Thread by @tanyaxshort

as requested, here's a lil thread with thoughts and observations on how to grow as a game designer, from aspiring to senior, as a salaried game designer for over 10 years. (it's ok if you disagree with me 🌠)

1. starting designers often ask for book recommendations. my first answer is "have you made stuff?" you've probably already read enough blog articles or watched GDC talks, so go make some stuff. it doesn't always have to be finished games. test out ideas. in an engine.

THEN it'll be helpful to read some stuff, after you made/while making stuff.

here's a few books that are p good, go look on the GDC YouTube as well for tons of great talks:
amazon.ca/Challenges-Gam…
crcpress.com/The-Art-of-Gam…
shop.oreilly.com/product/063692…

but the important thing overall is to alternate between the practice/craft of making stuff, and absorbing some new perspectives and best practices. (by engine I mean whatever. Twine, Frostbite, modding, cardboard bits, who cares. make stuff.)

2. do finish stuff sometimes though. even if it's non-commercial, make /something/ until it's "done". concepting and early production are different design skills than finaling/shipping. the whole process will help your growth.

3. aspiring designers usually play lots of games. the basic qs to always ask yourself when you play:
- what am I feeling?
- how do diff elements (visuals, controls, audio, camera, marketing) effect that experience?
- what changes to those elements would change how it feels?

It can be useful to reverse-engineer some systems or features and understand their design for yourself. For
example, if you enjoy Spelunky, really STUDY its wiki for its damage numbers, spawn rates, etc. What would
happen to the ~feeling~ if some of those numbers changed?

4. lose your disdain for genres you don't naturally enjoy. ideally you'd go play them and understand them deeply to grow, but at LEAST understand it's your personal taste, and not the Gold Standard, whatever it is.

in fact, exploring "unfun" genres may teach you something you can carry back to your design nest. you don't have to play and master all games, but getting your feet wet in unfamiliar territory CAN be helpful in widening your vocabulary.

bored by combat? cool, me too mostly, but there's a LOT of careful content AND systems craftsmanship there to learn from.

don't love heavy UI? puzzles? platformers? fine. you don't have to make them. but you CAN learn stuff from them that you won't find in your stomping grounds.

5. speaking of stomping grounds, get a hobby or 2 outside of making/playing games, and commit to them. cooking. travel. woodcarving. music. film. whatev.

designers are problem-solvers, you can only be so good at problem-solving if your reference-points are all insular.

will woodcarving give you a solution to that progression problem on level 3? Nope. but your brain will be better at lateral and cross-system thinking when it has more experiences to draw from.

6.get in the habit of writing down your game design concepts/ideas BEFORE you implement them. but AVOID the temptation to write the nitty-gritty feature implementation details. **Focus on the player experience** -- the intended emotional journey. refer to this often while making.

you might enjoy writing endlessly detailed lists of content or spreadsheets of system/item ideas. that's fun. but it's also a trap, because it's the cart before the horse. the player experience needs to direct what kinds of attacks each enemy has or w/e, not the other way around.

that concept/"player experience" document will also help prevent you from stunting your growth in the most common way, which is to simply replicate other games.

Yes, yes, I told you to reverse-engineer a game. But that should help you understand how a player XP is achieved, NOT how to make a game. Beware basing your game design solely on someone else's work (or accepting a genre label) before defining those
player experience goals.

For example, if you want to make a 2d game that's exploring teaching the player timing-skill mastery, it's
possible you will independently re-invent Mario Bros. But it's also possible you will invent something new and
fresh.

Whereas if you start out saying "I'm making a platformer" (therefore the camera must do this & the character must jump like this) that's probably all you CAN make. Beware inheriting another game's design problems & solutions w/out even knowing what they were trying to achieve.

7. as a middling-experienced designer, reading & talks will stop being actively helpful and be best-used as occasional reference material. you may feel like you're floundering in guess-and-check. general blanket design statements can only take you so far.

experienced designers sometimes form retreats or think-tanks together, and pay for the privilege. each game is its own problem to solve. if you're physically isolated, join or create some online communities. there are other designers out there hungry for deeper problem-solving.

8. get comfortable with criticism. don't put up with harassment but DO grow a thick skin. you can't grow as a designer if you can't listen to players. even when it's unpleasant.

this might be controversial for the more artistic among us, but I don't believe a designer can grow in a vacuum... maybe fine artists can in other fields, maybe not, but in games, the player is your co-author, moreso than any other medium.

usually this belief is opposed when it's conflated with commercialism, but I'm NOT saying the designer must bow to the market. I AM saying that if you can't honestly evaluate and iterate on the player experience, somehow, your craft will be stunted.

the more experience you gain, the less dependent on playtests you can become! but if you're dreaming of someday ignoring what players experience in your game, what you're dreaming about isn't game design.

we're building places for other humans to be. like architecture. even the most inspired architect's ability to make houses *for other humans* would be limited if they didn't remind themselves what it feels like to live, breathe, eat, etc, as a human in a space. same for games.

9. Get comfortable with ambiguity. Accept that you may never know how whether what you did was the right solution. Game design is an art, and no amount of obsession or process can turn it into pure science.

Most senior/lead game designers I know score extremely high on the openness to experience in the OCEAN personality test, and I think this is why (in addition to the hobby lateral thinking thing).

There will usually be no 'clearly' right answer or perfect solution to a design problem. There are common solutions to common problems, but you'll find thornier, messier problems AND solutions, the more you experiment in your designs. You have to accept it, on some level.

So if you feel comforted by the idea of 'right' and 'wrong' answers, design may not ultimately be your most comfortable field.

10. know thyself. most game designers tend naturally/instinctively towards either content (characters, levels, world) or systems (rules, structure, tools). It's best not fear or avoid the one that doesn't come as easily, but it's also OK to focus on what brings you more pleasure.

like all binaries, this divide isn't hard. Lots of people enjoy both, and lots of game design (AI, proc gen, core gameplay) tends to be both or neither. BUT you don't have to apologize for enjoying spreadsheets, or dialogue trees, or w/e. Both mindsets are needed for good games.

BUT it can help your growth to recognize where you're comfortable and where you aren't, and connect or collaborate with other designers accordingly. It's up to you if you round yourself out or specialize over time, but both are faster if you are self-aware.

That's it for now! Go make stuff and read stuff and make stuff some more. Best of luck, designer-friends!