Game Designers
vs. the World
September 27th, 2010
Welcome back to Dark Designs. In case you hadn’t guessed from the title of the article, I recently saw the movie “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” [editor’s note: “recently” is a relative term, remember these articles are written in advance] and, apparently, managed to find something in it worth writing an article about (a Dark Designs article, that is. If I ran a movie review column, I could probably write a two-parter about how good the movie was). So, today’s topic? The seven evil obstacles an aspiring young game designer must defeat in order to, well, become a game designer. For you Scott Pilgrim hating readers out there, if you’ve stuck around far enough to get to this point, don’t worry: I could just as easily have called this article “So You Want to Be a Game Designer?” or something like that.
Being a game designer isn’t easy, and becoming one is even harder. Don’t get me wrong, it’s more than worth it (at least, assuming it’s your thing: game design just isn’t everyone’s cup of tea), but there will be a long and uphill battle to get there. And while it would be really nice if that battle could be the quick-and-dirty simple kind where adrenaline-pumping music blazes from nowhere and ninjas come at you from all sides, it’s just not that satisfying. So, if you think it’d be keen to be a game designer, listen close, because these are some of the opponents you’ll have to defeat (or may have already defeated).
Evil Obstacle #1: Pessimism
There’s a very specific kind of pessimism I’m referring to here, and that’s the kind where you just don’t believe that you have a prayer of really making it as a game designer. It’s the kind of pessimism where, whenever you think about being a game designer, you tell yourself that “Yeah, it’d be nice, but there’s so many people who want to be game designers, and so few game design jobs, I just wouldn’t have a chance,” and then you go back to looking for, I dunno, a job as an accountant or secretary or something.
To be honest, it’s true: getting into the industry is sort of like winning the lottery. There’re a lot of obstacles in your way (hell, that’s sort of the point of this article), and a lot of other people fighting for the same job you’re fighting for. You’re not going to be able to do it unless you’re willing to fight for it, and, even then, you may eventually fail. But, the important thing to remember here (and the big secret weakness which allows you to defeat this in particular article), is that if you pay attention to your pessimism (arguably better described as realism, but that’s far from the point), you’ve already lost. Becoming a game designer is something you’re going to have to fight for, hard. If you’re willing to commit to that fight, you’ve already defeated your first obstacle. If not, well, game over.
Evil Obstacle #2: Inability
There’s no nice way to say this, but not everyone is cut out to do game design. Most likely, if game design is something that really appeals to you (and you have at least some knowledge of what game design is actually like), most likely this won’t be much of an obstacle for you. That said, like all other skills and trades, game design isn’t something you’re born perfect at. In fact, even the long-time pros aren’t perfect: there’s always room for improvement. So, expect to spend a lot of time polishing up your skills.
If you’re wondering if game design is really for you, though, there’s a fairly simple way of finding out. Do you like games? Good, that’s a nice start. Unfortunately, it takes more than enjoying playing games to be a good game designer. When you’re playing games (or learning the rules, or what have you) do you wonder to yourself about why certain rules are the way they are? Or, rather than wonder, do you just sort of give a knowing nod, internally or otherwise, because you know why they made that rule. What I’m getting at is that the most important skill for a game designer is the ability to understand game systems, the same way that it’s important for a mechanic to know how a car’s engine works: you can’t start tinkering around with systems and mechanics unless you know how it’s going to affect the game as a whole. There are other skills you’ll need as well, but this is the most crucial. If you have it, great: you may need to work a bit on improving it, but you can consider yourself to have defeated this obstacle as well. If not…you may be able to learn it, with time, but I would strongly consider picking another career. Sorry.
Evil Obstacle #3: Apathy
Let’s face it, we’ve all talked about how great it would be to be a game designer, or how we could totally design this, that, or the other thing better than whoever designed it in the first place. Or maybe you have a really cool idea for a class, an alternate magic system, a campaign setting, or a whole new game entirely. Maybe you could churn out mechanics and themes for Magic: the Gathering sets until the sun goes down. That’s a great start, don’t get me wrong. It’s an important—hell, it’s a vital—part of the design process. Unfortunately, it’s the fun and easy part. There’s a whole lot of refinement that goes into game design as well. Most people just don’t have the drive and will to put in the man-hours and elbow grease to turn a crude first draft into a shiny masterpiece.
At the end of the day, if you can’t motivate yourself to put the man-hours into a design to take it all the way, you’re not going to go far as a game designer. Very few designs come out perfect (by which I mean very, very few. As an aside, be prepared to make real revisions to your work, and don’t take it personally if it isn’t perfect the first time around. A lot of people have this misconception that everything they make should be perfect, and if any changes need to be made then they’re a bad designer, and it simply isn’t true). If all there was to game design was coming up with fun ideas and then shelving them, it wouldn’t be much of a job.
At the end of the day, if you want to be a game designer you’re going to have to actually do some game design, and then put your work out there for people to see. Since your probably want to put your best foot forward, you’ll want to make sure that any design you put out there is the best it can be, which means getting into gear and doing some difficult design work, with the possibility that all your work will be in vain. If you can’t get motivated enough to do that, apathy has defeated you. If you can, put another “X” in the win column.
