From the start of a concept to the little tweaking and balancing at the end of a development cycle a designer is bombarded with choices. These choices have great or small effects on how a game is experienced. These choices can be made by gut-feeling, experience, testing or based on design. Although all these options are valid and will ultimately help the designer to make a decision, I want to talk about making decisions based on the design of a game.
Choices are all around us, and if we are in charge of designing a game than even the sky isn’t the limit. So, in this sea of choice, how to make the right decision?
Design is nothing more than limiting choices before they are raised. Great design sticks to these limits, even if –due to these limits- seemingly unsolvable problems pop-up.
Continue reading ‘Emotional focus as design tool’
A while back I posted the Fun in fun out article stating that having fun while creating products leads to more fun products. Although I believe this principle works, one of the ideas that emerged from this principle did not. I’m talking about Playtime, an initiative within Playlogic Game Factory to spawn new ideas, to motivate people and led them be creative.
The basic idea was to provide time, during working hours, for people to spend on their own projects. Participants of Playtime had four hours a week to create what they always wanted to created, or so was the plan. I ‘borrowed’ the idea from Google and Royal Philips Electronics, who were successful with this policy.
Unfortunately it didn’t go to plan, although some projects still have a lot of potential. So what did go wrong? Following is a small analyses.
Continue reading ‘From playtime to no time’
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?
Continue reading ‘Designing a good game designer’
