Working as a designer and developing the vision of a game is all well and good, but a key component is still missing, the team. When the designer is working on a concept for a new game, there is no need for them to do all of it alone, this isn't a job for a 1 person. The designer needs to be able to communicate with their team, in order for them to share the vision of the project clearly.
The purpose of the designer is to maintain that agreed-upon vision, not letting things get muddled along the way. If the vision has been communicated clearly within the team, it will save a lot of development time later, and there will be a lot less confusion. Alternatively, if everyone isn't on the same page about the vision of the game, it's going to cause some damage sooner or later.
As was mentioned during the previous lesson, everyone has ideas, and most people will gladly share their own if they are given the chance. You can never know if someone in the team is actually well versed in a specific subject. Their feedback on design details may end up being extremely valuable when it comes to improving the original vision. It should come as no surprise, that artists and programmers are most likely more familiar with their own fields, compared to the designer.
Design meetings where the team discusses potential changes and improvements to the game can often lead to many great ideas being shared. This applies especially in smaller teams where everyone is working closely together, and a single person can have more direct input overall.
Getting a wider range of opinions also helps, because people have different tastes and experiences. This allows you to see the bigger picture more easily. We're not designing the game just for ourselves, we're making it for the players, who all have different tastes and perspectives as well.
All feedback, positive and negative, should be encouraged within a team. Supporting an open working environment like this is the producer's responsibility, but for some designers, learning to accept this feedback can often prove to be a hurdle (and to other roles as well).
It isn't always pleasant to hear someone criticize your work, especially if you're a very creative personality, which tends to be the case with people that are interested in design. Being the only designer is never easy, and in a role like this, you need to learn to take some emotional blows sometimes. Not all feedback will ever be positive, quite often it can be mostly negative because people tend to open up more about criticisms. Accepting that and learning from it, will improve your work in the future.
“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you're playing a solo game, you'll always lose out to a team.”
-Reid Hoffman - Executive Chairman, LinkedIn
Other people in a development team also tend to enjoy working on a project more, if they can feel that their input also matters. If you only get to do what you're told, without ever getting a chance to actually affect the game you are working on, things can get stale quite quickly because the working environment is too rigid. Seeing their own idea make it into the game, makes the project feel like their own. Being open to design ideas from everyone leads to a healthier working environment overall.
Answer the following question.
However your career turns out in the end, make sure to remember the importance of communication. It leads to better results, better connections, and healthier workplaces, and everybody wins! Now, let’s move on to prototyping and testing.