Evil Obstacle #4: The Real World
For this in particular obstacle, the title “Game Designers vs. the World” is a bit more literal. Now then, unless you’re exceptionally lucky, you aren’t just going to stumble backwards into a well-paying design job. Most likely any work you put into the field isn’t going to really pay off for a long time, maybe years. In the meantime, you’ll have bills to pay, and might like to occasionally eat something besides Top Ramen. Getting a job to pay the bills is probably a must, but that’s going to leave you with a lot less time and energy to do game design.
This obstacle isn’t really all that complicated: if you can make it work (or get lucky and avoid the issue altogether) that’s great for you. If not, maybe you’ll get another chance later. In the meantime, I should mention that, as far as getting hired to a game design position is concerned, you’ll be in much better shape with a good resume, including some job experience and (this one’s important) a college degree.
Evil Obstacle #5: Skepticism and Disinterest
All right, so, you’ve done some design work, polished it up until it glows like the sun, and somehow managed to keep from being evicted and starving to death. Good for you, that’s something to be proud of. Seriously, take a moment and give yourself a pat on the back. Not many people can make it this far. Unfortunately, you’ve still got a long way to go. The next step is to get people to stand up and take notice of your work. Get yourself a website, or find yourself an online community, or spread the word however you can.
Unfortunately, before long, you’re going to discover that a lot of people just aren’t as passionate about your work as you are. In fact, I think it’s a safe bet that just about no one is going to be as passionate about your work as you are. With a lot of people, it’s going to be an uphill battle just to get them to take 10 minutes to look at your work, worse if you want them to pay for it (one way of dealing with evil obstacle #4).
Facing this complete disinterest towards something you care so much about can be, well, disheartening. It takes a lot of self-confidence and tenacity to keep at it even after so many people won’t bother to take the time to even look at your work. It starts to breed doubt in your mind, makes you question whether your design skills are really up to snuff, and whether you’re really cut out for this sort of thing (Fun Fact: As someone who’s been there, I have a soft spot for up-and-coming game designers who want someone to take a look at their work and give a word or two of advice. If that sounds like you, you can e-mail me, and I’ll try to take a look for you, since there’s a lot less red tape in my way than a lot of other designers). Like with evil obstacle #1, this is one of those things where you either do it, or you don’t, and it’s ultimately up to you.
Evil Obstacle #6: Criticism
I’m not really talking about constructive criticism here. If constructive criticism is a problem for you, you probably haven’t made it this far, because constructive criticism is an important part of the design process. Game design can’t be done in a vacuum, and, even if it could, I’ve already explained that your first draft will basically never be perfect.
No, I’m talking about vitriolic and hateful criticism. Learn to face it now, because you’re going to have to deal with it eventually: if you put your work out there, you’re going to come across people who, for whatever reason, absolutely hate it and feel the need to make sure that you know that in the most colorful and unsubtle ways at their disposal. If you thought that dealing with disinterest was hard, well, let’s just say you’ll need a thick skin in this business. Dealing with critics gets easier with time, especially if you also get some positive feedback from other fans, giving you a boost of confidence that you are, in fact, at least mildly competent at what you do, whatever your detractors may say.
That said, you shouldn’t just ignore what they have to say. It’s important to listen to this criticism as much as it is to listen to more constructively phrased criticism. “Flavorful” language and hostile phrasing may make getting to the helpful parts more of a chore, but at the end of the day that’s the only real difference between constructive criticism and not-so-constructive criticism, meaning that every piece of hatemail you get is a chance to improve your game design skills.
Evil Obstacle #7: Burnout
You never really defeat burnout. It’s always there, waiting in the wings. After all, as a game designer, you are continually churning out new ideas, and sometimes it can be hard to stay fresh. Depending on what sort of game you work with, and the environment in which you work, and a number of other factors, you may find yourself struggling to keep up before long. For one thing, game design involves a lot of writing. Thousands of words a day, often.
There’s a number of ways to learn to live with burnout. For one, keeping two to three unrelated projects around at any given time means that, when you start to get worn out on one project, you can switch to something a little different to recharge your batteries for a while. Yeah, it’s still design work, but believe me it can be refreshing to move from one project to another, especially if they’re very unrelated projects. For another, it helps a lot to have other people to work with, as they can help keep you energized and excited about your work, as well as letting you leapfrog off of their ideas (and, of course, they’ll leapfrog off of yours, as well). Finally, it helps if your work environment gives you some restrictions on your designs: restrictions and structure help breed creativity and keep you from getting burnt out.
As I said, burnout is never truly defeated, but as time goes on and your design and creative muscles get more and more developed and exercised, it eventually ceases to be much of a threat.
Hopefully this little list will be of some use to a few aspiring designers out there. Join me next week, which, unless I’m terribly mistaken, is Explorer Week. In the meantime, don’t underestimate the power of self-respect, or any flaming purple swords that come with that in-particular power.