Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

C H A P T E R 8
TM: What materials do most companies require from game design candidates?
MW: Depending on the type of designer position, it will vary slightly. For level designers, they mostly
ask for screenshots of levels you’ve created. For game designers, those who design the look, feel, plot,
characters, action, and everything else in the game, they will sometimes ask for writing samples. This
may mean they give you a one-sentence idea and look for how you grow it into a game. It’s all about
being sure you can do the work, not just want to do the work.
TM: What kind of backgrounds (education and experience) do most successful design candidates
have?
MW: First and foremost, game companies want gamers. That may sound like it should go without
saying, but you’d be surprised how many people I met, even as interviewees for game testing jobs, who
never played a game or didn’t know even the most popular game titles. If you aren’t passionate about
gaming, how can you be passionate about the work they’re going to have you do? And even more to
the point, how can they expect you to know what makes a game good? When companies sink millions
of dollars into a title, they need to know that you are going to deliver a hit. As for education, a lot of
colleges and universities are starting to offer courses in game design. Always a good thing to be able
to say you’ve studied. And business courses, computer courses, all excellent ways to prepare. Nothing
makes a hiring manager feel better than hiring the right qualified person for the job and knowing that
they can be grown into a higher-level position because they already learned the technical or business
side of things in school.
TM: How should one prepare to work in game design?
MW: Play, play, play! And read every single game review you can. Pay close attention to what is
being critiqued in each case. No one worth their salt writes a game review saying “Yeah, umm … it
was good! It was fun. I liked it.” That’s no review … it’s barely an opinion! But a real review will give
you insight as to what it is that is making the game good! And that’s what you’re after … and that’s
what you want to bring to a company. Then write some reviews of your own and send them out to
publishers and various web sites. This could get your name out there and most certainly is a good
thing to put on your resume when you are starting out. It shows the managers that you take the
business seriously and are becoming more and more involved. Finally, and most importantly … listen!
When you hear someone talking about what they are looking for in the job … listen! If you have
strengths that match it, talk about them! But don’t just tell them what you want them to know, tell
them what they want to know about you! You can’t do that if you don’t listen. Then, after you get that
first job (tester, designer, whatever), keep listening. Most of the time, those who are doing the talking
are the ones who can best move you along.
TM: What are your thoughts on the near-future demand for game designers?
MW: I’d like to see demand growing, and I think it’s a natural thing for it to happen. While it’s
possible to make a long living as a game designer, it’s also important to have fresh ideas constantly
flowing into the business. In the near future, demand will follow the economy. The better the economy
does, the more money people have to spend on games, the more demand grows, the more game
designers are needed to make games to meet the demand. We’re what economists would call a
“disposable income” business. We depend on people spending their “extra” cash on what we’ve
created … and that requires a good economy.
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Design Considerations for Massively Multiplayer Online Games