, game designers - to critically analyze one of the projects (we would not mind asking us to make a little indie game, but this looks too cruel) . This task is written, with its help we try to find out how a person expresses his thought, how logical and competently he can write everything. We also ask you to indicate what the person played in, to provide a kind of portfolio of projects on which the person can rely in making decisions on design issues. Each work sent to us is evaluated by a group of experts, and if this stage is passed, then we invite a person for an oral conversation.

At the interview, we ask several groups of questions. First, we look at how a person defends his opinion: we deliberately argue, defend points of view that we don’t usually hold, sometimes even those that we consider wrong to see how a person will oppose in a conversation, to defend his opinion, how easy it is he changes his position. After all, when working in a team, it is necessary to promote your vision, and obstacles will constantly arise. We need to somehow make sure that a person can communicate his point of view and argue it.

Secondly, there are questions that we cannot verify in writing, for example, related to mathematics, to the theory of probability. We need to understand how the candidate will approach such tasks, what will he do if he faces difficulties. This group also includes questions aimed at the knowledge of the gaming industry and to test fantasy.

Almost always in the interview process, we discuss any game from those that are in the list specified in the written task. This is usually a game that the candidate has played for a long time. We want to understand how deeply a person has figured out his favorite game, what impression he has of the product, and whether he can decompose it into parts. We are trying to find answers to questions like “Can a candidate find flaws in a favorite product or perceives him as an ideal that cannot be done better?”, “Can you make good decisions from a game?”, “Does it understand that it is valuable for a game? and what can be easily discarded? ” It is important for us that a person has a knowledge base on projects and platforms, that he is well versed in game genres and inherent features, and is guided in the trends of the gaming industry - for example, he understands why Gravity Gun is not as relevant now as it was 10 years backwards

At the meeting, there are always two full-time designers; after it we develop our common opinion about the person. If everything is good, then we invite the candidate for an interview with the project manager, who is not connected with the profession, but with the specifics of working in the company and in the team.

To summarize: we test the candidate’s ability to logically formulate his thoughts orally, explain and comment well on his point of view, check his abilities for constructive criticism and logical thinking, as well as knowledge of the industry. At the same time, as you may have noticed, we do not test his skills and experience. There is a simple reason for this: currently there are few game designers, they are almost never taught, there are very few educated specialists on the market, so we initially assume that the candidate has little or no skills at all, and we will have to teach him. In addition, a new employee will still have to train our work processes and our tools.

What to expect in the studio?

Every employee who comes to us receives a mentor. An experienced specialist is attached to him who will teach him: how to use the tools, what is right and what is wrong, how to do it, what is our point of view on this issue. But first of all we plant a person to play our current project - the employee gets acquainted with what he will have to work on, and we get a fresh look at our work.



Of course, we will not let the novice develop the game class right away. Rather, he will receive small preparatory tasks, then - something more, for example, to make an entire monster with all abilities. This is a small task, but, nevertheless, it is a finished work - a monster can play good or bad, be interesting or boring. Gradually, from such trivialities we move on to larger tasks, but at the same time we always try to ensure that the output is exactly the finished part of the project, and not an abstract “to the table” design.



Doing task after task, the employee meets the whole team. There are almost no tasks in game development that can be done alone: ​​somewhere you have to ask the senior colleagues of the council, go somewhere to the neighboring department and agree on implementation details. Communicating with colleagues, the designer will gradually start earning a reputation for himself, which later will allow him to more easily agree and convey his point of view on the vision of a particular game element.

Gradually (and, sometimes, immediately) a person begins to have ideas on how to make the project more interesting. We have enough free order, and if there are any suggestions, then any designer can come to me or to his boss and say: "Let's do this ...". And then everything depends on the idea itself. If she is good, then she can come true, sometimes even quite quickly. And if the idea is bad, then we will say that it is bad and we will try to explain why. Of course, like any idea, it can lead to another idea that turns out to be much more appropriate to the project.

Self-education for the designer

As in any profession, in the design of games, self-education plays a big role. For myself, I divide the game design literature into three large blocks:

1. For newbies. There is a lot of literature for beginners, especially fundamental works are used in education in the West. But at the same time, almost all such books are built on the same template and tell about the same parts of the discipline. From books I can recommend one of:
   a. Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design,
   b. Fundamentals of Game Design by Ernest Adams,
   c. Game Architecture and Design: A New Edition by Andrew Rollings.
   The latter has long been a textbook in several study programs in the USA.
2. Average level. This literature, unfortunately, is not enough. A lot of books claim to be the average level, but in fact they either roll into theorizing, or into the initial level. From a good average level I can name:
   a. The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses by Jesse Schell. The book presents 100 points of view on the project, each of which allows you to think about whether we have not forgotten about a certain aspect in the development or design. By the book, you can even buy a deck of cards (or, in the book's metaphor, a set of lenses), each of which reflects one of the points of view. You can get one every day and make sure that you have not forgotten about it.
   b. You can also call the book Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster, which reflects the author’s unique view of how the games are organized. In short, the basic idea is this: the game ends when the fan ends, and the fan ends when the person has learned everything about the game. The method of presenting information in the book is rather strange, but funny (many comics and illustrations). It seems to me that it was possible to present such material more briefly, but such was the will of the author, it is still worth reading.
3. Hardcore Such literature addresses questions of psychology and perception, there is little talk about game mechanics, mathematics, and applied elements. Immediately I can name only one such book - Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals by Katie Salen Tekinbas (Author), Eric Zimmerman. This is a giant Talmud, it is very difficult to read it precisely because it is devoted to theoretical issues. An even thicker book, The Game Design Reader, Anthology by Katie Salen Tekinbas (Editor), Eric Zimmerman, was published separately to him soon. In fact, these are 32 essays by well-known game designers, who comment on ideas expressed in the Rules of Play, and at times argue with the opinions of the authors. But, nevertheless, this is what can be called a high-level design of games, theorizing, a look at the industry and genres in general. Applied information has to be collected mainly on blogs and forums.
4. Gamasutra should be singled out from online resources — an excellent resource that consistently publishes a lot of information, both theoretical and applied, in any areas of game development, including game design. The main problem - you need to have sufficient skills to filter readable. For example, there may be two articles with similar innocent titles, but with different content. The first tells how "I was offended by the RPG and I will now prove many times that it is impossible to do RPGs and their time has passed," and the second is "Which mechanics in RPG reject players and which are perceived normally." It is difficult to divide such articles, because for this you need to have your own point of view and a sufficient amount of knowledge, but you can find many useful tips in good articles.

At last

People often ask: what is the most important thing for a designer? In my opinion, the answer for each experienced specialist will be his. For me, the most important thing is the outlook, the range of knowledge that you can operate with. Of course, it requires a certain basis, fundamental knowledge of the design of games, but they can be taught, as well as the ability to calculate the game mechanics. You can even teach a person to communicate properly. The horizon is typed over the years, and this concerns not only knowledge in the field of games, this concerns everything that surrounds us. Watch movies, read books, go to theaters or museums, go on a trip or go to a sporting event; in no case dwell only on one thing. It is the breadth of your knowledge that will help to understand what is valuable for various people, why they spend their time on this or that entertainment, and this, in turn, will allow you to repeat it in your project and make it interesting for the widest possible audience.

On this I would like to finish. If you have any questions or want to clarify something that I told you about - I ask you in the comments, I will try to answer.