Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

238
THERE
is a wide and growing range of opportunities available
for those passionate about game design elements. The
more you can learn about scripting, staging, lighting, programming, modeling, layout,
and “play-feel,” the better. It’s already assumed that you play every kind of game
available to study and compare them!
As you diversify your specific skill base, you open up new possibilities. I won’t pull
any punches here: working professionally in game or entertainment design is extremely
competitive. Typically, many developers compete for a single game development
position. Employers know that there are many people who want a job working
in games. In general, people who work in game development can’t really see themselves
doing anything else. A severe love for games is a job requirement. Why else
would you subject yourself to the long hours, constantly looming deadlines, and
dwindling budgets? You will need plenty of love in reserve for what you are trying to
accomplish in your game.
Part of finding a way to succeed as a commercial game designer involves selling the
particular skills you have acquired. Many of the designers that I know did plenty of
work for free along the way. I started by writing simple text adventure games and
either giving them or trading them to friends. Once you begin building games and
growing your experience and capabilities further, you may want to make sure that
your skills have “crossover” value for industries related in some fashion to gaming. I
don’t say this to direct you away from the game industry at all—quite the opposite.
This recommendation is meant to genuinely prepare you for the nature of projectbased
game work in a commercial setting.
The game industry can be volatile. Projects get cancelled at a moment’s notice, and
when projects go away, often times, so does your job. This is why I bother with mentioning
the “crossover” factor at all. I’ve known many game developers who have
made successful career crossovers into film and TV/CGI effects, character design,
storyboarding, web entertainment, production, comics, toy design, product design, and
other disciplines as well. These days, people tend to move back and forth. Each of
these areas has unique production requirements and workflows and offers new kinds
of project learning for the designer at large.
The reality is that only a fixed number of game titles are in production at any one
time. If you’re not working on one of them, you’ll want to be continuing to grow
your abilities on a project. One of the great elements, and one of the steepest challenges,