First post: Game Designer Etiquette

First, welcome to my blog. My name is Francisc and I decided to start up this blog to talk about new and upcoming games, stuff I'm playing, stuff I used to play, and basically any rants about video games and Game Design.I'm interested to hear your thoughts too. Not all your thoughts, obviously. That would be weird. Also a friend of mine, Max, will be posting as well, same rants, different approach. Because of him I will also post debates on different games.

I just read a post that is an attempting to add a bit more specificity to the title of 'game designer'. I liked the post, but I would like to indulge myself and go in to a bit more detail, and really dig into what it means to me to be a Game Designer.

Warning: The following is very self-indulgent and is largely for my own personal exploration than for your enjoyment. Even though egocentricity may be one of my main characteristics, I hope you enjoy this very first post.

During the last months,I've thought that at some point I will have to tell a number of people that I'm a game designer in a way that's meaningful for them. So far, my professional experience consists entirely of just a few months working on a Wii dancing game. See, that's what will be written on my resume; that's what the people seem to care about. Every time I will have a conversation about my skills as a designer, I think it will always be about what games I've made. It's assumed that game genre directly correlates to 'designer genre'. Therefore, people, at start, will etiquette me as a Wii party game designer.But, this will not quite accurately describe what I'm good at or what I want to actually do.

What can I definitely say is that, is that I think I am good at developing a design, a concept (in any related domain that I study or studied, such as graphic design, fine arts, photography etc.) because I rely on a sense of instant trial and error process and efficiently provide feedback to myself in order to move the idea forward in an effervescent way.



What Makes Me Happy


Before I get to what I'm good at, I'd like to talk about what I like. Passion is a powerful driver, and I believe it is often a substitute for skill, because passionate people will acquire necessary skill, and even enjoy it, where as skilled people with no passion get stuck.
Not to say I'm not good at these things; I am! But it's my passion for them that makes me shine.

I love me?

I love exploring ideas, using them, creating ideas, pushing ideas. I love creating and thinking of mechanics, I love complex mechanics, I'm completely captivated of cause and effect. I love story, art, and also music in a game, and what elements generate in human brain, feelings. But it's not just a game with mechanics and story in it that makes me happy. It's the mechanics, story and all the other elements constructed as "One" of designing games.

For example, it's very important to me when thinking of a design concept to establish a methodology or design pillars. Organize what I need to further think of.

Basically, any set of rules or principals that can be used to evaluate design decisions, that isolate and identify the most and least important aspects of the game, that guide each member of a development team into a unified mind-set. Some people may draw back at this, not wanting to shackle themselves with these kind of big decisions, instead keeping the design more organic and free-form. Well I like equilibrium. Even though in order to be creative you need to think a design in a more organic and free-form manner, it helps a lot if you organize what you need to think of. Basically, you will see every aspect of the game as a whole that stands in front of you and waits to be completed, as a puzzle, by your brain.

Hey! Let me tell you a story!

It's also crucial in each design that they are explorative and mechanically surprising. I'm one of those guys who feel that the player narrative is more powerful than the designer narrative, so making sure that the game is reactive enough that every player gets a unique and interesting narrative is dominant. Don’t get me wrong, I also like a story-driven design, but made as so the player will feel a bit of freedom. Now, of course, depends, maybe in a game you want the player to feel a prisoner, because, that’s the story, and the goal that you want to reach with the player immersion and experience is some sort of escape from somewhere. I consider myself a flexible person, so this kind of self-contradictory paragraphs will, in some cases, dominate my blog.


The other thing that really drives me to be a game designer is 'moments of experience'. These are specific sensations, either mechanical, visual, musical, whatever, that I strive to achieve. It's a kind of beacon that I use to move towards, and is very powerfully motivating me.

I like to think about a young design concept to have a small number of highly-polished features than to have a wide variety of rough features.From those highly polished features(starting point) it will be much easier to develop new and fresh ideas that will work together. I think it's perfectly acceptable for a young game concept to have no back-story, or even no art, or only one mechanic, as long as it conveys the idea that the game designer had in mind. If there is a graphic that dominates the respective motivation of that game concept, I prefer for that graphic to be strongly attached to what mechanics will mean in that game. Same goes to every aspect of a game concept. I think it works as long as you are productive and constant thinking of everything link to each other. In other words, everything needs to be seen as a one.

What I'm Good At

I don’t really know what I’m good at, but I can say one thing: I am good at what I like. This may sound dull and stupid; it sure applies to almost everyone. It’s a fact and we all know that video games are all about tastes.

My proof that this is not a genre-specific skill is that I have been able to apply a lot of the things I learned doing stuff like, drawing in school architectural sketches, and apply some techniques in graphic design or even in game design. And in fact, a lot of things and concepts learned back in the day are helping us all, daily, unconsciously.

Another thing that I seem to have, is a real crush for considering how the game serves the player. Although I think this is a critical skill for every designer to have, it's clear from playing games that some dev teams have this and some don't. This means things like valuing good tutorials, having self-explanatory interfaces, making sure that feedback is strong. Basically, it's important to me that my I spent some time with “under the hood” issues that will later on make the whole thing more valuable.

I really enjoy story in the classic sense. And from my point of view, a designer should be concerned on every aspect of the game. Many companies in the industry have adopted the “you’re just a mechanic game designer so don’t think of the story”. Well, I can’t simply don’t care how the game will be as a whole, because maybe I only have a story or a game play mechanic that needs to mutate and work together with each other. Also if I want to make a game, and for sure, anybody, wants to be as good as it can be, I always imagine myself working as a Scriptwriter and working closely with a Game Designer, or working as a Game Designer, but working closely with a Scriptwriter. Boundaries between these two domains are tough. But I dream of some place where I can think of both with a couple of people and have no occupations like a Game Designer,Programmer,Artist or Scriptwriter. After all we are all developers.

Panic!

On the flip side, I really don't enjoy anything to do with story if it’s not the case. That is to say, I sometimes have zero interest in telling stories. I often have lots of ideas for stories that I want players to experience, but they are always their stories. I'm more than willing to provide a world and a context, but as far as I'm concerned some games that I can think of make the story none of my business. An example of this is The Sims, or Dwarf Fortress.

 Each of these has a kind of plot ("The life of an ordinary person" or "A group of dwarves striking a new colony"), but after that context is established, it's up to the player to write it. (That's not to say that characters or environments don't have stories, just that the player's arc in the game has no predefined narrative.)


How I am thinking game design

As important as describing the kinds of designs I make, is describing how I make designs.
First and foremost, for me design is something collaborative. I feed off other people’s ideas, and feed off their energy. I think there is nearly infinite value in getting fresh opinions. Sure, I have my own ideas but still, feedback is the number one thing of establishing an potentially "deadly" idea.


Because I never feed like a design is 'mine', I tend towards not being defensive or protective of it, and because I try very hard to establish a design manifesto and keep my expectations clear, I have no doubts with discussing with people when their ideas do or don't fit the design of a game.

I'd rather have a meeting than write a document. I'd rather draw it than describe it. I'd rather ask an opinion of how it should be and then make a decision, than make a decision and get an opinion on it. I'd rather spend time up front making prototypes with a programmer and making decisions, and strive to get things right the first time.

I have a burning desire to be involved in every bit of the development, to make sure that at the least my opinion is heard, even if I don't directly contribute to a creation. Indirectly I influence the whole game, and that's the most important thing for me.Of course documents are a need, but nothing is delightful when it comes to direct collaboration between developers. A drawing may not be the most appropriate describing procedure in some cases, but it could help. And last but not least of course sometimes an opinion is not needed, because you’re confident and you just want to surprise people with something.