You have reached the last lesson of the course, or rather a conclusion and a recap of what a game designer's role actually is. As it must be quite obvious by now, the game designer's work includes a lot of mental tasks to improve and enhance ideas and turn them into finished products. Communicational skills are emphasized greatly in the work-life.
A game designer's important task is to create a solid vision that gathers all the essential parts of a game and can be communicated clearly to others. Working as a game designer shouldn't be lonely, and having a team around helps improving ideas even further. The following is a recap of some of the most important skills and things you need as a designer.
Teamwork Taking ideas to the next level often involves sharing them with others. You might discover that someone in your team has a deeper knowledge of an aspect, and it might even become valuable when designing.
Meetings Design meetings are for the design changes and improvements. This is how everyone in the team shares their input and stays informed about the decisions.
Feedback Feedback is an important resource in the game industry and something everyone should learn to give and receive. When feedback is given right, it can help us improve and learn.
Document At the start of the projects, post-it notes and scattered papers with thoughts and ideas is pretty common. But as the project really kicks off, the members of a team need to be on top of the game design choices and the overall vision.
The game design documentation includes a brief overview, target audience, and game elements, for example.
Setting up a healthy working environment encourages the team's efforts during the project. Offering everyone a chance to truly see their touch in the game boosts morale and confidence.
Every game should be prototyped and tested at every production stage to make sure that everything works as intended. In the beginning, making simple prototypes using pen and paper helps to see if the rules and actions go together without getting jammed. Digital prototypes are also useful in ensuring that effects and game mechanics work correctly.
As the game becomes more developed, the actual game testing begins. Testers aim to find any bugs or obscurities. The goal is to make sure the game doesn’t get published looking unfinished or even unplayable.
The first minutes of the game are critical, as it’s the time the player decides if they will continue playing or quit altogether. As we covered in the Guiding and Teaching Players lesson, tutorials are divided into four categories, all of which quite different from each other. However, if these don't fit your game's flow, you are free to modify and combine them to suit your game better.
Watch the following video to review the most important aspects of tutorials.
The goal every game aims at is to get the players to return time and time again. This is why games have loops blended into them. Gameplay loops are basically repetitive tasks that keep the player intrigued and interested in the game.
Core loops are all about repeating the same action such as clearing an area from enemies and getting a reward. (Image: Ninja Gaiden, Team Ninja)
Compulsion loops' goal is to create anticipation with potentially valuable rewards. Better rewards cause satisfaction and poor rewards disappointment, and both feelings make the player try again. (Image: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve)
Simple loops are everything else between the core and compulsion loops, such as healing after battles and gathering dropped items from the enemies. (Image: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo)
To support the core loops, the alternative gameplay loops oftentimes include upgrading equipment and tools that lead to better rewards in the core loop. (Image: Death Stranding, Kojima Productions)
We shouldn't forget the massive amount of different game genres and how they have brought subgenres along with them, either.
For the game designer, it's beneficial to be familiar with different game genres and do some research on the communities around them, their key elements, and mechanics that make the genre enjoyable.
The genres’ features are not set in stone, but if you change everything, the genre also changes, which you should keep in mind. FPS-games' main feature is shooting and without that, it becomes more of a fighting game.
That’s it, you’ve completed the course! Only one task remains, and it’s the Knowledge Test. Review the course material and do your best. Good luck!
This is it. The final knowledge test. Review the material and answer the following questions. Good luck!