What you need to be a game designer
Last Friday, at lunch, someone asked me the following question:
“What type of board games do you play?”
and i responded: “none”
And then he replied: “So, how do you want to be a game designer?”
Let me first say before comment the phrase above that i’m not a professional in game design. In fact, i only made one game, Orion’s Belt, a game that is not a blockbuster. Let’s just say that i am a project of a game designer with some good ideas.
But, returning to the phrase above, i really don’t agree with it.
We are not better of worse game designers if we play board games. Game design is about getting good ideas and develop them to make a game that everyone will enjoy. it’s like lego. With the right idea and the right pieces, you can produce the right result, a result that can have success.
Of course, if you play a board game, you will have several good ideas about the structure and functioning of a board game, but that can be or may not be enough. You can develop those ideas, and gather them into a new kind of game, a game that people enjoy to play. Or you can mess everything up and make a game that only you and a few selected persons will enjoy, but the rest of the world (the players world) will not like.
I don’t play board games. But i try to play every new online game i can find (my area is multiplayer online games), to study the structure and new concepts. I consider this a good strategy because you not only get new ideas, ideas that you know that work (some of them at least), but you also study the market: Positive and Negative aspects of each game.
You can be a board gamer, simply a game fanatic or a person with a very good idea and a passion for games. Everyone can be a game designer, but only a few of us will have success.
I hope me and my team (Pedro and Tiago) are among those lucky guys (and your good friends of Vortix Games to. They deserve!)
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Autentication
The Guy
My name is Nuno Silva and I am the author of this blog. I am a Computer Engineer and have a passion for game development.
So, in this blog you find especially things about the web, game development, software, my personal projects (Orion's belt for instance) and, sometimes, just crazy things that pass through my head.
To stay tuned, subscribe my rss feed
And Vortix Games comes to the rescue!
I have to say I don’t agree with the person that spoke with you, but I don’t see eye to eye with your analysis method.
Obviously, you don’t need to play board games to be a game designer. It’s like saying that you need to eat cream cookies to be a chef.
On the other hand, I also disagree that you should focus your research on webgames. Actually, consider the last conversation we had regarding ideas for Orion’s Belt. The best basic concepts were brought from online gaming, but a whole different league from browser based games.
In my humble opinion, there’s no such thing as a video game designer. There are game designers, that design games, board, video, card, whatever, every game is a game. I like to play non-video puzzle games if I need to brainstorm for video puzzle games. But hey! I’m weird…
Well, i didn’t said i should focus my research on web games. I said:”i try to play every new online game i can find” and made a parenthesis: “my area is multiplayer online games”.
Maybe this is one of those unfortunate parenthesis . Because i didn’t want to say that my only focus should be in web games. It was wrong if i did. All the games have something new to teach.
Sorry for my bad explanation.
By the way, i do not consider you weird, i consider you a reference
Board games are very different. Many video game genres (especially action/reflex orientated ones) don’t have anything in common with board games. Well, there are some rules, but that’s about it.
The focus is often completely different. E.g. often the timing/pacing of the feedback loop is the most important aspect. It’s the balance (or well, unbalance) of risk and reward which make those games capture your interest.
It’s something you cannot plan with pen&paper. Many things sound great in theory, but once they are prototyped only a few (if any) are worth it. Board games on the other hand can be fully prototyped and demo-ed with pen&paper. And many details can be thought through beforehand.
Unless you’re doing a round-based multiplayer dungeon game (or straightforward adoptions of board games) there really aren’t any noteworthy parallels.
@Jos
So true, but I believe the problem here is a certain view that a game designer must have a board game foundation. It’s a trend I’ve seen quite often.
One thing though, I believe it is possible to prototype without an actual digital demo. If I’m not mistaken it’s a technique that is taught in universities a bit everywhere and from personal experience (not from such classes, but from prototyping) they actually work.
It’s not a pen&paper thing, but rather using common objects or even pieces of paper to create your game tokens. It’s somewhat weird to explain by writing.
A board game background can only work as foundation if you’re able to build stuff on top of that. Well, that’s pretty much the definition of “foundation”, isn’t it?
From my own experience I would say that it isn’t possible to make a (video) game with new core mechanics without a prototyping stage.
While prototyping isn’t required for clones or minor variations of well established genres, it’s absolutely essential for anything new.
You simply can’t tell how some things turn out in an actual game. E.g. how far you can plan your moves in the middle of the game, how tight the feedback loop is or how much information is actually available to the player at any given time.
With experience you can quickly get rid of some things, which certainly won’t work. All other stuff has to be tried out. Some things will work and others won’t. And some of those can be eventually replaced with other concepts.
Sure, there are some parallels, but there are about as many if you compare it with music making or cooking.
An old friend of mine designed some board games (he also won some prizes n stuff) and I really would say that any knowledge about that kind of thing is absolutely useless for most types of video games and vice versa.
By the way it’s the first time I heard this “board game background is useful yadda yadda” stuff. As long as I don’t hear it from a famous Japanese game designer I won’t give a damn.
It’s a different medium and each one has its own methods, schemes and concepts. Like opera and sitcoms are both about stories and entertainment and yet they require /very/ different approaches.
Sounds like a gross analogy, but that’s how I see it.
“By the way it’s the first time I heard this “board game background is useful yadda yadda” stuff. As long as I don’t hear it from a famous Japanese game designer I won’t give a damn.”
Really? I wonder if it’s a weird portuguese thing? I only heard in Portugal to be honest. Where are you from?
