Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

Building Game Worlds
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U L T I M A T E G A M E D E S I G N
TM: What would you say are the three greatest challenges in building tools that work seamlessly
with game engines?
NH: Challenge 1: Tools must be finished (or at least able to allow users to create production-quality
work) relatively quickly in order for the development team to have enough time to create game content.
But achieving this can only be done with very solid planning and teamwork from technology and design.
Challenge 2: Maintaining a solid communication channel between the design and technology
department is a must, and is where the process has a tendency to break down. This has to be an
open collaboration, and both groups have to be willing to compromise and be very goal-oriented.
Challenge 3: Team members must recognize when a tool or tool feature isn’t working or needs to
be improved, and just as important they must be able to recognize when a feature is “good enough.”
If tools continue to change too late into development, then there’s likely to be a crazy, unpleasant rush
at the end once designers have their full toolset. On the other hand, if the tools are locked down too
early and therefore end up being too limited, designers may not be able to create the game without
great pain and difficulty.
TM: Do these challenges differ greatly by platform (Xbox, PS2)?
NH: I believe that these challenges are universal regardless of development platform.
TM: In building a game as a technical lead or director, what do you expect from a game or level
designer on a daily basis?
NH: Any designer has to realize that game development is driven by design. The most dazzling
game technology in the world can’t make a great game without a good design behind it. And because
a bad or uncertain design can end up wasting many man-months (or in extreme cases, man-years)
of programmer time working and reworking content, this responsibility absolutely needs to be taken
seriously. No designer is perfect, and neither is any up-front game design—however, a designer at
any level should always be striving to improve his or her planning skills, and must recognize as early as
possible when a slight alteration to a game’s development path could end up making the game better
or the team more efficient.
TM: How do you debug tools during content development?
NH: In the early days of tool development, the team needs to realize that creating ideal tools is a
learning process, and that the first few efforts at using a tool to create production work are likely to
only be partially successful. But once full game development is underway, the process of altering or
debugging tools has to be done with great caution, and is more costly both because it must be done
with more care and because mistakes can undo a larger quantity of usable work.
TM: In building up gameplay, is it helpful to have designers tweaking behavior or performance
scripts all day long?
NH: When a scripting pipeline is set up efficiently, it can be a very powerful tool in the hands of a
strong designer. Because scripting from a high level can control the quality, feel, and personality of
a game, it absolutely makes sense to have some number of designers working on such scripts in a
full-time capacity. The number of designers needed for this varies by the demands of the project.
TM: Can you tell us about some of your goals in game technology development?
NH: For me personally, great games are more important than great technology. So in the end, my
number one goal is to create the tools pipeline and competitive technology to facilitate the design
team to make a truly great game, with broad appeal. Technology is a means to an end, and ideally
will be used effectively within the scope of a finished game.