(Note this entry is based on what I’ve gathered from looking at the industry, and from reading any books I can find on the games industry, perhaps someday when I become a game designer this entry will be seen under a different light)
In the past, I’ve eluded to certain traits that I feel separates the guy on the street from the expert designers in this industry. This is by no means a complete or authorized list, but some guidelines that I think are important to keep in mind. The reasoning why I created this list is that one of my more out there ideas for the future was to teach a course on the design side of the industry from what I know now and hopefully what I’ll pick up in the future. I know that there are courses that teach you how to program games, and how to draw games, but I haven’t heard of one that deals specifically with designing games. So without further ado here is the list.
Willing to learn:There are some people who after college (or high school) are finished with learning new things, perhaps they don’t have time for it or they just don’t want to anymore. For creative people however you can’t (or don’t want to) stop learning. While my first love is game design, I also have an interest in psychology, mythology (well duh, if you have been reading this blog),sudokus and picross, and who knows what will interest me next. Since I graduated college I’ve read more books on design and other topics that I did while in college and maybe even high school. Awhile ago I remember reading that Will Wright loved to study all kinds of out there concepts, and I would love to get on a mailing list of what he’s up to. You never know what will inspire you to create something new, and that’s why you need to keep putting new things into your mind.
Open Minded:All to often I hear of people dismissing ideas and concepts because they’re not the norm. Repeating the same things over again would be great if you want to create nothing but World War 2 based first person shooters. When it comes to the various genres I’ve given just about all of them a fair look. I remember a few years ago I was on a football kick for some reason and played Madden and one of the 2k games, since then I’ve given up the pigskin. Some of the more out there titles I’ve seen have gone against the usual games we’ve seen. Killer 7, Shadow of the Colossus, and of course all the amazing indie titles out there. You need to be able to look at new things with a fresh eye unless you want to be stuck in a rut.
Hard, dedicated worker:This one can be applied to other jobs but it is important to list here. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the games industry is one of (if not) the hardest industry to get into on the planet.To get in you’ll need to break in at any position that you are good at ,and getting the title of game designer is not something that is just given to someone on their first day. You need to work hard and prove to your superiors that you have what it takes. The other option (which could require as much or more work) is to learn to program, and make something yourself or with a few friends. Either option requires a lot of hard work and dedication, this is a job you do because you love it, not for the big bucks and fast cars. Although I think by now EA could probably buy a country.
The final trait (for now) is to never give up. Which I’m doing right now, as I’ve been out of college for a little over one year now without any luck. I urge anyone who is interested in this career to read Tom Sloper’s website: here reading it helped me get started on learning about the industry. I also recommend reading Chris Crawford’s book on game design for the list of books he suggested to read, not just on game design but on a variety of topics. Notice that I did not include any thing that could be considered just programming or art skills. One of the best things about this industry is that it’s one of the few that the people who work in it love their jobs and can wake up every morning happy to be going to work. You really need to want it, to work in this industry and hopefully a lot of you out there already have these traits.
Josh
