Game Designer Skills
Hola chicos!
Today I will tell you my opinion on how designers will acquire skills - what will help you to become better, and what is better to bypass. This opinion is purely subjective and formed on personal experience.
I found it, having worked 5 years in the Moscow branch of Glu Mobile (4.5 years of which - a designer) and 7 months in the company Social Point, where I continue to work at the moment. I also spoke with many people who worked in companies such as Game Insight, Crazy Panda, Game Garden, and others.
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I will clarify that I am writing my materials regarding the development of games for mobile platforms, since I worked all this time only in this area. At the same time I consider it the most suitable place for a game designer in our time.
One of the most important skills for a novice designer is to filter information that a person receives from various sources: whether they are colleagues, articles on the Internet, or books. Even if the material is worthy, it’s worth being skeptical, trying to analyze and ask “why?” Every minute.
The first and main source of knowledge should be games. If you want to become a game designer, they must become an integral part of life. At the same time, if you plan to create mobile games, then you need to play mobile games. This is one of the interesting features of the development - people working on AAA projects do not understand anything at all in free 2 play, the same is true and vice versa.
First you need to get iOS device not older than two years. How to find games worth playing? Top Grossing USA AppStore is what you need (except for the same casino and puzzle games). Also check out which games Apple chooses the best in the USA each week (this happens Thursday night on Friday). Not the fact that all games will be good, but rather only some of them. But if a hit comes out, it will definitely be there.
The second source will be reading articles and specialized sites. It is difficult to find really high-quality materials, the best sources will be deconstructoroffun and gamasutra . Also in general, about mobile games can be read on the toucharcade , pocketgamer and slidetoplay . From a business perspective, game development is reviewed at gamesindustry .
Another option is to read design books. This is quite an interesting activity if you possess the necessary level of English and are interested in the object of the narration. However, it will be very difficult to put this knowledge into practice and it is unlikely that you will ever be able to use the argument from the book as an argument during a dispute. Those. if you are interested in the subject and you have enough time, then here is a fairly high-quality selection.
The last way to get knowledge is the courses on game design, which cost a lot of money and, in my opinion, do not confirm their effectiveness. Unfortunately, in Russia, opportunities for beginning designers are much more modest than abroad. In Europe and America, every major company provides internships for designers, and there are many events where people gather and make games with each other, the so-called game jam. This is an interesting practice of interacting with people, but even here practical skills for free 2 play development will be quite difficult to obtain.
Imagine that there are 2 people who have worked for 5 years as game designers. This is a huge period and, correctly approaching the question, you can learn everything you need. One of them worked all the time at Gameloft NY, grew from intern to a leading game designer, and later got a job with us and, despite his young age, is one of the best designers in the studio.
The second of them worked at Ubisoft, Pretty Simple Games, Black Sheep Studio - in the latter he was the only designer in the company and it was there that he worked 3 years out of 5. After a long work experience, even in a bad place a person has certain skills: balancing, drawing up documentation and others. The skills of those who studied without any help will be incomparably lower, because they had no one to follow. The highest level that they saw was their own work ... But this is not the main problem. They do not understand at all how the market works, how free 2 play works and what a business is.
Example:
There is a task to analyze 2 games to choose and offer: what would you improve if you created a competitor for these games?
Game one - Hearthstone. The designer offers instead of regularly adding new content - to improve old maps, giving them a second chance for life. This is justified by the fact that people will be happy: they will return to the game and will play more in it. The reality is that if you go this way, then profits will fall and quickly enough. Instead of buying new content, players will continue to play, making up decks of improved old cards.
Even looking at the planned changes in Hearthstone, we can say that this update is being done not only to simplify the balance for developers and the experience of new players, but also to improve monetization. Developers on the contrary prohibit the use of old maps, motivating players to buy new content. Otherwise, Blizzard would have to release more and more powerful cards in new add-ons, destabilizing the game balance proportionately.
Game two - Heroes Charge. In this case, the main source of the new heroes is the gacha, i.e. a box where you can win certain heroes with a certain chance. The designer suggests simultaneously selling these heroes in the store. With his idea, he immediately kills the potential for monetization, by announcing to the player the exact value of each item, and also directly reduces the cost in the eyes of the player, because the content can be purchased at any time by paying this amount.
If the content is distributed through the wrench, then for the player it is not possible to calculate its real value. To get the desired prize, people are willing to pay much more for the chance to win than for a direct purchase. It is thanks to such mechanics that the Asian markets, such as China and Japan, first caught up with America in terms of profits, and now they are beginning to pull ahead.
