Getting the Information You Need

It’s no secret that a lot of people out there want to be game designers, in fact many people consider game designer their dream job. It’s probable a number of you reading this right now wish to achieve the same goal, or perhaps you’re just interested in knowing more about what makes a game designer. However, whether you’re trying to be the next Sid Meier, or you’re just an inquisitive games enthusiast curious about how you make a video game tick, there’s a noticeable drought of information on the subject.

Video game development in general is a rather specific area so you usually have to dig a little to find the information you need, but when it comes to looking for information on how to design a game the internet and libraries seem to be somewhat devoid of genuinely useful information. Perhaps one explanation for this is that there’s more extensive information on other skills involved in games development (such as programming and 3D modelling) because they carry over to vocations outside the industry, but I think the problem goes much deeper than that.

In his foreword to Raph Koster’s ‘A Theory of Fun for Game Design’ Will Wright explains that ”There are very few people working in the games industry today who understand games well enough to communicate what they know and how they know it”, however he also goes on to say that communication lines between the industry and academics are now slowly forming. In one sense this is somewhat exciting news, it’s the promise of a future to come where every budding game designer will be able to pick up a book or get onto a PC and find what they need to know to start becoming the creator they want to be. In another sense this news is rather disappointing, it highlights the fact that a lot of the information about game design that currently exists within the industry will not be directly inherited by those of us still young enough to become game designers, and that’s a problem.

Despite the current scarcity of information on the topic, I believe that if you truly have the drive and conviction to become a game designer in this day and age, you can achieve great things within the world of design. I’m no expert myself but I’ve studied game design both as part of my formal education and in my own time, and I hope to at least shed a little light on the darkened path of this coveted profession. Be aware that throughout the following series of blog posts I will be addressing you, the reader as the designer. If you’re not one of the would-be John Romeros out there don’t worry, just sit back and we’ll pretend for a little while.

Misconceptions

Before I get into what becoming a game designer involves I feel it necessary to dispel some of the common myths about game design. I’m sure most of you here on Giant Bomb won’t believe every fairy story and tall tale about game design you’ve heard, but when it comes to the practice of game design and the steps necessary to become a game designer, the general population is clouded with a lot of assumptions about the practise which just aren’t true. For the sake of clarity let’s explore what game design isn’t.

Knowing a Lot About Video Games Doesn’t Make You a Game Designer

Okay, I think most of you guys are industry-savvy enough to know this one, but just to be clear about this, knowledge of video games as a player and knowledge of video games as a designer are two vastly different things. Even if you can critique a video game with cutting-edge expertise, critics and creators take the form of different professions in every other entertainment industry and the same applies to video games.

Basic Concepts Aren’t Game Designs

I’ve seen many situations where people who’ve considered themselves would-be game designers have presented their base ideas for games as though they’d either designed a game, or at least reached a significant milestone towards designing a game. A strong basic concept can provide a good jumping-off point but they’re just a small part of the gargantuan mass of ideas that make up a game.
 

Being A Game Designer Does Not Mean You’re The Writer

Just as I’ve seen many amateurs pass off basic ideas as substantial pieces of game design, I’ve seen many people present part of the plot for their game as part of the game design. Know that you will have an impact on the narrative of the games you work on but unless you are in some kind of indie style designer-and-writer role you aren’t going to be the guy (or gal) that pens the story.

Being A Game Designer Does Not Mean You’re The Boss

As a game designer you’ll be coming up with a whole lot of ideas and you’ll have to convey those ideas to other members of the development team you’re working with, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be the boss. It’s not outside the realms of plausibility that you could end up organising a group of people in your profession, but don’t confuse your job with that of the studio management.
 

Game Design Isn’t Easy

One of the things which it really irritates me to see on online forums is people calling games developers lazy. Development teams may be underfunded or have limiting time constraints on them but one thing professional development teams almost never are is lazy, and that includes the game designers out there. Game designer is one of the most prized jobs in one of the most competitive industries in existence, and becoming a designer means trying to rise to the very top of a massive group of people. There will be individuals out there who are willing to work day and night to become professional game designers and only if you can surpass their level of skill will you have a chance at becoming one yourself. Game design doesn’t start off easy and as you get closer and closer to becoming part of the industry, things are only going to get harder. I think it’s arguable that you have to be a bit of a masochist to throw yourself into such a demanding profession, because it is an extremely difficult undertaking.

