Brief Summary
Troy Dunaway, the department head at CG Spectrum and head of the game design program, explains what game design is and the key aspects of being a game designer. He highlights the roles of system design and level design, emphasising the importance of understanding both. Communication, problem-solving within constraints, and continuous testing and iteration are crucial for success. He encourages aspiring game designers to embrace challenges and keep learning.
- System design focuses on the second-to-second gameplay, including mechanics like jumping, running, and fighting.
- Level design involves building interactive worlds that utilise the designed systems.
- Game designers must find the fun in their projects, understanding their audience and demographics.
- Effective communication is essential for collaborating with artists, engineers, and other team members.
- Continuous testing and iteration are necessary to refine the game and ensure it appeals to the target audience.
Troy Dunaway introduces the concept of game design, noting that it is often misunderstood even by industry executives. He defines game designers as part artist, part engineer, and part magician, highlighting the importance and complexity of their role. With over 30 years of experience, Dunaway aims to provide valuable lessons in game design.
Dunaway outlines the two main aspects of game design: system design and level design. System design focuses on the second-to-second gameplay, including mechanics like jumping, running, and fighting. Level design involves building the worlds where the gameplay takes place, making them interactive and utilising the designed systems. He mentions that CG Spectrum teaches both system and level design to provide a comprehensive understanding. System designers often work on conceptual and theoretical aspects, spending time writing documents and creating presentations. They also implement their designs in game engines like Unreal Engine and Unity, working with engineering teams and using tools like Blueprints and data tables. Level designers use assets created by the art team to build levels, placing NPCs, setting up quests and combat scenarios, and designing puzzles.
As a game designer, you're empowered to find the fun in your project. It's about identifying what makes the game exciting to play, understanding the target audience, and tailoring the game to their preferences. This involves considering factors like age, location, and interests to create an engaging experience.
Game design involves problem-solving within constraints such as technology, IP limitations, team capabilities, and budget. Effective communication is crucial in a team environment, as game development requires collaboration with artists, engineers, sound designers, and marketing professionals. Game designers must communicate verbally and in writing, presenting ideas to executives, the team, and the public.
Game design requires continuous testing and iteration. After initial design and development, the game must be tested extensively to gather feedback and identify areas for improvement. This involves focus testing and iterating on the design based on player opinions. Balancing the game is an ongoing process, even after launch, to ensure it remains engaging and enjoyable.
Every project offers opportunities to learn and push creative limits. Dunaway encourages those who love playing games and enjoy challenges to explore game design further. He directs viewers to the CG Spectrum website and his YouTube live stream for more information and resources.
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Transcript
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0:00 and we're sort of part artist part engineer part magician and what we do every day is really important because a lot of people don't understand it what is game design right this is a really interesting question because a lot of people don't really understand it I'd argue even a lot of Executives in the industry don't really understand what a game designer does I'm Troy dunway I'm the department head at CG spectrum and the head of game design program I've been designing video games for over 30 years I'm here today to teach you some valuable [Music] lessons now there's two main aspects to
0:45 being a game designer really and there there's a lot of sub you know aspects we'll talk about the biggest jobs in games especially if you're an entry level person that wants to get into games and it's your first time in games and those two are system design and doing level design so the system design is that second to Second gamepl what am I doing how do I jump how do I run how do I fight and punch and do all the fun stuff in the game you know and how do I keep the player moving forward through that game every second right and the level design is is the place that we're going to go do it how do I build the worlds out how do I make that world interactive place that world uses those systems that I design so you have to kind of know a little bit of both and here at CG Spectrum we teach you both we teach you some system design and some level design so you really understand how to do both of those things but as a system designer a lot of your job is
1:32 kind of like conceptual you do a lot of theory you work in a lot of paper design to start with and you might spend months and months and months writing documents depends on your team depends on your project you could spend weeks or months even years like just working on paper making presentations making game design documents and big spreadsheets and all sorts of crazy stuff you know but you're also going to you know figure out like how to you know eventually build that stuff you're going to go on the Unreal Engine you're going to Unity you're going to your game engine right you're going to figure out then how to implement that stuff building it as a system designer is really like going in and working with your engineering team because they're going to probably implement a lot of that core stuff but if you're working like an unreal you got to learn Blueprints and somewhat technical stuff how to connect things together and data tables so I can you know figure out like what all the stats on something how do I balance those
2:17 stats from one character and one sword and all these things and how do I mix them all together and make that a lot of fun and then level design level Design's kind of a little bit opposite of that and you have to kind of take a bunch of these Lego pieces hopefully that you know your team your art team has built out all this stuff and they're making sure that it's going to be you know these things that I can go put in the level or maybe I white box everything out so I can kind of get a rough approximation of what this level is going to be putting down all the NPCs and making quests and setting up different combat scenarios and figuring out puzzles and stories figuring out the interface for the game the you know the uiux the audio and everything else as a game designer you're really empowered to find the fun in your project you really have to figure out
3:04 like what is it that's exciting about playing this game right it's all about fun but Fun's very ambiguous you know you got to find the users and figure out who they are and make the game for them right and that's what's so hard about it but so fun and exciting at the same time is this for kids is this for adults is it for people in one country or another country who's my demographic what did they like and put myself aside from it we're in this proverbial box all the time in game design we have techn ology limits we have all kinds of other limits around our IP the games that we're trying to build the ideas our stories what our team can do our budgets and all these things and so we have to problem solve within this box of how do we make fun but in our limited resources our limited time and game design you know is just about communication you know in the
3:49 team environment you can't build this alone you have to build this as a team right and it doesn't matter whether you're a small Indie team or if you're a really large team but very very very few people can build game bys you have artists and engineers and sound people and marketing people and everything else in between that got to work with you as a game designer so you got to be a great communicator you got to learn how to communicate verbally and written in presentations you know to Executives to your own team you know out to the public many engineers and people like that can be a little bit more introverted but as a game designer in game design you've got to get out there and you got to you know figure out what is this product and how do I get my team to build it but how do I also you know get something that the that the public is going to want that my end users are going to want and you really have to advocate for the
4:39 player we can only design on paper so far we can only build it so far before we really know what it is and then we got to test it we test it we test it some more you know and we go out and we focus test it we get people's opinions we're like nope not it like we start over we iterate you know we rough it out again you know and it's it's kind of one of those things where you have to keep refining it over and over again and you got to balance it out right and you keep doing that you know and even if the game goes live sometimes you keep balancing you keep pushing right because you got to make it great and and what I think is great doesn't necessarily mean what somebody else makes is great every project gives you some opportunities to learn something new do something new and push those limits and so if you love to play games and if you love a challenge learn more about game design check out our website at CG spectrum.com there's
5:24 lots of information there check out my live stream on YouTube I've got hundreds of hours now of information there about how to be a game designer and how to enjoy game design so check us out like us and subscribe us looking forward to seeing you online take care bye
