Students
5 Ways Game Designers Communicate
I came across an interesting article by game designer Tim Lang, which I soon found was only one of his many blog posts offering tips on how to succeed in the game design industry. This particular post was about “5 Ways Game Designers Communicate.” Here’s a little background on Tim:
Tim Lang has been on the game design scene since 1997, and has worked on the Might and Magic series of games, as well as the Medal of Honor series. Currently working as the Lead Game Designer for Spin Master Studio, Tim also provides his professional, insider insight by contributing posts to game design websites such as www.gamasutra.com, it’s sister site www.gamecareerguide.com, and many others.
What I found inviting about Tim’s numerous posts, including “5 Ways Game Designers Communicate,” is that you can tell he generally cares about the development of the game design community. He shares his professional advice to other designers, particularly newcomers to the industry, based on his professional experience.
In his October 2008 blog, Tim starts by stating “great ideas are useless without great communication.” In other words, great ideas are plentiful- it’s how the idea is executed that really matters. Successful execution is obtained through good communication between designers and development team members; and ultimately, to the audience. Here are Tim’s five ways game designers communicate:
- Conversation
- Writing
- Pictures
- Design Animatics (storyboards that move)
- Prototypes
As you probably noticed, the five items above start with the most commonly used and easily accessible communication tool, and move towards the most intricate and specific tool that takes specific skills. Each steps moves the designer and development team closer to making a concept “come to life”. I think Tim has a lot of good insight that will help me in 670 and beyond.
The full article can be found at http://gamecareerguide.com/features/634/5_ways_game_designers_.php
September 28th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
What I need more explanation on is how to gamers talk to each other. My brother use to scare me watching him multi-task in three different windows playing whatever was the new RPG game for the week. It was like being in a foreign country watching the language and abbreviations go past in the text box. No surprise he works for SONY now patching games because he put in enough time to learn how to survive in a whole other world.
September 30th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Thank you for posting a helpful article on how to execute a successful game idea. I am a little anxious on our game idea because right now it is a bunch of thoughts scrambled on a piece of paper. Hopefully our group will be able to communicate well despite the limitations on the communications field. Meeting virtually does have its disadvantages. In this case it would apply to creating visuals together. I anticipate it taking longer to compile our ideas and thoughts if communication takes place only online.
October 1st, 2009 at 10:25 am
I really enjoyed reading the article. Some of the insights seemed like common sense but then as I continued to read I realized that often times we over look what is obvious thinking that it just can not be that simple. I think that the idea is key but being able to express that idea clearly is the make it or break it part of being successful. The communication happens at so many different levels as was explained in the article.
October 1st, 2009 at 10:43 pm
While much of the information seems common sense, this article was definitely insightful. Quite often we rely on quick verbal communication, assuming that we are understood. But how often do two people agree (e.g. “OK, blue. Perfect”) while having a completely different take on what the agreement means. Visual communication tools (pictures, animatics, prototypes) can provide important idea and concept clarification.
I also like the implication of communication and game development following a parallel progression. The article also highlights the importance of wikis as searchable, interactive writing.
October 11th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
I am glad that you posted this article. In my opinion, it directly relates to the development step in the process of our group’s 670 game board design. After our initial online group meeting and much discussion and game design ideas, I suggested that each member of the group ‘sketch out’ a board design, including any other pertinent game design elements that we many not have discussed in our initial meeting and then ‘Share Out’ our individual ideas at the next meeting. I’m glad that our group’s ‘baby steps’ are seemingly headed in the right direction to game design.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Great article to post. This will be extremely helpful as we develop our own games. Like the many others stated before me much of what was discussed seem to be commonsense, but it provided great insight It is great to have this resource to guide us in our first game creation!