if your interest in game design brought you to our channel chances are you're curious about how games are made but what if you've decided you want to make a game yourself or even plan to take the leap and make game design your full-time gig what does that look like for you exactly because as jeff our studio director and resident game designer will tell you not all game design skill sets are the same so when you're thinking about your future career it's important to ask what kind of game designer do you want to be thanks so
much to nordvpn for sponsoring today's episode to take control of your internet security get a huge discount on a two-year plan and get one month free use code extra credits at nordvpn.com extra credits here's a fun industry fact teams don't usually need a generic game designer instead they need someone to do things like balance game systems write dialogue or layout game space complicating this further the actual job titles for the people needed are not as standardized as other industries such as film and television so to avoid confusion here we're going to be talking about four
specific skill sets and not job titles with the goal of helping you discover what kind of game designer you are or want to be now let's jump in when making characters for a game do you make sure they all have elaborate 11 page backstories do you have two unfinished novels and plans for three more what about when you're planning campaigns have you mapped out all the content and written the histories of all major kingdoms thought out multiple story arcs and have hundreds of note cards with prominent npc information ready to go then i think it's
safe to say you might be a content designer content designers are game designers who focus on creating the story lore and often mission content in games they have strong creative writing skills but more importantly they have the ability to take on the herculean task of being creative consistently and on a schedule because you could be the most brilliant writer since george rr martin but if you can't deliver on a schedule hbo ruins your story and you get the idea typical responsibilities for a content designer include developing the game's high concept story history and lore creating
quests and missions with the game's toolset crafting npcs and fleshing out their backstories and writing dialogue item descriptions flavor text etc also in case you were wondering dedicated video game writers are indeed a type of content designer so on a ccg for example content designers spend a lot of time working on the overall lore of each set and on the character of each individual card they're the ones that transform a card's in-game effect into a distinct identity through theme card name art or animation requirements and flavor text for an rpg content designers over index on
the creation of quests npcs dialogue and equipment and for more narrative games they're usually tasked with creating the story plot and subplots constructing dialogue trees and filling out mission journals but what if you thrive in places like fork knife's creative mode or enjoy teaching friends tips and tricks in games like super mario maker and littlebigplanet maybe you've even dabbled a little bit with source engine games for their authoring tools and upload custom levels for the community then you my friend are probably a level designer level designers are the game designers who focus on conceptualizing play
space and laying out environments optimized for the needs of the game most have technical art skills although that's not always necessary in fact in some studios level designers lay out the game's needs and then an art team builds the in-game environments but it's the level designer who focuses on the strategic tactical and gameplay aspects of the world they're building playing a shooter game well it was the level designer who mapped out each area clocked the sprint time to choke points determined the amount of cover set spawn locations and carved out each sniper ledge and back
alley shortcut or that platformer you like every jump environmental hazard spatial puzzle and movement challenge were all planned by the level designer and in mobas a level designer created the map that dictates the flow of the game planned lanes areas of engagement gank routes safe zones dangerous jungle paths base sieges and contested areas these are the types of things that level designers really get excited about though what if what excites you about game design rests somewhere else do you give players in your rpg campaign multi-page house rule mechanic supplements did you learn combinatoric math to
better understand warhammer 40k's dice probability and craft a spreadsheet for your army to optimize weapons efficiency or make another spreadsheet analyzing weight vs heat weapon effectiveness for the rogue tech battle tech mod or another spreadsheet optimizing your bard's per level control spell choice sorted by concentration and save type what really jeff this is what you do for fun all right not gonna yuck your yum then you like jeff are probably a systems designer systems designers are game designers who specialize in building and balancing systems and mechanics they're the spreadsheet wizards who enjoy taking things apart
tinkering and putting them back together most have strong math skills for balancing and strong communication skills since they over index on writing design documentation in an rpg or looter shooter systems designers build and balance the game's economy combat trade skills monster statistics treasure tables class abilities etc and while they might not build the missions encounters quests or equipment themselves they're probably going to be the ones who balance them in an rts systems designers balance the value of every unit ability building and upgrade and maintain the master spreadsheet showing how they all interact whereas in racing
games they determine the efficiency of every chassis engine tire and other component and in ccgs they design new mechanics and balance every card truly systems designers are the kings among all types of designers no no jeff i'm not gonna keep doing this we have to treat all of our children equally okay great let's finish things off with experienced designers have you ever noticed when a rumbling controller perfectly replicates the idol of a car or tinkered for hours with your smartphone to get the exact right level of audio and tactile feedback maybe even modded a game
just to play with car drift physics or weapons kick yeah sounds like you might be an experienced designer experienced designers specialize in the responsiveness feedback and the general feel of a game's controls and of elements within them like various weapons and vehicles also it should be noted that dedicated experience designers are also the rarest type of designer evolving from a development task into a recognized skill set as team sizes have expanded for instance take jumping in a platformer an experienced designer truly gets into the nitty-gritty of manufacturing that specific jumping experience fine-tuning the initial upward
angle and velocity playing with midarc hang time and tinkering with the rate and tilt of downward descent all to better sell the fantasy that that specific game is trying to convey you know when the driving controls or momentum of a vehicle's response feels just right or how about when combat makes you feel like a finely choreographed crime fighter or even when just your avatar's movement through the game's environment is so amazing that it steals the show these are all great examples of experience design at work we hope that as you begin your journey into game
design that our discussion of these four types of game designers inspires you to ponder what type of skills you're passionate about and what type of game designer you want to be because each genre has different requirements that leverage a game designer skills in different ways and of course not every game needs every type of designer also we should mention that it's possible that you could be strong in more than one of these skill sets or maybe you're just hyper focused into a specialty but at the end of the day it really is about identifying where
your interests lie that's important to finding your space in the industry so did you find this discussion helpful is there a type of game designer we missed or would you like a more in-depth future episode on any specific type of game designers let us know in the comments below because i can guarantee that jeff is jumping at the bit to do more of these later everyone once again thanks so much to nordvpn for sponsoring this episode if you're looking to protect your online activity from prying internet eyes then you've gotta give nordvpn a try with
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and dominic valenciana for helping make this show possible [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you
