10 Things Great Designers Exhibit By Gordon Walton BioWare Austin gordonwalton@hotmail.com

Who am I? Gordon Walton, old game guy! First commercial game in 1977 Built over 30 games personally Managed development of over 200 games Have hired and worked with 100’s of designers

What we will cover Overview of Design Specialties How Specialties Affect Designer Selection The 10 Attributes The Future of Design Summary Q&A

Overview of Design Specialties The Design specialty covers a lot of territory Is a designer a: Writer? Algorithm and numbers person? Scripter? Creative auteur? Interface/accessibility expert? An alchemist of interactive fun?

Overview of Design Specialties The main point is to modify your selection or assignment criteria based on the specialty

The 10 Attributes!

#10 A Passion for Games (all games) Many of you might think this is the most important point (and it is darned important!) Too narrow passion is less than optimal Passion is a real “edge” for a designer (true for all jobs in fact!) Should have said that the main way to tell how passionate a designer is to see how many games he’s made outside of work/school assignments

#9 A Breadth and Depth of Knowledge What is your level of game knowledge? Across what game platforms? What do you know outside of electronic games? Synthesizing knowledge is the key Have you played enough games to know the language of games? Do you really have a wide range of knowledge outside of games? Best designers I know seem to know a little about a lot of things!

#8 Problem Solving and Analytical Skills What is your approach to problem solving? Can you effectively deconstruct complex problems? How are your logic skills? Potential Trap: over-analyzing / over-complexity Talk about testing for this during the hiring process See how candidates solve problems in real time, it’s not their solution as much as their process that is important to understand

#7 Flexibility Design can be exciting but also frustrating due to the frequency of changes involved Design must adapt to match the platform/business constraints along with the player feedback Poop happens, things are always changing in game development, both in goals and constraints, if you can’t be flexible you won’t be successful

#6 KISS More's Law (.vs. Moore's Law) "If some is good, more is better" This is a common fault KISS == Keep It Super Simple Best to cut stuff on paper! Note that many designers though everything into designs, including the kitchen sink! Give examples of simplifying designs and over-complex designs that confuse players Insecurity in serving an audience leads to designs with more features than are needed

#5 Player empathy Can you see the game from the player's viewpoint? Can you understand the player’s mental models? What can you do if you aren’t very empathetic? Kudo’s to Will Wright for “player mental model” Talk about extensive usability testing, how it can help cope with blind spots or lack of audience understanding/empathy

#4 Continuous Learning Designers are on a journey to understand the world and translate that to other people for their enjoyment Learning more is integral to this process – much of creation is knowledge integration not “original ideas” Part of the learning process is integrating feedback you get from all areas No plateau’s in game development, must be constantly upgrading your skills and retooling as the business, technologies and audience changes Talk about the negatives too of being “stuck” or over-specialized

#3 Teamwork – Being a Team Player Most commercial games are built by teams What is most important is that the team succeeds Talk about how talent doesn’t trump working with others Getting the best from your team and teammates Individual success is meaningless if the team doesn’t win

#2 A Positive Mental Attitude While curmudgeons and grumps can sometimes do excellent work… Who wants to be around them?? Enthusiasm and a can-do attitude is infectious!! Has evolved over time to be a key hire/no hire attribute for me Having a critical mass of people with the right attitude can take a team to a new level of performance

#1 Clear Communication Design is communication! Clarity of communication drives the fastest implementation, and the most effective iteration Remember that communication is not about what you say, it’s about what gets heard! Designers have to get the team to understand their vision of the game (or their part of the game) Even more importantly their design must communicate with the players in a way that enthuses them!

The 10 Attributes #1 Clear Communication #2 Positive Mental Attitude #3 Teamwork #4 Continuous Learning #5 Player Empathy #6 KISS #7 Flexibility #8 Problem Solving/Analytical Skills #9 Broad Knowledge #10 A Passion for Games

The Future of Design More specialization – big games More generalization – small games Do you have the attributes to be a great designer? If so, there will be lots of opportunities! 

Q&A