Article: The Importance of Design

I have often heard it said that "anyone can design" and that the jobs that require skill in videogames are art and programming.

Well, this is true to the point that if anyone can design, then anyone can draw stick figures and anyone can program "Hello World".

Trace("Hello World!") // Game complete!

Because design is such an abstract field, people think it must be easy, or of no consequence, and I see many companies want combo Artist-Designers or Programmer-Designers.  If you can do both, or even all three, all the more power to you, but you're even more difficult to come by and most people will put one of those disciplines before the others.  Often, design falls by the wayside.

Sometimes a programmer with a great knowledge of how systems works can design a mechanically interesting game, or an artist with a grand vision can design a very cinematic game.  However, designers -- who primarily call themselves designers -- with some knowledge of the other two fields, can produce games that are both mechanically interesting and cinematic, and much more.

To discover the true importance of a designer, look no further than a wholly designed game -- games which do not rely on art or programming at all.  Scratch out anything digital to get rid of programmers, and scratch out board games or other toys to get rid of artists.

So consider some children's games, like hide-and-seek or tag.  These are purely designed games.  The rules are simple and children, on the fly, create the boundaries their game takes place in, be it the house, or the backyard, or the neighborhood.

Reminds me of "Lord of the Flies" for some reason.

But these games are ancient, and no one knows their origin.  They've been time-tested and are very successful.  So let's look at a terribly-designed game.

Icebreakers.  Icebreakers suck.

Ever been in a new group, and someone wants to play an icebreaker?  An icebreaker is when people play a game to learn about each other, such as "Two Truths and a Lie" or other such games.

There are a few standard icebreakers, but many times, the leader of the group will invent a new game wholecloth, and it is never fun.

The reason these games suck is because they are made up in a moment by someone with no experience in design.  They take was "sounds good" and expect it to be fun.

Designing fun is not as simple as "that sounds good".  Designing any sort of experience is not that simple.

Ultimately, every work of art and entertainment is trying to make an emotional or intellectual appeal.  And when the objective is intellectual, the player must still be emotionally invested or interested in order to want to think about it.

Ever read a scary story that wasn't scary?  Watched a comedy that wasn't funny?  Didn't care whodunnit?  Fell asleep before the world was saved?  Walked by a painting with barely a glance?

I don't think you're supposed to nod off at this part.

These are all failures of emotion; that is, the writer, director, painter, or whoever is in charge of the artwork did not grab you and make you emotionally invested in their work.

And the designer's primary task in designing a videogame is figuring out how to evoke a particular reaction from the player, whether it be a fright, an adrenaline rush, a laugh, or simply a sense of fun, of having a good time.

Artists in videogames help to achieve this, of course, as videogames are a collaborative medium, but a great designer has this as a primary task, not a secondary one.  The designer may start with "this sounds good", but then works the idea like dough until something great comes out, or throws the idea away and tries again.

Designers understand how to create the moment-to-moment experience.  Level designers, mechanic designers, and writers come together and create the experience from beginning to end.  Indeed, design is so complex it is further broken down into subtypes!  Can someone who is primarily a different field design something that stands as a work of art and entertainment?

Sure, some people can, but they are the Da Vincis of game development.  Most of us stick to a single discipline and work to perfect that.  Those who split their effort between multiple disciplines risk making bad games.