Thread by @MorelloNMST

Let's talk about a subject near and dear to my heart; the *emotional skills* of game design.

We talk a lot about psychology, and the nuts and bolts of "engagement" - but we don't often talk about how emotional awareness and skills are critical to being a great designer.

(Also tbh the design process from execution forward is interesting in practice, but I kept writing boring things that didn't feel super useful beyond what we've discussed already.

If there's a huge demand, I'll come back to breaking those down.)

OK, on to it.

I've seen a lot of designers, usually implicitly, think that being the biggest brain or the "most right" are what we really need in design.

You do want to hone your analytical skills, sure, but without the emotional ones, you'll find yourself having a really tough time.

Here's a short list of some of the emotional skills critical for a game designer:

Empathy
Likability
Self-awareness

I'm of the strong opinion that being an actual great designer without working on these skills is impossible.

Let's discuss why.

Empathy is a core design skill; how will you make things for other people if you can't work to understand how that experience is theirs and not yours?

No matter the game and audience, and your alignment to that audience, a meaningful portion of them will be not like you.

If you can only use your own taste and preference as a guide, at best you can design for a portion of an audience on the games you like.

Being a professional designer means that doesn't cut it; you're building games for your *whole* audience.

A lot of people think there's a "born with it" quality to empathy; but it is a skill and can be trained. And one that doesn't get a ton of teaching or practice to it.

It's worth working on, as both a person and a developer.

Find someone who doesn't like what you like, or has a really different gaming background.

Dive into what their preferences are and why. Get really curious; try to get the appeal on a primal level. The whys!

Engage with it yourself and try to see what they see!

DO NOT DEBATE. -_- All designers could use to practice "not debating." Jesus please just don't. Yes, you.

Preference does not have right and wrong, neither does taste. There are only tradeoffs and priorities :)

Likability is a weird thing to call this; but I didn't have a better word. But it does matter.

This is not the same thing as charisma!

In short, try to be someone people would like to work with again. You'll be amazed at the ROI on just being good to people

Take the time to just be appreciative of people. Be considerate and helpful. Be patient with questions.

Hell, just comment your code well.

Everyone is different. The quiet introvert and the gregarious extrovert and everything in between; just be good to others in your own way.

Authenticity is the cornerstone; very few people are good liars or fakes, and it's not worth it. Be authentic, considerate and kind - it goes so far for you and everyone else.

Or, you could try being right and forcing your way all the time...

This, sadly, does work for some. But this requires cronyism in the org, or golden parachutes from above.

But everyone will watch for when you stumble - at best ignoring you, at worst finally descending on you.

It's not worth it. Assholes don't make better games.

Self-awareness is a hard one, but it's really about bias management and turning your BS detector inward.

I'll plug the EC episode I had the pleasure in helping on here; if you didn't catch it before you can check it out.

This is very rare in design, still, and I want it to be much more common.

Because your preferences can easily and sneakily slip in, and ALL designers have a little bit of hubris (after all, we at least think we can make something new or better right?) you need to constantly check this.

The episode covers the goodness, so I'll let you check that out.

Emotions aren't for fuzzies; they're real skills that make you more successful at your craft.

Designers have multi-faceted jobs that require teamwork, service, and self-critique. Lacking these is the same as lacking the analytical skills; a big problem to be remedied.