March 2nd. 2018
Talks on Game Design
Talk on his career path as a game designer, and good ways to advance yourself as a game designer. Same key points are: Make things good enough, not perfect (consider diminishing returns); you will change jobs a lot; games ship when you run out of money; have goals and iterate; making a team is harder than making a game; as a game designer, not smarter than players (all people informed on game); empathy. Emphasize importance of varied types of people on teams producing elements of game (combine programmer, artist, designer, etc.)
Difference between Blizzard and Ensemble companies – Iteration. Ensemble: create something, put it in game, test. This worked but was a bit inefficient. Blizzard: Ideas must go through a lot of thought and people before even being created, which means most things created in game are going to be higher quality, which results in a more efficient process.
- How to get into game industry?
- You have to stand out
- You have to prove your passion
- The best way is to make something
Compromise with feedback, take something from beginning to end, kill your babies, understand diminishing returns. Rather see someone finish things than start a bunch of things. See someone push through with changes and edits to finish something than just giving up (shows endurance, will to push through for end product).