What does it take to be a Game Designer?

“A good game is a series of interesting choices.” - Sid Meier

What is Game Design?

Before understanding what it takes to be a game designer, we must first understand what game design is. Game design is the process of crafting interactive experiences for players. This process takes place in the pre-production stage of game development. Since this is a very iterative process don’t expect to end up with a perfect game design on your first attempt. You should always go back, playtest the game and improve upon the design till you get it right.

What are the most common misconceptions about being a game designer?

Being a game designer does not mean that you have the final say on what the game is going to be. Everyone who work’s developing the game influences it’s design. For example, you might come up with a really intricate game mechanic that might not be possible for the programmers to implement in to a mobile platform due to limitations. Therefore, you will have to work together with the programmers to find a compromise.
Being a game designer doesn’t mean that your job is to be the idea guy. I am sure every gamer has come up with an idea for the next big selling video game in their head at one point in their life. What the industry looks for are people who can take these ideas and craft them into something tangible as opposed to someone just throwing around random ideas.
Playing a lot of video games doesn’t mean that you can design games. It’s like assuming that if you read a lot of novels that you can be the next Stephan King.

What does a game designer do?

To me being a game designer is all about creating a fun user experience.

A game designer’s main tasks are to craft the core gameplay mechanics and their main task is to create the rules. The rules of any game, whether if it’s digital or not guide how the player(s) achieve their goals. These rules and goals when combined with complex tasks will often generate the content of gameplay.

What core skills do you need?

Communication.
You need to be able to communicate your creative vision clearly. This includes written, visual and verbal presentations.

2 Team work.

A game designer needs to work closely with many people on the development team. You need to act as the middle man between the artists, programmers and the produces to help them understand each other to better execute your vision.
Process
Games are systems with lots of interdependent elements and therefore changing one element (e.g., to balance your game) might introduce many problems to another element. Understanding how this linked system works and being able to advocate a process of creating the game in all team members is core game design skill. Making sure to develop your game in small iterations and playtesting elements accordingly helps guide your development process. Being on top of this process is your job.

Inspiration

Putting on different lenses to view the real world and its underlying system and relationships is another elementary skill. Trying to find the rules and challenges helps you understand these systems. Being able to deconstruct what inspires you will make you a better game designer.
Becoming a Better player
It doesn’t mean getting better at playing games, instead it’s being able to able to observe yourself during play and understanding your experiences. Understanding common patterns and elements in games will make you more game literate.

Creativity
Being able to find inspiration from other parts of your life is crucial for designing games.

What are the game design disciplines you need?

Please note that you do not need to possess or be an expert on all these disciplines, but you should at least have a good understanding of everything and how they work . A game designer is like the jack of all trades.

World design
World design is the creation of a backstory, setting, and theme for the game
System Design
System design is the creation of game rules and underlying mathematical patterns.
Content Design
Content design is the creation of characters, items, puzzles, and missions
Game writing
Game writing involves writing dialogue, text, and story
Level Design
Level design is the construction of world levels and its features.
User Interface Design
User interface designer constructs the user interactions and feedback interface, like menus or heads-up displays
Audio Design
Audio design involves the process of creating or incorporating all of the sounds that are in the game, like sound effects or voice acting