Elysian Shadows

What do most "game designers" do in the development process for major games? Do they usually work mostly with the programmers, or the artists, or do they just direct the whole thing? How do you think most game designers start out or get the position? Do they usually come from programming, or art? I think there are educations now for "game design", but I wouldn't expect it would be easy to get a job with that. Does knowing how to program help get these sorts of jobs?
I just feel a bit confused as to what a "game designer" really does.

Thank you,

-Benjamin

EDIT: I wasn't sure what section to put this in, not being sure what a game designer does, whether it is more programming related or artistic.

Game design, a subset of game development, is the process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in a game as well as documentation that describes such a design. Game design requires artistic and technical competence as well as writing skills.

No, just kidding. Copypasta from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_design

Does anyone know if many successful game designer come from programming, or do they have to have an big art background in education as well?

(Or is a game designer usually the producer, and independent the best way to go to become a game designer?)

I would recommend reading some of the replies on this thread:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?a ... ic=16292.0

Many of them are by people experienced in the industry, and I think the insight would be helpful to your decisions.

Thanks for the link!

-Benjamin

Personally I think that anyone who is a game designer should have a firm hold on basic programming(theory if not practical stuff) -and- art(not art as a whole, just the specific kind of art that the game demands: 2d, 3d and the limitations therein).

This doesn't apply to EVERY games designer:

Games design is a very loose term, you can be a games designer no matter what part of the process you're contributing to as long as it's the design of that specific part (usually alongside doing other things such as programming). For instance, if I was working on the scripting for a game I might have a huge impact on the design overall, simply because I'm scripting the story so almost everything has to pass through me anyway, assuming that I'm the only guy scripting.

So in an indie team, you probably don't want anyone who is just a designated designer and doesn't actually do any of the work, the programmers/artists all have their own ideas that are probably better than theirs anyway and would eventually get sick of someone who doesn't know how to do the work that they're doing telling them what to do, it's infuriating being bossed around by someone who has less of a technical understanding of what you're doing than you do, trust me.

On the flipside in an AAA(non indie) team you do want a designer because everyone else is just a voice in the crowd, 3 people can easily communicate their ideas well but 30 can't, it's just going to get messy without a director of sorts. In an AAA team it probably matters a lot less about their grasp of programming and art and more their knowledge of good script writing (in the story/movie sense, not in the programming sense), having said that I've never really liked the idea of an AAA team that much and thus don't know a great deal about it.

In conclusion/short: Indie games designers should be the artists and programmers themselves unless they find someone who has a VERY good vision for a game and AAA designers should be people coming from a background in creative writing and that sort of thing.

-note, this is my opinion and not necessarily right, so don't get angry if I'm wrong

The other thing to keep in mind is that a lot of well known game designers started out doing both art and programming when making their own games in the past. This is likely to change now for the next generation in part because (at least in AAA) because of the bigger teams and more complex nature of games (but there is still the place for the 1man indie developer doing all of the game process).
A lot of interviews I have seen of these older guys reference board games and mechanics as their source of inspiration and testing

Benjamin100 wrote:What do most "game designers" do in the development process for major games? Do they usually work mostly with the programmers, or the artists, or do they just direct the whole thing? How do you think most game designers start out or get the position? Do they usually come from programming, or art? I think there are educations now for "game design", but I wouldn't expect it would be easy to get a job with that. Does knowing how to program help get these sorts of jobs?
I just feel a bit confused as to what a "game designer" really does.

The role of "Game Designers" has always seemed very akin to the role of D&D Dungeon Masters in my mind. Their responsibility is to not only insure that the world has rules to play by but also that those rules are both necessary and adhered to. Some people associate "Designer" with a single entity who's responsible for all content generation; I believe a more fitting title suited for a pure designer would be "Creative Organizer" or "Creative Lead". Everyone from programmers to graphic artists and sound engineers are all equally invested in the project, so it is just as much their's to help design and help flesh out. As I see it, my role on the Elysian Shadows team is to help push our creative boundaries and to sell our fiction, our story in an immersive, fun and solid way.

Speaking from my own experiences, having at the very least a general to basic understanding of the programming involved with game design does go a long way. While I can come up with crazy mechanic ideas all day long, being able to think about the implementation of said ideas in a logical, programmer's mindset can make all the difference. I am not artistically gifted enough to even begin to approach that of our artists or programmers, but being able to understand their work and 'speak their language' with them is key.

From what I've heard about "Game Design" degrees, they generally focus on developing the ability to take a single idea, or theme and build a functioning world around it. Being able to enumerate and consider all the aspects that would make that world feel solid, believable while also developing fun mechanics or gameplay. TL;DR - a degree in advanced storytelling with a minor in I-played-a-lot-of-games-as-a-kid-so-I-kinda-know-whats-fun-to-play. The only universities I've seen that offer these sorts of degrees, like Fullsail for example, have odd accreditations or are not even accredited at all. Furthermore, it is highly uncommon for companies to hire in a "Game Designer", most of these individuals are people who have strong backgrounds in programming or art who just happen to be very creative with their mediums. It is sort of a getting your foot in the door process, once you're with a company, I'd imagine you'd show them your assiduous yet creative nature with unique approaches and creative ingenuity.

EDIT:

SPR_Phantom wrote:Lots of stuff.

I agree with all of that, well spoken. If I wasn't at work I could actually finish a post in a single sitting, alas you beat me to the punch.

Albionremain wrote: lots of cool stuff

SPR_Phantom wrote:Lots of stuff.

I agree with all of that, well spoken. If I wasn't at work I could actually finish a post in a single sitting, alas you beat me to the punch.

Thanks man, complement coming from someone who probably knows their shit a lot more than me!

^.^
You made a great analogy and I like your explanation of a creative lead