Failure to understand what a game should be in order to be successful and gives rise to such ridiculous examples as Sandstorm: Pirate Wars and Pocket Mortys, if you take it from recent games.
Other factors that can form the wrong perception:
The last factor often leads people to the crooked path. Many designers consider games they like to play good games. These may be hardcore Japanese RPGs that will never (or at least in the coming years) be able to consistently perform positively in the western market. This implies the desire to design features or even the whole game for yourself, which has killed more than one project.
Remember that game development is primarily a business. You can not evaluate the game as “interesting” or “not interesting”, there are certain factors that determine success.
First of all, you need to understand what your game needs. The main metrics of each game are:
Acquisition can affect a lot of factors: from the name, icons, screenshots and descriptions of the game to reviews in the store, the popularity of the setting, the presence or absence of a well-known brand, as well as the genre of the game itself. Of course, people will come to a puzzle game with sweets much more actively than in a hardcore strategy in a fantasy world.
From my point of view, 50% of the success Retention in the game determines how interesting it is to play. Is it fun and do you want to come back every day? The next 25% is determined by the genre, because the harder the game, the more it scares the players. And the last 25% are determined by a variety of mechanics, around which gameplay is built that motivates the player to return. The most commonplace example is the “life” in Candy Crush Saga, which are restored after a certain time.
But if the game has good Acquisition and Retention, this does not guarantee its commercial success. The next step is to monetize your users. How to do this - in one paragraph does not fit, there are dozens of different systems that motivate or directly make the player pay. The examples above about a failed designer show how not to try to change your game - it kills monetization.
Inside each major element there are heaps of different metrics - such as ARPU (Average Revenue Per User - average profit per player), ARPPU (Average Revenue Per Paying User - average profit per paying player), Conversion (the share of paid people from the total number of people ) other.
Every time you look at a game, evaluate it as a product: what is done is good, what is done is bad. What should be remembered and used in the development, and what errors on the contrary never repeat? A critical look at things, a look of a game designer, and not an enthusiastic player or a burnt cynic will help get all the necessary information.
It is worth remembering that being a designer is not only understanding how games and the ability to analyze work, but also professional skills. The main ones will have to use constantly. So imagine that you need to create a new feature.
The first and most important step is the presentation of information in all its forms. You should be able to state your thoughts in a consistent and structured way so that other people hear and accept the above arguments. The same is useful to you in writing design - start with the basic information and gradually paint all the smaller details. The reader should understand what you have written about at each design stage. Also, it would not be superfluous to mention the purpose of the feature being created. Why does the game need it? What will it improve? When performing a test at any company, first of all they will look at how you present the information. Often, all those who make their first designs make a huge pile of solid text that no one wants to check.
To be that structured, you need to be able to invent. Many say that you need to be born creative, but I believe that this skill can and should be developed. Most of the thoughts that form in your head are somehow based on information that you own. Those. the more games you know, the more you know the mechanic, the easier it will be to combine them and invent something that has not happened yet. It will also help and just practice. Find the best way to awaken creativity - someone needs to go into the room and think in silence, someone will be helped by a brainstorming session with other designers, someone visualizes his thoughts by sketching options in a notebook.
After you think over and describe in detail all the details, it is time to balance. The main thing where each balance begins is to find all the elements of the system that influence the behavior of the feature. When the elements become clear, you should think about the initial assumptions for the system. For example, what behavior do you expect from a player? How many times a day will he enter the game and how many actions will he perform? Regarding these assumptions, one should begin to change elements until the expected result is achieved. There must always be some “anchor” elements that will not need to be changed in the future. For example, by balancing the experience requirements for the player, you can consolidate the amount of experience gained from various sources and, on this basis, balance the requirements for the next level. And you can fix requirements on the contrary and, on the basis of them, balance sources.
Finally, the last step is to analyze the feature. At the design stage, it is worth thinking about what results will be acceptable. For example, the design of PvP. How many% of players should play every day? How many games should each play? If competitive elements are present, will this affect monetization? When the feature becomes available to users, it is worth checking whether the actual results correspond to the expectations. And if not, then first of all it is worth thinking about the balance. Too hard? Too easy? Numbers should help you in most cases. Or at least lead to a specific decision, which may also be wrong.
Ask your questions and suggest topics for the following materials!
Today I will tell you my opinion on how designers will acquire skills - what will help you to become better, and what is better to bypass. This opinion is purely subjective and formed on personal experience.
