Game Designer

Working in the Industry, Part Three:
The Game Designer

Fancy being a game designer? It's not too difficult: all you need is good knowledge of videogames, a vivid imagination and mastery of the subtle art of game design writing.

I can't teach you how to play games nor improve the quality of your imagination but surely I can give you a tip or two about writing a good game design document...

Sooner or later, every gamesplayer dreams of making his/her own game: tired of playing somebody else's ideas, the average gamer starts thinking of alternative solutions for established game genres, such as new graphic styles for fantastic worlds, user-friendly control systems and challenging CPU-controlled enemies driven by innovative AI routines. Put all the elements together and you get a videogame. Better-looking, better-playing and better-feeling than anything ever seen before on any screen.Think about a third-person shooting game which has Mario 64's control system, music and sound effects better than GoldenEye's, Banjo Kazooie's graphics and the same atmosphere as a Star Wars movie. Yes, your idea seems great - how can it be nobody thought about it before? Why don't you submit it to the attention of some videogames companies and see whether they can make a game out of it?

The first step (and one of the most difficult of the entire game designing process) is to re-arrange the ideas in your head and the only way to do it is by putting pen on paper and give your brilliant thoughts a much-needed order. Start with a brief description of the game you want to make and its genre. If the title you're thinking of doesn't fall into a recognised game genre you may be the lucky owner of an IVROGI (Indeed Very Rare Original Game Idea) and can soon hire people to count your money.

Also describe its gameplay structure, control system, style of graphics, the atmosphere of the game, behaviour of the CPU-controlled characters and more. According to the type of game you've been thinking of, some of the above elements are more or less important than others: for example, you won't need to put much effort in describing the gameplay structure of a sports game, as it can be either arcade, simulation or managerial (or a combination of the afore-mentioned elements).

Save your ink and energies for your original ideas: even a crowded genre such as platform games surely has room for innovations. What about a dynamic-camera system which finally works well? Or a way to control more than character at the same time? Clearly write down your thoughts and try to add a few sketches of things (characters, backgrounds, level layout, items) which help giving the feel of how your game will play like.

If you have any programming experience or are working with somebody who has, start thinking about possible technical problems and the way to solve them. Your document will be heading straight to the nearest bin if you write something about "a PlayStation game with 10 characters on screen at once, each of them made of 900+ polygons, moving in a highly-detailed 3D environment at a frame-rate of 30 per second". That's just not realistic and nobody wants to spend time and money on a game which cannot be done on a certain (or any) system. Never forget that good ideas rarely need high-end technology: Tetris and Super Mario World were fantastic games even on 8-bit systems.

While writing (or should I say creating?) your game design, there's something which yuo must always remember: your game has to be funny and the document has to be interesting. A videogame's main purpose is to entertain people, not to be overly realistic realistic nor complex (unless you're thinking of a full-blown simulation title), therefore dump any ideas of super-complicated control system, hyper-accurate physics and absolutely life-like AI-driven enemies. That could make the development of the game longer, more expensive and difficult but could also make the game not immediately playable and enjoyable: try and figure your game being in a store where potential buyers can only try it for 2-3 minutes.Do you think they would buy it if they find it too complicated? Your game design document has to be somewhere along the same guidelines: try to rouse the reader's interest telling him a short story (who is the main character, what is he doing and why is he doing it), portray the overall atmosphere of the game, add a few sketches - you know, a picture is stronger than 1,000 words (although a few, strong, chosen words may be stronger than any picture...)

It's preferable to write the document on a PC, using big characters and having the sheets look clean and not over-crowded with information. Add a detailed index and don't forget to give a title (The Story, Control System, Enemies, Your Character, The Levels, Unique Selling Points and so on) to each part of the game design. Remember that software houses get an awful lot of game design documents from videogames enthusiasts but they just give them a quick look unless they find a document immediately interesting and easily legible.

Also, don't write 100-page documents: 10-20 well-written pages is more than enough to have somebody interested in your ideas. Keep a more detailed version of the design for yourself and don't be afraid to update it constantly (without changing the nature of the title): until the development starts, there's always room for improvement. Actually, game designs are "alive" and can - and usually are - changed a few times even during the development process before the game hits production stage.

Now it comes the dull bit: today videogames companies have one goal in mind - $$$. Your idea for a new game may be a fantastic one but it may not turn on the guy who can sign it up. It could be because the company doesn't think the idea is good ("it doesn't fit our guidelines"), because the category istoo crowded ("the competition is very high") or just because your document wasn't strong enough. It all comes down to money: if they think they can make money out of it they'll sign it up, otherwise you'll have to put a bit more effort in it! A good way to start having people interested in your idea is to include 2 paragraphs called "Unique Selling Points" (USPs) and "Competition". The former describes what makes your game unique in the market: it could be a totally new genre, an original control system, innovative gameplay structure or just a really appealing graphic-style. In the "Competition" paragraph you'll have to make a comparison with other popular titles (if any) falling in the same category as your game: for example, if your idea is for a new racing game, it may be difficult for you to convince the reader that your title can really be better than Gran Turismo. Therefore, you could say that your title puts more emphasis on an arcade-style racing model rather than simulation, that the tracks are more exciting (more hills, tighter corners...), the opponents more intelligent (CPU-controlled drivers featuring different behaviour) and so on. Comparison with the competition is only a good thing if you know how to present your ideas.

Don't be afraid to write that your idea can generate a game better than the current best-sellers: this could just be true - and the software houses know it. It's up to you to convince them that your game design's grass is greener than your neighbour's... P.S. I won't get tired of writing that it's important to write and speak good, proper, correct English. If you're not able to express your ideas clearly, you're not going anywhere... It's also important to know your games well, but I don't think there's any need for me to tell you to go and play them a bit more.