Becoming A Game Developer (Part 1)
by Porter on Aug.27, 2009, under Flash Industry, Help
Becoming A Game Developer
There’s a lot of work needed in order to become a game developer. People often feel that if they have an artist who can animate, and a programmer who knows the language, that they’ve got a team ready to produce quality games. In reality, those skills are just the tip of the iceberg. A team ready to produce games may be true, but nothing at all says those games are going to be of quality. It takes a lot more than knowing the coding language you’re using, or being an excellent artist; game design itself should be thought of as the third skill required along side programming and art.
I myself excel in my ability in game design. I admittedly lack in programming skills greatly in comparison to what I wish I knew, but I make up for that with my ability to both detect what makes a great game, and how to build one. I find it odd that most teams don’t feel they need a project manager of sorts, someone who understands how games work, what games are good, and what it takes to make them. The team doesn’t necessarily need someone dedicated specifically to this, but one of the artists or preferably programmers should have this skill.
The reason I give this position so much credit, other than the fact that it’s my strong point and I’m proud of it, is that it truly is a concept that I hope more teams embrace. We’ve all come to accept that average art won’t do, if you get higher quality art you’ll see your game value multiply by at least two-three times, if not significantly more. That being the artist’s job, we can look at the programmer now. The programmer is supposed to know what the game needs, then program it. They simply look at a set of instructions and bring the game to life. The last position, again in my opinion usually the secondary skill of the programmer, if not both members, is to know what it takes to make a great game. This however does not mean that the artist cannot have the mind set of a programmer and contain these skills as well, I simply imply that I believe them to be more common among programmers. They need to get over the hype of the game idea and analyze if the game will actually be quality fun; far too many games work as far as functionality, but when it comes to fun they’re simply a bore.
You may be wondering why I suggest that the programmer is the one who holds the magic of the third skill, the answer is simple. The programmer generally knows how the game works from the ground up. They must know how the ideas suggested will co-exist with ideas currently out there, and leave room for ideas to come. That being said, the programmer really shouldn’t be some guy reading an instruction manual on how to build the game, he should be deciding how the game itself is built. This can be done with a firm knowledge of programming, however it’s significantly easier if you possess the skill of understanding how games are built, as well as what makes them fun.
If you’ve already got these skills present within your team, you’re in great condition. If you lack these skills however, I highly suggest you look into partnering with somebody who has experience and understands the above concepts. They may seem like common sense at first, but it’s things like this that make the difference between the average games on the net and the big hits. I’ll continue on these thoughts with follow-up articles elaborating on how you can gain such skills yourself or refine what skills already exist. In the mean time, check out some other useful articles such as, The Importance of Plot and Game Inspiration, to help get yourself prepared for becoming a better game developer.
August 28th, 2009 on 3:53 am
I’m sorry but I couldn’t disagree more with you regarding the game design being handled by the coder because you are putting together game design and game production.
Your opinion is somewhat stereotyped, where you see design as a broad theoretical (and often hyped, almost magical) view of the game will be and the steps needed to it’s implementation. Implementation is game production, and it is not related with game design. On the other hand game design has several stages, of which, the one you described is just the first one that leads to a game design primer and usually a proof-of-concept. I understand that this is the view of millions of new developers, but it’s far from the truth. Game design is a multi-disciplinary discipline that is not related with production but that is practical and it is this non-theoretical part that is unknown to most.
Experience tells me that artists are fantastic designers, specially in the primer stage. If they grasp math and worksheets and have the time and patience they can all the design stages. You disregard them because you are thinking production, not design. More, usually less experience coders cripple the design because they aren’t able to solve some issues, where if design is not a coders task, he HAS to do it.
Coders are great producers though, mostly because they have the understanding of what’s needed to get it working. The whole mindset of a coder is tailored towards implementation than towards design.
Damn… I sound like an old geek now… oh well, talk to you soon.
August 28th, 2009 on 7:53 am
I see what you’re saying, I think I didn’t get the message out correctly, I wrote this pretty late last night. I’m by no means saying it’s the programmers job, simply trying to say that I generally find programmers have a more natural skill for it, their brains are usually more in tune to the ideas of how a game works and what makes a game fun. On that same note, an artist can have a “programmers mind” and simply not program, people aren’t stone tablets with abilities written on them. The post itself was more or less a set up for another article or two I wanted to do, I just felt this intro was needed before getting into that. I’ll go through and reword a bit of this later to be a bit more clear. I’ll definitely talk to you soon, heading out for another horrible day of community service, although I’ll be done all of it completely by Tuesday.
September 6th, 2009 on 2:01 pm
Hey guys,
I think ı know what you guys both mean. From what I’ve seen, Game Designers need some analytical thinking skills, and a realistic grasp on what can be done technically and what is feasible. Most designers do not possess this skill, either because lack of hands on experience or they just can’t think in that manner.
If working on a mechanic that’d make for a really good gameplay experience, I believe social sciences like psychology, sociology etc. are really important alongside with design skills and at least some idea of programming concepts.
Overall, I agree that a game designer would benefit from “programmer’s mind” along with visual design skills and experience in creative writing, psychology and sociology.
There’s some really good advice here by Tom Sloper:
http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html