I found it, having worked 5 years in the Moscow branch of Glu Mobile (4.5 years of which - a designer) and 7 months in the company Social Point, where I continue to work at the moment. I also spoke with many people who worked in companies such as Game Insight, Crazy Panda, Game Garden, and others.
')
I will clarify that I am writing my materials regarding the development of games for mobile platforms, since I worked all this time only in this area. At the same time I consider it the most suitable place for a game designer in our time.
One of the most important skills for a novice designer is to filter information that a person receives from various sources: whether they are colleagues, articles on the Internet, or books. Even if the material is worthy, it’s worth being skeptical, trying to analyze and ask “why?” Every minute.
Ways of gaining knowledge
The first and main source of knowledge should be games. If you want to become a game designer, they must become an integral part of life. At the same time, if you plan to create mobile games, then you need to play mobile games. This is one of the interesting features of the development - people working on AAA projects do not understand anything at all in free 2 play, the same is true and vice versa.
First you need to get iOS device not older than two years. How to find games worth playing? Top Grossing USA AppStore is what you need (except for the same casino and puzzle games). Also check out which games Apple chooses the best in the USA each week (this happens Thursday night on Friday). Not the fact that all games will be good, but rather only some of them. But if a hit comes out, it will definitely be there.
The second source will be reading articles and specialized sites. It is difficult to find really high-quality materials, the best sources will be deconstructoroffun and gamasutra . Also in general, about mobile games can be read on the toucharcade , pocketgamer and slidetoplay . From a business perspective, game development is reviewed at gamesindustry .
Another option is to read design books. This is quite an interesting activity if you possess the necessary level of English and are interested in the object of the narration. However, it will be very difficult to put this knowledge into practice and it is unlikely that you will ever be able to use the argument from the book as an argument during a dispute. Those. if you are interested in the subject and you have enough time, then here is a fairly high-quality selection.
The last way to get knowledge is the courses on game design, which cost a lot of money and, in my opinion, do not confirm their effectiveness. Unfortunately, in Russia, opportunities for beginning designers are much more modest than abroad. In Europe and America, every major company provides internships for designers, and there are many events where people gather and make games with each other, the so-called game jam. This is an interesting practice of interacting with people, but even here practical skills for free 2 play development will be quite difficult to obtain.
Negative influence
Imagine that there are 2 people who have worked for 5 years as game designers. This is a huge period and, correctly approaching the question, you can learn everything you need. One of them worked all the time at Gameloft NY, grew from intern to a leading game designer, and later got a job with us and, despite his young age, is one of the best designers in the studio.
The second of them worked at Ubisoft, Pretty Simple Games, Black Sheep Studio - in the latter he was the only designer in the company and it was there that he worked 3 years out of 5. After a long work experience, even in a bad place a person has certain skills: balancing, drawing up documentation and others. The skills of those who studied without any help will be incomparably lower, because they had no one to follow. The highest level that they saw was their own work ... But this is not the main problem. They do not understand at all how the market works, how free 2 play works and what a business is.
Example:
There is a task to analyze 2 games to choose and offer: what would you improve if you created a competitor for these games?
Game one - Hearthstone. The designer offers instead of regularly adding new content - to improve old maps, giving them a second chance for life. This is justified by the fact that people will be happy: they will return to the game and will play more in it. The reality is that if you go this way, then profits will fall and quickly enough. Instead of buying new content, players will continue to play, making up decks of improved old cards.
Even looking at the planned changes in Hearthstone, we can say that this update is being done not only to simplify the balance for developers and the experience of new players, but also to improve monetization. Developers on the contrary prohibit the use of old maps, motivating players to buy new content. Otherwise, Blizzard would have to release more and more powerful cards in new add-ons, destabilizing the game balance proportionately.
Game two - Heroes Charge. In this case, the main source of the new heroes is the gacha, i.e. a box where you can win certain heroes with a certain chance. The designer suggests simultaneously selling these heroes in the store. With his idea, he immediately kills the potential for monetization, by announcing to the player the exact value of each item, and also directly reduces the cost in the eyes of the player, because the content can be purchased at any time by paying this amount.
If the content is distributed through the wrench, then for the player it is not possible to calculate its real value. To get the desired prize, people are willing to pay much more for the chance to win than for a direct purchase. It is thanks to such mechanics that the Asian markets, such as China and Japan, first caught up with America in terms of profits, and now they are beginning to pull ahead.
Failure to understand what a game should be in order to be successful and gives rise to such ridiculous examples as Sandstorm: Pirate Wars and Pocket Mortys, if you take it from recent games.
