Author Archive for Tj'ièn Twijnstra

Designing a good game designer

Published by Tj'ièn Twijnstra on Sunday April 13, 2008 in Articles and Opinion. 3 Comments

What makes a good game designer? How is it possible to judge a game designer? The game design profession is traditionally not something that you’re hired for straight out of school. Game designers start out as programmers, testers or any other field within the game development process. As game designer you’re responsible for the core experience of a game, of its rules, goals, progression structure, balance and feel of the game.

Usually it takes a lot of experience in the game industry to know what makes a good game and what makes a bad game., if it is at all possible to define one. Industry professional, academia and fans of games all struggle with the same question that a game designer is supposed to know by heart!

But if that’s not enough, what other – and maybe more tangible - skills should a good game designer own? Or at least strive to possess?

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Scale of authorship

Published by Tj'ièn Twijnstra on Tuesday February 19, 2008 in Articles and Design theory. 0 Comments

As a designer of games I always strive to have a deeper understanding of what it is that I’m designing. What are games? What is play? What is fun?

My latest attempt at answering these questions started at the Tale of tales website. The discussion was actually on a different subject but for me it turned into a discussion about games and toys. I believed that one of their projects was more of a toy then a game. But then I started thinking; what is the difference exactly?

I believe that the main difference is in the kind of play that the experience allows. As I found out, players can have different levels of authorship over the actual play experience. With toys for instance, players have full - or at least a lot - of authorship over the experience. Players decide how play is experienced, what is being played and how it is played.

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Guide: the concept document

Published by Tj'ièn Twijnstra on Tuesday January 8, 2008 in Design process and Guides. 0 Comments

The following guide could proof to be useful for anybody willing to take their game idea a step further. It formalizes your game idea, checks to see if you have thought about the basics and may even help you promote your game idea.

This guide is written with Sony and Microsoft guidelines for concept approval processes in mind and should therefore meet high standards. I’ve used the knowledge I gained during my education and work experience to write this guide and I hope you’ll find it useful.

What is the concept document?

The goal of the concept document is two fold. On the one hand it helps you explore your game idea, checking to see if you have all the important bits. While on the other hand it helps you promote your idea, to team members, project co-ordinators, gamedesigners or maybe even publishers.

The concept document itself should be a short document that describes the core idea of your game, leaving out the less important details. A short document has several advantages. Adjustments are easily made if you need to improve your concept and reviewers will read your document sooner and faster.

Basically there are three parts to the concept document; its content, its structure and its presentation. All three of these are important and work together to provide a clear document that helps the reviewer of your document imagine the game. Continue reading ‘Guide: the concept document’