Who is a game designer: opinion of the creative director of Skyforge

Yesterday it became known about the release of Skyforge in early access on PlayStation 4 at the end of March. In this regard, Scream School and I decided to share how the creative director of Skyforge, Alexander Pankov, sees the role and work of a game designer.

This text is a transcript of Alexander's speech. The video is at the end of the material.

Alexander Pankov

Many people coming into the industry want to develop games and have their own idea of what it is.

Once upon a time, everyone thought that programmers made games. That is, that a game designer is someone who programs games. In fact, this is not the case. A game designer does not program games or draw them.

Who is a game designer and what does he do?

When we talk about a game designer, we definitely use the word design. Or its Russian equivalent is the word design. A designer is, in fact, an engineer. But he is an engineer of the gaming experience – how the user will play the product and what exactly he will play. If we look for analogies, then a game designer in games is the same as a director in a movie.

If we detail the work of a game designer and look at what he does during the day, then we will understand that his life consists of repetitive stages.

First, the game designer gets the vision [from the producer]. That is, a vision of what the game should be like. After that, he gathers the key people needed to implement this vision (artists, programmers, and so on). As a result of the meeting, the game designer gets a general understanding of what needs to be done. All this is made into a design document. Further, "orders" to the team are generated from these documents.

When each participant has done everything that depended on him and there are enough elements to assemble them into the initial product, the game designer makes the final assembly and looks at what happened for the first time with the testers. If necessary, it sends the elements for revision and brings the product to the "ideal". Ultimately, he is the person who puts the work of the entire team into the game.

How did the game designer come about?

The designer appeared, so to speak, from "dampness".

The first games were created without a game designer. All functions were performed by the programmer and he was responsible for the final result. Over time, the games became more complicated and programmers no longer had enough time for anything other than writing the code itself.

Then they started hiring people for graphics, for sound, and people to write scripts. And at some point, a person was needed who would assemble all this into a common structure.

Initially, students and interns who did not have expertise in any of the blocks were taken on these duties. With the growth of the industry, more and more "advanced" specialists were needed.

This is how a game designer appeared, who in the course of evolution, from a "support" specialist working at a minimum rate, turned into a key specialist who has expertise in all stages and elements of game creation.

Now a game designer is a person who can tell better than others what a project is and what it should be.

The place of a game designer in the industry

When talking about the face of the development team, it is usually either the owners of the company or game designers. If you Google almost any branch of the game industry, the people who speak for it are game designers. And this is not for nothing. Throughout his life, a game designer communicates with people of completely different categories: programmers, artists, screenwriters, and customers.

He knows how to communicate, he can find a common language with anyone. A designer is a translator from any language to any language.

How does the industry educate a game designer?

A game designer is a person who, by virtue of his work, should not do the task, but do the result. And he will not get away with it if each participant in the process does his job well, and then this work does not come together into one successful project. Thus, he becomes a professional in many ways. A designer can make a game out of anything. This is the essence of a good game designer.

The consequence of this is the fact that intelligent designers are in high demand in the industry. And the industry itself is designed in such a way that it develops game designers. With each step and with each project, the designer becomes more and more self-sufficient specialist.

What do you need to be able to become a sought-after game designer?

A good game designer has four key qualities. The main one is the love of games. He must be a gamer. The second and third places are occupied by logic and common sense, without which it is impossible to create a successful project. And an important quality is communication skills. Most of a designer's job is to communicate.

For the first time, the text was read as part of the master class "Who is a game designer" at Scream School, which will host an Open Day on March 25.