The author of the article, James Okhlen, has long been in the gaming industry - he has been working at BioWare for 20 years. He is now the design director of this company (owned by EA) and manages the development of such franchises as Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

As a BioWare design director, he must show hundreds of game designers and other developers of the company a creative vision of huge virtual worlds - of course, this is a serious task.
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At the Austin Game Conference, he shared with other developers the ideas and concepts on which the design work is based in a large studio like BioWare.

Game Design Dreams and Reality

“The reality is not always like dreams,” says Ohlen, explaining to design novices that the game industry is not always what it seems. While studying at school, students can dream of graduating and becoming game designers, embodying their vision in stunning games. But after the release, they often fall into teams consisting of hundreds or more people, and the reality does not coincide with their expectations. For some, adaptation can be hard.

Work as a game designer in the modern world of game development

Reality is not like a dream

• Education prepares designers to work alone or in small teams.
• Such learning environments provide designers with autonomy and teach them to create a vision.
• When people dream of becoming game designers, they want to be LEAD game designers.
• Most of the vacancies belong to major developers - Activision, EA, UbiSoft, Take 2.
• Development teams consist of hundreds (or thousands) of people, of whom 40-100 + are engaged in design.

(From the translator: hereinafter the translation of the report slides is in italics)

However, Ohlen says that you should not be upset: game design is one of the most inspiring professions in the world, it allows millions of people to appreciate the fruits of your work.

In BioWare, designers are divided into writers, level designers, system designers and game designers. This separation requires breaking big concepts into pieces and turning them into something useful.

BioWare is set to train designers from the lowest level (novice assistant designer is considered to be level 17 in Electronic Arts) to level 22 (creative director). “Often you have to let [new designers] make their mistakes or let them make sure they are wrong,” says Ohlen. He warns that experienced designers should be open to the ideas of younger employees.



Types of BioWare Designers

Designers create content based on the assets of other departments. Each works with the core core of responsible employees, which are then divided into departments to work on individual parts of the project that are integrated into the design.

The tools used to assemble assets can recombine previously applied assets and change their purpose.

The BioWare team of writers consists of about 20 people working in three studios to create design dialogs, stories and narrative.

Most of BioWare’s level designers , and according to Ohlen, they have one of the most intense work. “Level designers, in essence, are at the mercy of all other departments of the project. This is an interesting job: as if you are playing the newest Lego set ... but it is definitely associated with a lot of stress, ”the design director admits.

BioWare's system designers work closely with programmers and GUI designers. Their field of activity includes such systems as gaming economies.

“Of all the four disciplines, the gameplay designer communicates most fully with all the others; to succeed, he has to work with everyone, ”says Ohlen. Gameplay designers are also involved in the important (and intimidating) task of creating gameplay by the second by which the audience will judge the game.

Product quality and quality of life

BioWare's mission is to create the best stories you can play; Company values ​​are the achievement of work comfort and product quality in the context of modesty.

The pursuit of product quality and work comfort can often conflict, especially when working in a large company like BioWare. BioWare does not want to "kill people for the sake of the product" because employees will become unhappy and their talent will disappear. At the same time, a large amount of work is required in order for the product to meet quality standards and allow it to remain in business. Therefore, the studio should be as efficient as possible.

“I think humility is the key to success,” said James as a game designer. Humility in daily communication helps to increase efficiency. Being humble does not mean being lazy or being a rag. Rather, it means that you think that there are always better answers than you have. "I think the task of the designer is to find the best design idea that solves the problem."

Ego

Self-destructive thoughts:

• My vision is better! Why should I spend my energy on the realization of someone's weak vision?
• I have a better solution. I will prove it to everyone involved in this project.
• I will not show my work now, they can criticize it. I will show it when I reach perfection in it.
• Other departments exist to fulfill my tasks, because I am a designer!

Many have had such thoughts. But such thinking may have the following results:

• If you do not put passion into your work, you will never achieve perfection.
• When you work to prove your point, you can skip the best alternatives.
• If you do not show your work, the corrections will be made too late or too rare.
• If you do not cooperate with other departments, you take away their strength.

Selfish thoughts need to be disposed of because the whole project suffers from them. Do not assume that your vision is better, do not think that you have the best solution - be prepared to admit that you are wrong. Ohlen often reiterated that one of the designer’s worst habits is to hide his work from others until it is “perfect.” You need as soon as possible to show it to people and cooperate with them. "The desire to prepare the" Big Premiere "never works."

Ohlen develops the idea of ​​a designer as a humble problem solver. "One of the most self-destructive thoughts: the position on your business card already means that you understand how to do better." Maybe you think more about design and you have more experience, but you are not omniscient, and you do not have all the answers.

"If you do not cooperate with other departments, you take away their strength." According to Ohlen, taking into account the spirit of cooperation, there are two tasks for the designer:

• You have to understand the vision of someone else surprisingly well.
• You need to perfectly convey someone else's vision.

Creating a design when the vision does not suit you

Sometimes, when you work in a large team, the creative decisions in which come from the authorities, you may think that the vision is “lame”. But in this case, nothing is lost - you may still have a passion for the vision and the project, with which you have not previously agreed. But it takes effort:

• Need empathy to the vision, its curator and target audience.
• Practice active listening (see where the vision and project come from).
• Immerse yourself in the sensations most similar to this vision (play all the games in the studio, play other games, read books, and watch movies that are close to the proposed vision).

In other words, try to be open and find ways to love the project.

Ohlen noticed that he used to be one of the “boring friends” who criticize everything. But in the late 90s, when he looked at the "Matrix" and criticized it, and all the others praised it, an insight came over him. He asked himself the question whether he was not too critical and whether it does not interfere with his ability to enjoy ... anything.

So he abandoned his criticism to enjoy everything more. “Sometimes you need to turn off [critical thinking],” he said, while recognizing that criticism and analysis of work are still important.

On achieving goals: James expressed the opinion that each task has an ideal result, so the successful completion of a task is finding such an ideal and a constant desire for it, often through compromises. He never lost his hands due to the fact that the ideal has not been achieved.

“The ideal is often not achieved, it should be used as an experience and motivation in the following projects. It’s just part of the game development process. ”

Okhlen added: “All designers should consider themselves“ problem solvers. ” They must love problems. ”

“Obstacles contribute to creativity. If you have no restrictions, you will repeat the same thing every time. ”

The solution is always

Finding problems and finding the best solutions in any way is a topic that Ohlen constantly returned to. His mantra is: “There is always a creative solution to any problem. Sometimes you just don’t have enough time or money to find it. ” “Do not execute yourself if something goes wrong with you, always look for a solution.”

And finally, he mentioned continuous improvement. Create plans, implement them, check your results and summarize. Then start again, having learned the experience gained in the previous cycle, and this time do better. James believes that sometimes summing up is the hardest: you need to hear feedback and criticism, and treat them constructively. “This is one of the most important things you can do as a designer,” he concluded.