(this is chat is so nice it starts to look like a forum thread)
LOL Vlad. Maybe there is a wordpress plugin that can transform the comments into a forum
Josh i totally agree with you.
The person that spoke the phrase is a professor in a very important university in Lisbon, some of his ideas are good, but don’t work in a real scenario.
>Where are you from?
I’m from Germany (contrary to popular belief I’m not from Japan ;)). I don’t have any formal education in this field, but I wrote some well received semi-unique games such as Fuzetsu.
Well, to be fair I think you can learn a thing or two from board games, but the same is true for sports or everyday activities. Some game concepts were derived from boring stuff like mowing lawn, brushing teeth, driving forklifts, using elevators, etc.
Ah right… some logic maze games were successfully adapted. Like “Theseus and the Minotaur” (see Popcap’s “Mummy Maze”). And Tetris for example is also based on a board game.
But generally I would say that any noteworthy parallels to existing board games are the exception. Even most puzzle games don’t have anything in common with board games. Zuma for example won’t work as a board game. And things like platformers, shoot’em ups, beat’em ups, jump’n’shoots (run’n'gun), first person shooters, racing games, etc don’t have anything in common with board games.
Well, there are the basics like probability and rock-paper-scissors, but those are, well, the basics. It isn’t really something you can only learn from playing board games.
Board and video games share the same basic design principles. If you don’t realize this, you obviously haven’t had adequate exposure to board games; and that’s a shame, because you’re missing out on some very useful stuff.
Board games explore a wide variety of mechanics that are directly applicable to video game design. Resource management, area control, point-to-point movement, partnerships, wagering, etc… Understanding how these mechanics can be leveraged will give you more options when you design your video games.
You should really give playing–and designing–board games a try. You’ll be a better designer for it.
@B. Waite
I agree with everything you said. But the point here was that, to be a game designer, you shouldn’t focus only in a type of game (in this case board games).
When you design a game you should explore each and every type of game. All of them have something to teach.
Of course that, if you design a multiplayer online game (which is my case), board games can teach you a lot, but doesn’t mean that other type of games can’t.
The best example i have is a merge of a massive multiplayer game and chess. In Orion’s Belt, the battle is made using a chess like board. The concepts are similar to chess with details of a strategy game. Each “piece” has an attack, a defense, a range, special attacks, etc characteristics that are seen, for example, in rpg games.
So my point is: Board games are so important as any other type of game.
>Board and video games share the same basic design principles.
Please elaborate. Which design principles are shared between board games and… say… modern shmups (danmaku/bullet hell)?
>If you don’t realize this, you obviously haven’t
>had adequate exposure to board games[...]
I for one played dozens of board games in my youth. That board game designer friend had over 300 back then. (I guess he has over 500 by now.)
>Board games explore a wide variety of mechanics
>that are directly applicable to video game
>design. Resource management, area control,
>point-to-point movement, partnerships, wagering,
>etc…
While it’s true that that stuff is directly applicable to video game design, it’s only relevant for a few hand selected genres.
You can for example learn a lot from movies if your focus is story or atmosphere. However, that’s again only applicable for very few genres.
Alright. Let me put it this way… it’s always a good idea to take a look at all kinds of related material (if any). Board games may serve as a good source of inspiration in some cases (and they might even offer some solutions). Horror movies may work for others. But for the most part there won’t be anything like that… except, well, other video games. Or simply nothing at all.
In-depth knowledge of board games isn’t generally helpful. There are hundreds of genres with zillions of subgenres and I only care for a few of ‘em. Only a handful of those are something I could tackle on my own or with a small team (realistically speaking).
The only (sub)genre of that subset of a subset of genres, which is somewhat related to board games are logic mazes. And that genre isn’t all that popular. (To make matters worse… none of the board games I played were related to that genre.)
So, playing those board games was just a waste of time. Entertaining (especially the pen&paper RPGs), but not of any use since there isn’t any overlap.
In general there is little overlap between different genres… and there are so many of ‘em. There really isn’t one kind of “game design”, a magic formula and one way to tame this beast.
I would say that people who think that board games are the holy grail of game design just haven’t played enough video games yet.
@Nuno
I agree with your last comments. Board games shouldn’t be the only source of inspiration for a game designer. But if you aren’t playing *any* board games, you’re missing out on a *huge* design library.
@Jos
A modern shmup is largely based on pattern matching and hand/eye coordination. On the surface, they don’t appear to have anything in common with board games.
However, pattern matching is something that players do all the time in board games. Recognizing, and reacting to patterns is a fundamental aspect of most game designs–board or otherwise.
Understanding pattern matching theory allows you to more effectively communicate with your player. Exposing yourself to pattern matching in board games is one way to do this.
To Nuno’s point, board games aren’t the *only* way to do this, but it’s not a resource that I think you should overlook.
Board games as the holy grail of game design? That’s another debate, but when we discuss it, I’ll argue that there are more examples of excellent game design on the tabletop than there are on the desktop.
@B.Waite
The whole issue is actually considering board games as the holy grail and I believe we all disagree with it.
My initial point is that game design is not video game design. Designing a game is designing a game. You should consider what the medium for your current is, but you should not be limited in your knowledge, prototyping and creation by that matter.
On the other hand I understand Jos’ point and I see yours. I believe that although video game design is not actually as evolved for its medium as board game design, it is already a class on its own, therefor it’s starting to get its own area, often neglecting its ancestors.
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