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
not to say that you shouldn’t try to get a programming job right out of college. You
might very well get one. Programmers are regularly in demand. Don’t be afraid to
take a job testing games along the way if you are still exploring your options. You
will meet some very interesting, colorful, passionate, and exciting folks in most
game-testing departments. Keep in mind that many companies promote developers
directly from the test department into that ideal job making textures or models,
scripting, or even programming. By taking a job testing games, the company will
learn more about you. Be persistent, and they will see your dedication, desire, and ability.
As the development and design teams continue to work with the test department
to finalize a game title, you may get to see firsthand the challenges and frustrations
that accompany the game design and production process. Many new developers are
simply overly idealistic. Those of us who have been around the game industry a little
while were once that way too. Despite how it might seem, this is actually a healthy
influence for the industry. We need some surprise ideas.
Working in the test department will make you a better game designer. In short, it
will probably make you a better developer no matter what you ultimately choose to
do. Even if you have incredible visual design skills and are well trained from a
top-notch design school, if you have no exposure to the process of watching a game
start to come together, there is a hole in your experience. Don’t worry; one way or
another, you’ll fill that hole over the time you spend building games.
When you work in QA, you can literally spend all day taking mental and physical
notes about what works, what doesn’t work, and why. These are my mantra questions.
As game builders, we always want to know what works, what doesn’t, and why. This
is very useful information for your future of building games.
Even with your best-planned production efforts, an airtight design plan, and an
experienced development team, you have no guarantee that a hot-selling, awardwinning
game will pop out of the oven on the other side. Building great games is
messy revision-laden experimental work. It is directly at odds with a “need it cheaper
yesterday” mentality. It is always a sizeable risk. It is not for the faint of heart. Every
developer knows it: to get it really right takes time and resources. What a concept.
The vast majority of developers have little of either.
On the technological merry-go-round called game development, where you are
literally inventing the ride while you ride it, how do you “time” a game’s solid release
date to hit an arbitrary marketing window date sequence attached to a movie?
Whew. Are you dizzy yet? You will be.
Fortunately, to some extent, you can catch a glimpse of all of this going on around
you in QA. If you find yourself working in QA, for whatever reason, use the time to
your advantage. Use the time to hone and refine your understanding of game mechanics
and to build your gaming intuition. If you choose to continue developing games, the
time spent in QA should serve you well.