Felix of Mars

What is you experience?

I didn’t have a great time at school and was unsure of what to do as a career, at the time I had a few games consoles Mega drive (Genesis) and the SNES, Although it was one game that caught my imagination enough to push me into this career. I guess some of the kids playing some of the cool new games would hopefully have their interest spurred on by the games on the Xbox and the PS2. I then studied Information Technology at my local College; I had a much better time there and met some of the greatest people ever. A lot of them where interested in Videogames and other 3D Graphics, at the time there where only two courses in the UK running at Bournemouth University and at Teesside University, Most of us ended up studying on various courses at Teesside, there I studied Programming, Computer Artwork, Traditional Artwork, Games Design and other useful course modules. After leaving University I started looking for employment, after a short contract working for Microsoft as an Xbox Evangelist I found a job within the games industry. I have now been working at Frontier for 3 years, on the Roller coaster Tycoon franchise with all the experience I had from university I have been known to be quite flexible and to do some scripting, testing and full on design work, at the moment I am working as a Designer a secret PS2/PSP project. It is scary sometimes how far I have come from leaving school and thinking how hopeless it would be to try, so I guess I would like to bring that up first, a bit cheesy but live your dreams because it can happen.

What kind of Designer jobs are there?

Scripters – Use high level programming languages to add in anything from item values, character conversations, AI routines or even the user interface, by having an easy to understand language the designer can basically code certain options into the game themselves without waiting for programmers, leaving the programmers to do the more difficult core code and the designer to be more expressive.

Level Designers – Often work along side the artists and may even be classed as artists depending on the studio, they will either model the entire are for a level, or block out areas for an artist to put details in at a later date. They also add objects to the levels; this can take the form of static or animated scenery, pick-ups for the player (e.g. ammo, weapons, health or items to solve puzzles.) you could even be adding characters or enemies to levels (sometimes referred to as entities.) Other duties may include marking out AI paths and lighting levels. You may even have this type of designer broken down into other skill sets such as Level Creation or Lighting Designer.

Designer – Designers often just referred to as such often plan out the game play and document the style of the game (in terms of art along side the lead artists and which genre the game will take), how the game will function, the puzzles and challenges or missions within the game, the story line of the game, and the background of the characters. Usually the lead designer will call the shots on some of the bigger issue such as the genre of the game and maybe the storyline (However you may have a separate designer for that.) but there is always the case that other designers will help with other area of development such as puzzles/missions or game play issues. Again they’re maybe other titles and other skill sets such as Storyline Designer, Missions Designer or UI Designer.

What software do you need to know?

Difficult one this, depends on the type of designer you want to be, if you want to do scripting then a programming language maybe worthwhile studying, at the moment developers are favouring LUA, this language is very powerful for both programmers and scripters alike. It maybe worth you learning software packages that artists may use such as 3D studio Max and Photoshop, if you want to be a level designer, also looking at games which provide free level editing tools is good also, ones worth mentioning are Unreal Ed by Epic and the Source editor by Valve. However there are lots about for most FPS, they are even available on some console games now. If you are thinking about being more of a game play designer then knowing ms office products are a good idea, tools such as word processing, spreadsheets, flowcharts and even post production/ web development tools are good to learn. It is so difficult to know what to learn, the more tools you know of your own area and the other games developer careers the better, as you can then make sensible judgments on if the things you want are possible within the timescale. Programmers and Artists will not thank you if you ask for something so involved that it jeopardises the project because you think it will be a great feature.

Why do you do this?

Why because I am a gamer, when we play games we know what’s a good game and what’s a bad game, if we are a hardcore gamer we may even start to think I could do better than this or I wish I could make a game this good, that’s why I am doing it. If I can be involved in a couple of great game my life is complete, I want to give the world some great entertainment.

What makes a good Designer?

A good games designer is often someone who is quite creative, they may not have great art skills but enough to convey a great idea in there head to paper or indeed the artists in the company. At the end of the day you are responsible for creating a new world with virtual living, breathing characters that gamers must feel for.

Also if you can watch a TV show, film or indeed play another game and understand and analyse what make them good or bad and how you would improve on them in terms of storyline or design then you are half way to becoming a good designer. Prepared to be hated sometimes for picking holes in plotlines, saying that wasn’t a very good effect it would have been better if they had done this and that puzzle in this game was not obvious enough, if I had done this I would have made it more clear to the player. Sometime you will end up hating yourself and stop having that mindset and just enjoying a videogame and there are some great ones out to just chill with.

You also have to be quite methodical, down to the last detail of how a character should behave or how a puzzle should play out, so you may have to write documentation. So at least a good grasp of language would be a good skill to have. It is always better to be as precise in as fewer words as possible in most cases as more often that not an idea could be lost in unneeded text, you are working with professionals. Also remember the saying a picture tells a thousand words, often doing flowcharts, sketches, or mocking up game play sections (either with mocked up scenes or by prototyping the game in a basic engine) helps to show what you want to convey in the game.

You also have to think about your audience, what is the age group, what sort of people will play this game, how can I make it appeal to more people. You will have to think about how to make it difficult enough to be a challenge but fair enough to make people want to play it (too many games seem to be in the extremes of being complete able in a day or so hard the player looses interest.) Another thing is to avoid frustration, in terms of cut scenes that cannot be skipped, long loading sequences or patronising the player with help systems, not to say that it shouldn’t be an option but they should be a short guide and not be condescending.

Another thing is to be a good communicator, I have always been shy when I meet people, and it always takes me a while to adjust to new situations. But the thing is I always end up meeting new people and making friends. You will need to talk to people in the team, you are affectively dealing with every person in the company, from your superiors to the Artists and the Programmers, it is good to ask them questions, offer advice and also what they think, after all you they are helping you to make your vision in some cases. Just remember it is one thing to advise them how you would like to see something done, but you should never tell them how to do there job, respect them and they will respect you.

And remember have fun, and make your games as as fun as enjoyable as those that made you want to get into this career in the first place.

What do you dislike about your job?

I hate when we have to cut things, if we only had a bit more time, but the schedule doesn’t allow it. I want to give the gamers the full experience. I guess now they will just have to wait for a sequel.

Getting your first job?

For most Designers they will have a brief stint in testing at one point in there career, in fact most designers I know have been testers in the past. Although testing is a bit of a selfless task, long hours, average pay and even with all your friends telling you, its great you get to play games all day, no its hard and repetitive work. It can get pretty dull even if the game is excellent when it hits the shelves there will be points where you will go this will never make a game let alone the release date, due to the endless bugs you may find. If your good and you show your talent off you possibly will get hired internally as a Designer, otherwise some other company will be willing to have a tester who has the ability to become a designer. I am not saying that all testers become designers, the ones that prove there worth and show that they can do design work will in most cases move onto Design within 6 months or a year or two of working.

Some people maybe lucky enough to just right in there as a Designer, but its hard work, and you will have to have some impressive stuff to show. A good way is to get involved with Videogame Modding, this is where gamers will take an existing game, for arguments sake say Unreal and use the engine and the free tools provided by the developers (or in some cases fan based tools.) to create new levels, skins for characters in some cases whole games. If you get involved with a Mod which allows you to create new levels or modify the game into something new I would go for it, you will be there Designer and when you go to a company you can show them what you are capable of.

Remember even if you start as a tester, it is worth more to other company’s than starting as a no one from a university/school, most developers still have a stigma to such courses and you will also learn some new things from going to a real company.

Originally created for Tangrala