Good Game Designers Aren’t Guaranteed Jobs

So I think we’ve established that the competition to become a game designer isn’t an easy one. Going after any job in the games industry is going to be a major gamble and this might be truer with game designer than any other vocation in the industry. With the number of people after the position it only stands to reason that for every designer hired a number of designers with roughly equivalent skills aren’t going to get to see their dream made a reality. The sad truth is that you could try your absolute best your entire life to make it as a game designer and never get to be one. If you want to be a game designer you have to face up to this fact. If even after reading this you are still determined as ever to create games then you’re on the right path.
 

Most Would Probably Find Game Design Boring

A lot of people think game design is all about dreaming up imaginary worlds and designing cool new weapons and enemies. Yes, this is a part of the job, but game design is also a whole lot more than that. Just as the programmer spends more time staring at screens of code than he does the game itself, the designer spends more time dealing with the grisly innards of the game than the kinds of things a nine year old boy dreams about creating.

You’ll spend a lot of time repeatedly studying the same things from many different perspectives, thinking about abstract concepts, writing formal documents and coming up with the systems of maths and logic that run your world. If these don’t all sound like things that are fun to you then perhaps game design isn’t really what you want to do. For the large majority of the time the games you deal with will be far from the shiny finished products you see on store shelves. You’ll be dealing with aesthetically dreary and technically broken and unfinished games for hours on end, but for the regular game designer this is not a bother as they can see past the gleaming surface to the guts and gears under the hood.
 

End of Part 1

Thanks for reading people. All questions and constructive feedback is welcome. Good luck, have Batman.
 
-Gamer_152

Very interesting, this is useful information. I think we have talked in the past about how I am set on moving into design/writing (EDIT: and just to be clear that slash represents and/or). While I wouldn't say that I held any of these misconceptions, I certainly wasn't entirely clear about exactly HOW they were wrong.
 
Just out of curiosity, where in your education did you get into studying game design? Knowing that game design is not a guaranteed career, I've been considering trying to get my university to start teaching courses about "interactive entertainment" once I graduate. I'd like to know what else is out there in this regard.

Good thing I'm just a fan. You make them and I play them.

If I could post an addendum (sorry if this steps on anything in part 2): 
Depending on the course, of course (and this is an answer that you'll endorse?) but I learned way more in the five weeks of employment at a semi-major studio than I did in my three-year BSc university course of Game Design. Whether that's because on-site experience is always way more valuable, or that simply most GD courses seem to be so unfocused, I can't really say.
 
So maybe try being a Tester first and moving up from there. The experience is invaluable, as is the correspondence with professionals, and the monotonous bug-checking and balance-fixing work is pretty much the worst you'll be expected to do as a Designer anyway. It sucks that it still seems almost impossible to jump right into a design role from university, barring those lucky stiffs who got their final year projects bought by MS.

I AM NOW DISILLUSIONED. 
 
Not really. 

Another question: are there any books or other resources that you recommend to start out with?

When I was younger I dreamed about being a game designer , but luckily realized that designing games was more about math and logic than creating stories  / characters and worlds , I hate math ; so I choose to be an artist , after all an artist can design worlds and concepts for game designers too

I bet PR would be fun. 

This was actually a pretty good read, being a game designer isnt really my dream job, but its interesting to find out what hey do ;) 
@Aetheldod said:

" When I was younger I dreamed about being a game designer , but luckily realized that designing games was more about math and logic than creating stories  / characters and worlds , I hate math ; so I choose to be an artist , after all an artist can design worlds and concepts for game designers too "

@Aetheldod: I'm interested. Where in particular did you learn what game design was really about? "

I find it interesting that such a distinction is drawn between writers and designers. Certainly for many games this makes sense; I don't think that Just Cause 2 would be significantly improved by having the game designers have to keep Scorpio's character in mind while they designed the gunplay. But then there are examples where the thing that the player is doing and the symbolism/story reason for doing it are tied very directly (take the microwave sequence in MGS IV for example). I think that this might cause a lot of missed opportunity's for really unique experiences in which the way the game works and the story behind it could line up perfectly.
 
This is one reason that I'm really interested in the "narrative designer" position, though I know its a very ill-defined job title right now.

True facts!
 
Game design is incredibly brutal.
 
 It takes many months of very hard work to get to the final product that we all play, and I think we have all heard those stories of teams having to work 12 hour days 7 days a week for months to get it finished on time. Its a difficult profession, but obviously very rewarding as well.

