What are the skills required of a game designer?
Animation - Most games now days have some sort of characters that need to seem alive and the word animation means to give life.
Anthropology - You have to work out what your audience "desire" so that your game can meet that.
Architecture - Having an understanding of the relationship with people and spaces will help building game worlds as you will be making more than just a building; you will be making cities.
Brainstorming - Will have to come up with new ideas by the dozens if not the hundreds.
Business - In the end of the day its a industry which needs ti make money. So a better understanding of the business side of it the better chance of making the game of your dreams.
Cinematography - Every game now has some sort of movie animation to it; this is for it to be able to tell better stories.
Communication - Have to have a good communication so that you can resolve any disputes or problems that come up as well as finding out what the audience think about your game.
Creative Writing - Going to have to come up with fictional worlds; as well as the people and events within them.
Economics - Need an understanding of economics and how they affect games.
Engineering - New technology is always being developed and you need to know both the limits and powers of it as modern games are some of the most complex engineering in the world with having millions lines of code.
History - Need to have an understanding of our history as a lot of games are based on historical events.
Management -All teams need some sort of management working towards a goal.
Mathematics - Games are full of math so will need to delve into it time to time.
Music - To truly touch people with your game you will need to have music within it to embrace them.
Psychology - The goal of your game is to make the audience happy; so a understanding of the mind works is a must.
Public Speaking - You will regularly have to present your ideas to catch peoples attention and put your game out there. If you are not confident, clear, natural and interesting then they may not listen to what you are saying.
Sound Design - Sound is what convinces the mind it is in a place.
Technical Writing - Will have to create documents that describe your ideas without leaving any gaps or holes.
Visual Arts - Games are full of graphics and you must know graphic design so that you can give the game the feeling you have for it.
These are just some of the basic skills needed in the games industry according to Jesse Schell. There are some others like creativity and logic which are second most important but the most important skill needed within the games industry is listening.
You have to be able listen to everything to make right decisions about your game. The five things to listen to are:
- Team
- Audience
- Game
- Client
- Yourself
You have to listen to all these things so that you know how people are and how the game is going. It not just enough though just to listen to what they are saying; you have to listen the way they say things their tone of voice, their body language, and their facial expressions. This is because they could say one thing but mean the complete opposite and its your job to be able tell.
No comments:
Post a Comment