General Concepts

Before we can dig into things like Hit Pause and Hierarchies of Reasoning, we have to talk generally about what it means to make games as a designer.

I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to say that being a game designer is not about coming up with all of the ideas. Your job is not going to involve having your vision made.

Honestly, and truthfully, if that is your hope and vision for this job, then allow me to gently turn you away right now. There are other creative disciplines that I think will more greatly fit your desires; in fact, even within the realm of game development, there are crafts that I think will more greatly fit that desire. Just not game design.

It is my goal in these articles to make that clear to you.

Qualities of a Designer

When interviewing junior design candidates, I will often ask, "What is the Game Designer's Job?" Usually you get some variant on "finding the fun", which is incorrect. Your job as a designer is to know all the problems. You do not need to know all the answers, because often you won't, but your job is to be the nexus of what problems are facing your game. These are the qualities you must posses to be that nexus.

Simplicity and Honesty

If you ever look over at my desk, you're most likely going to find me staring off into the distance. If you were to ask me, "What are you pondering right now." The answer is almost always going to be, "trying to figure out how to make things more simple."

The Rule of Three

One of the most powerful and general concepts you can apply to your designs lies not only in the number three, but in several of the numbers from Fibonacci's sequence.