Video Game Designers

Game designers usually run into a little confusion when non-gamers find out what their job titles are. Game designers aren't artists in the traditional sense - although there are some who can draw, do layout, and generate artistic concepts with the best of them.

Instead, designers are part of the unholy trinity, the three major disciplines of game development:

• Programming

• Art

• Design

There are other very important roles, such as operations, project management, audio, and marketing, but the bulk of a game studio's employees fall into these three categories.

As you'd guess, since they're not programmers or artists, the designers do most of the "other stuff" that goes into a game.

The Right Stuff

Specifically, designers write design documents, plan and construct game environments, communicate the functionality of game features, and help the rest of the team understand what the overall intended product will be. Since each game is a unique product (yes, even sequels), and some are ambitious and hard to visualize without having solid examples of how it works, designers sometimes have a tough task getting everyone on the same page and answering the critical question: What exactly are we trying to make?

For example, imagine the first designer who had to go in front of a group of skeptical programmers, artists, and executives, and describe Katamari Damacy? "It's a game where you, uh, play a little royal dude who, uh... rolls stuff around into a ball that... uh... keeps growing until it's really really big." Yeah... not an easy job.

A Typical Day

Designers come in all sorts and flavors, so you really can't say they all have the same workday. But if one were forced to generalize, you'd probably find something like this:

• Two scheduled meetings, one with the design team and another with the programmers

• An hour writing a quick document that describes how a certain weapon will behave - rate of fire, damage, strengths, weaknesses, weight, recoil, ammunition, effect on the environment, etc.

• One hour trying and failing to fix a stubborn bug

• A power lunch of Cheetos, a granola bar, and a can of apple juice

• Five hours writing script - kind of like a DOS script or a macro, but written in the game's language - that will make part of a room in the world react the way the designers want

• A half-hour impromptu meeting with an artist, discussing the desired colors and style of a building in the designer's level

• A half-hour testing the room script mentioned above

• Pizza dinner in the hallway with the team

• A half-hour discussing standards for door-opening scripts with another designer and the game's producer

• Two hours writing dialog for cutscenes and witty things for the player-character to say when the player has defeated enemies

• A half-hour playing ping-pong and thinking about possible ways to improve a boss monster's difficulty without increasing its hit points or changing its attacks

• An hour and a half planning multiplayer game modes with another designer

In a pinch, you could say that the designers put the flesh on the game, and the programmers and artists build the bones - the basic structure that makes it happen.

An Atypical Day

Most designers never get assigned to come up with an idea for an entirely new game. Opportunities like that are extremely rare, and usually require (a) years of faithful service, which is tough since most game development studios don't last longer than three years, or (b) being one of the founders of a game development studio.

Where Do You Start?

Design jobs are extremely competitive, and generally they require previous experience. The pay is generally lousy, the hours brutal, and the job security non-existent. And the jobs almost always require you to live in California.

If that doesn't put you off - and really, let's be serious, it should - then try to get a job as a video game tester or even volunteer as a beta tester. Get involved with local game development communities. Or build a game of your own.

Good luck! You'll need it!

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