I enjoy the production side of video game development. In fact, I want to do it as a career. I like having a part, however small that part may be, in all the disciplines involved. I love seeing how the various pipelines work and trying to find ways to help them run more smoothly and efficiently. I love talking up my team to others, presenting great game projects, and being able to learn about every different aspect of development from the geniuses who focus in and nail their specific responsibilities.
However, my true passion is in design. From the high-level concepts of what a game could be based on to the low-level fine-tuning of the mathematics involved in intricate scoring, I love designing experiences that will be compelling to a broad range of players. One area at which I could definitely become better and learn more about is in coming up with completely original concepts that aren't based on existing properties or ideas. I'm great at fine-tuning, explaining why a particular mechanic does or does not work well, and editing content to it's most essential parts. I'm working on abstracting all those experiences I've had into building blocks that I can use to make games from scratch. Any help you'd like to offer would be most welcome. :)
Back to the point of this entry, though... What I discovered from most of the recruiters and contacts I met at GDC was that they don't want someone to be both a producer and a designer. They want someone who is interested in--and fantastic at--one thing. Thus my dilemma. It's incredibly difficult to break into the industry as a game designer. That's typically a senior position, one that individuals must work professionally for years to obtain. Of course, they do want everyone to understand design principles at some fundamental level, but that's not the same thing. The other difficulty here is that breaking in as a producer is also challenging. So many companies have different notions about what a producer is and what a producer is expected to do. With it being hard to go either direction, I've attempted to bill myself as both and hope that hiring managers recognize the value in my understanding of a broad range of concepts and skills. I'd certainly love to use both my production and design skills and abilities wherever I end up...
Which moves us into a brief discussion of my current role(s) in our thesis team: game designer and associate producer. Yes, I'm acting as both. People are coming to me for art validation (I've somehow slipped into some sort of art direction role, despite Craig Caldwell being our designated art director), for the specifics of how our scoring system will work, and for guidance on task distribution and sprint management. Besides my involvement in communicating various information with others, I'm also currently designing level concepts and finally learning how to use 3D modeling tools to actually build them.
I'm really trying to figure out if I'm doing everything I should be doing, if I have my thumbs in too many pies, or if I'm just trying to compensate for a lack of understanding my own actual duties by slipping into everyone else's business. There's a lot that goes into this stuff, and while I think I'm figuring it out pretty well at this point, I'll be trying particularly hard during the coming week to get advice on how to really fall into my assigned and intended position. Of course, if I'm capable of helping out team members in their respective duties, I still want to do what I can for them.
Here's what I did for Dodos this week:
- Organized the art team and their pipeline, and helped them distribute their tasks into the first few sprints
- Clarified some design points, including how the scoring and combo features will work
- Sketched storyboards and designs for potential levels--from trap chaining ideas to beginning creation of 3D models for importing into the game project
- Helped lead team meetings
- Distributed assets, information, and previous builds of the game's prototype to team members for reference
Further, here's what happened with our side project, Chroma Clash, this week:
- Had a team meeting with Derek (engineer), Spencer (producer, assistant artist), myself (designer), and Laura (our newly recruited lead artist and menu designer); thanks to Spencer for recruiting Laura!
- Constructed our official backlog and distributed it to the team; we'll be using one-week/one-feature sprints as our process from here on out
- Settled on Unity as our engine for the prototype of the game
- Started using Google Sketchup to create 3D models of level designs
Lots going on because there's lots that needs to get done! For the moment, I'm keeping my head above water, if only just barely. It's a good thing that these swimming lessons still have their healthy share of fun!
- Troy
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