The problems you have outlined are inherent to programming as a whole. I did a Hons course in Software Systems and indeed it was very broad and shallow.  
Only real world work experience will set you straight.  

I know in my head I wouldn't want to be a Game Designer since it's a thankless job and few game companies are a pleasure to work for. 
 
But gosh darn'it I would love to be one. 

Also, you can't teach someone how to be a game designer just like you can't teach someone to be an artist. They have to already know they are one. It's about passion and creativity. It's important they put it to good use from the beginning because everyone has to start at the bottom. A natural game designer could potentially use the free tools provided online and make something unique. There will always be limitations from limited resources. Hopefully you have more humble advice next time rather than scripture out of a book.

Pretty good post, lots of good information. 
 
My dream job is to be a programmer at a game studio, obviously very different from game designer. I was a bit discouraged to try and become a programmer because I discovered all the math courses i would have to take, and I am pretty sub par in math. But I am currently majoring in computer science, and while my math courses are a pain in the ass, I am excelling in all of my programming class. Even if I do not become a programmer for a game company I will be happy enough just programming, even with the most boring of assignments I am always having fun trying to figure out how to write the different programs. So I guess actually enjoying what I want to do with my life is a good start.

Very nice post.
 
I think a lot of people here in the GB community are brighter than most when it comes to the realities of the video game industry, but there are still a lot of people out there with misconceptions about every aspect of the video game industry. By far one of the most abstruse aspects is the job of game designer. A large number of people seem to think that it's all about just sitting around all day thinking and philosophizing until eventually you're struck with a single "Eureka!" moment like some freaking beam of light coming down straight from heaven. The truth is, it's an incredibly difficult job that requires long hours of rolling up your sleeves and getting down and dirty with the mechanics of how a game works on a very low level.

I always knew it would be more fun to be the artist than the designer - not that being an artist is easy (I imagine it would be very difficult), but it's the artist who gets to use their imagination all the time. Sure, they are constrained by what other members of the team want, but the artist can sneak in designs edgewise and try to get approval for their look. The sad thing is, artistry takes talent, while Game Design can be learned and practised.  
 
I don't want to work in a video-game company. I've heard enough horror stories about the working conditions of most of the people involved in the business. I'd rather play the games that are made for me, and keep my fanciful ideas in my head. 

Really looking forward to this, thanks for taking your time to share your experiences and knowledge about the profession.

Anyone who is interested in trying to be a Game Designer, I recommend they try to design a fun Board Game that is replayable more than 10 times.
 
That will teach you how hard and frustrating it is to make something remotely playable and fun. Now multiply that by ten and you might have something close to the actual difficulty of Game Design. 
 
EDIT: Reason why I recommend Board Game design is because it has an extremely low barrier of entry and a Board Game is made entirely out of mechanics that need to work in sync with each other. 

Lots of good points in your post. I think your first misconception needs some qualifying, though. Just knowing about games from a player standpoint is not enough to make you a game designer, but I don't think you can be a good game designer without fully understanding the player's perspective. Knowing what's fun and what isn't, what works together and what doesn't, are very important. I think that being able to articulate why God of War is fun while Dante's Inferno is not (or not as much) is an indication that you have the right head for game design.

this was a good read. i liked that you pointed out that you won't become a game designer right away. it's pretty much true with all jobs from going to college. you are going to have to look around for a while to find a job.
 
i hope to read another one of these soon.

So.. has anyone in this topic, including the OP, ever actually designed a game from start to finish? 

I'm looking forward to this. As someone who went through school last year, met with a bunch of local talent and heard that if I keep this up for a year or so I just MIGHT be able to get a junior position somewhere, this is information I could just soak up.

That was really interesting read, thanks. I am too old to become game designer and love my paycheck too much. But would like to try to do something on indie level one day. Maybe when I retire or something.

Here are some experiences I've collected over the years of game development:
 * Don't aim to be a game designer from the start. I don't know of many companies that would hire a person with no professional experience what so ever in a field such as game design. Get either into art or coding and work your way up, gain experience. You need it. 

 * Only go to game dev school to get access to other people with the same interest. The courses won't give you much, but working with others will. Make as many games as you can! Working with people online is fine (if you can't go to school or cant find devs in your area), but nothing beats working with people IRL.
 
* Hmm, lost the third one :P

" * Don't aim to be a game designer from the start. I don't know of many companies that would hire a person with no professional experience what so ever in a field such as game design. Get either into art or coding and work your way up, gain experience. You need it.