Game Designers
Game designers are multi-talented project managers for the game industry. They work directly with artists, programmers, writers, and quality assurance teams to bring coherence to the project. Designers write and update the game design document, a blueprint for an individual game that often runs into the thousands of pages. The closest equivalent to a game designer in another entertainment genre is a film director, but even a director is not as technically involved in the project as a designer is with his.
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History
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Game design, as a discipline, has only existed for under three decades. Most early game development projects involved teams of under ten people. The lead game designer was often simply the lead programmer, and it was a far more improvisatory affair than it is today. When you have a small team and a self-provided budget, there isn't much need for an extensive design document and daily meetings. As budget and team sizes have grown, the role of the game designer has expanded to include more management functions.
Time Frame
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In the preliminary stages, a game designer writes up the broad goals of the game, what the audience is intended to be, and how it relates to past games. He designs some of the basic systems of the game play. In story-driven games, the designer will often include an outline along with some basic character designs. The designer generally pitches the design document to publishers and investors. In the case of independent studios, the designer often has to make most of the initial hiring decisions as well.
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Function
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As the project evolves, the role of the game designer shifts to more of a supervisory function. While a designer does not need to have extensive knowledge of programming and art tools, they need to know enough to be able to communicate realistic goals to the programmers and artists. When the game becomes playable, the designer will be tasked to test how their design actually plays out and to adjust the design extensively.
Expert Insight
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Throughout this process, the designer remains in communication with their investors to determine the pacing of the project. The designer has to balance these demands with the needs of the development team. In addition, most designers are expected to provide extensive information to the marketing team, often performing interviews with the media and managing the release of new information about the project. The work environment, particularly in the early stages of development, tends to be very hectic--as it is in most information technology businesses--with 80 hour weeks at the office being the industry norm.
Effects
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Consistently excellent designers bring a bevy of technical, creative, organizational, and management skills to any project. The high level of responsibility and multidisciplinary nature of the role make it a job only suited to people with extensive experience in the game industry. They have the privilege of bringing their ideas from notes on a page to an intense multimedia experience, often working with teams that run into the hundreds of people. They do this all while acting as spokesmen for the product to the media. The most talented game designers become household names among gamers, but getting to that point requires years of hard work.
Features
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Will Wright is one of the most distinguished game designers. He designed the Sim City and Sims series, some of the most popular franchises in gaming history. Other notable game designers are Sid Meir, who designed Civilization, and Richard Garriott, lead designer of the Ultima series. Shigeru Miyamoto, who designed the Mario games for Nintendo, is a legend as well. The qualities that seem to make up an accomplished game designer are inexhaustible creativity, ability to fire an entire team with passion, attention to technical detail, and a willingness to take risks by challenging the gamers to play something that they never have before.
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Resources
- Photo Credit pmo, Flickr