Other factors that can form the wrong perception:
- Unfortunately, there are a lot of non-professional companies in Russia
- Nonprofessional workers with influence
- The atmosphere “We already know how to make games” is around you
- Invalid market analysis, perception of the number of game downloads as a sign of success
- The choice of games on the wrong criteria for which you will align your design
The last factor often leads people to the crooked path. Many designers consider games they like to play good games. These may be hardcore Japanese RPGs that will never (or at least in the coming years) be able to consistently perform positively in the western market. This implies the desire to design features or even the whole game for yourself, which has killed more than one project.
Remember that game development is primarily a business. You can not evaluate the game as “interesting” or “not interesting”, there are certain factors that determine success.
Game analysis
First of all, you need to understand what your game needs. The main metrics of each game are:
- Acquisition - how easily you can attract new players
- Retention - how long the players stay in your game.
- Monetization is how much and often the players make purchases.
Acquisition can affect a lot of factors: from the name, icons, screenshots and descriptions of the game to reviews in the store, the popularity of the setting, the presence or absence of a well-known brand, as well as the genre of the game itself. Of course, people will come to a puzzle game with sweets much more actively than in a hardcore strategy in a fantasy world.
From my point of view, 50% of the success Retention in the game determines how interesting it is to play. Is it fun and do you want to come back every day? The next 25% is determined by the genre, because the harder the game, the more it scares the players. And the last 25% are determined by a variety of mechanics, around which gameplay is built that motivates the player to return. The most commonplace example is the “life” in Candy Crush Saga, which are restored after a certain time.
But if the game has good Acquisition and Retention, this does not guarantee its commercial success. The next step is to monetize your users. How to do this - in one paragraph does not fit, there are dozens of different systems that motivate or directly make the player pay. The examples above about a failed designer show how not to try to change your game - it kills monetization.
Inside each major element there are heaps of different metrics - such as ARPU (Average Revenue Per User - average profit per player), ARPPU (Average Revenue Per Paying User - average profit per paying player), Conversion (the share of paid people from the total number of people ) other.
Every time you look at a game, evaluate it as a product: what is done is good, what is done is bad. What should be remembered and used in the development, and what errors on the contrary never repeat? A critical look at things, a look of a game designer, and not an enthusiastic player or a burnt cynic will help get all the necessary information.
Professional skills
It is worth remembering that being a designer is not only understanding how games and the ability to analyze work, but also professional skills. The main ones will have to use constantly. So imagine that you need to create a new feature.
The first and most important step is the presentation of information in all its forms. You should be able to state your thoughts in a consistent and structured way so that other people hear and accept the above arguments. The same is useful to you in writing design - start with the basic information and gradually paint all the smaller details. The reader should understand what you have written about at each design stage. Also, it would not be superfluous to mention the purpose of the feature being created. Why does the game need it? What will it improve? When performing a test at any company, first of all they will look at how you present the information. Often, all those who make their first designs make a huge pile of solid text that no one wants to check.
To be that structured, you need to be able to invent. Many say that you need to be born creative, but I believe that this skill can and should be developed. Most of the thoughts that form in your head are somehow based on information that you own. Those. the more games you know, the more you know the mechanic, the easier it will be to combine them and invent something that has not happened yet. It will also help and just practice. Find the best way to awaken creativity - someone needs to go into the room and think in silence, someone will be helped by a brainstorming session with other designers, someone visualizes his thoughts by sketching options in a notebook.
After you think over and describe in detail all the details, it is time to balance. The main thing where each balance begins is to find all the elements of the system that influence the behavior of the feature. When the elements become clear, you should think about the initial assumptions for the system. For example, what behavior do you expect from a player? How many times a day will he enter the game and how many actions will he perform? Regarding these assumptions, one should begin to change elements until the expected result is achieved. There must always be some “anchor” elements that will not need to be changed in the future. For example, by balancing the experience requirements for the player, you can consolidate the amount of experience gained from various sources and, on this basis, balance the requirements for the next level. And you can fix requirements on the contrary and, on the basis of them, balance sources.
Finally, the last step is to analyze the feature. At the design stage, it is worth thinking about what results will be acceptable. For example, the design of PvP. How many% of players should play every day? How many games should each play? If competitive elements are present, will this affect monetization? When the feature becomes available to users, it is worth checking whether the actual results correspond to the expectations. And if not, then first of all it is worth thinking about the balance. Too hard? Too easy? Numbers should help you in most cases. Or at least lead to a specific decision, which may also be wrong.
Ask your questions and suggest topics for the following materials!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/276631/
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