I recently applied for a job as Level Designer but I didn’t get it. Now as a person who’s been waiting awhile for the opportunity to show my current place employment “hey I can design things” I thought this was my chance. So I did my best (which ironically isn’t my best anymore) and presented what I thought was good. Since I haven’t gotten feedback on my test or interview I can’t say or not if it were bad so I’m not crossing that bridge until I do. I have to look back and see what could I have done better to allow myself to present what I did better. Every game comes with a post mortem so I think I should do one for this one too. So we had two design tests we had to complete. Once was a balancing test where we had to go and take levels, craft items and resources and balance them in some way. I spent more time on this one cause I knew it would be hard, but the hardest thing about it was the lack of direction we had. Since we were building our own concept alongside the balance sheet, you could basically say we were creating our own game. So going from concept to something balance able I think I was plagued by “what will they think is good” instead of just coming up with a concept and saying “alrightly lets plug in some numbers so we can see how everything works”. Next time I’ll approach it from a “lets generate some ideas so we can start working on the hard stuff of the test” instead of mulling over how much the concept has to inform the balancing aspect of it. Though I know this and it was reaffirmed in my interview that the design of the creative side of things does need to inform the player what they need to do. Since I didn’t have a firm grip on the “how” of it all, I was left treading water until I realized I had to create the “how” and go from there. So one of the principles I learned while doing the balancing test is always ask “who, what, when, where, why and how” when you’re stuck. If you don’t know what reason a player is doing something for then you’ll not have any idea how to balance it. I thankful I was able to go on this journey cause I can now implement that principle next time I have to design anything, not just video games. Once I started asking those questions, my balancing became pretty easy to do, I just stuck with the principles I was going for and kept asking questions. I was only disappointed that I didn’t get there sooner. I also could have made the creative side of things be more cohesive with the technical side. I did what I thought would be best for the game but looking back I could have put more time into it. Now I know to approach it from an angle of “hey lets put this mechanic in there because it’s fun, but this is what makes it fun”. In recent years I’ve been finding more and more games having a great immersive experience. I think that every play can lose themselves in an experience if crafted correctly. I think this immersion comes when you combine Aesthetic, Systems and Audio design mesh in such a way, the world you’ve created and why you’re in it just makes sense. That’s the thing I got most from the interview is I realized I want to create games that have a “complete” experience. I want players to become lost in a world and love it because everything meshed together in such a good way it kept them enthralled by the game. I think this is the goal of most Designers or “Experience Creators” if you will when it comes to something a human being is going to interact with. You want somebody to say “this feels right”. You’ll know why and be proud that you created that. The big question is, “how do you do that”. That is a very loaded question indeed and I think I’ll spend the rest of my career chasing that answer, but I think eventually because I’m always looking at the question, I will make it to my destination. Now that I think of it though, I should answer that question now so I can look back on it later. I feel like games need to resonate from an emotional place. Games should cause a healthy reaction to something that allows us to interact with it in a way we find enjoyable. Wither we’re touched by a love story or aggravated that we can’t past level 8, we as designers must make this enjoyable. I feel you capture your potential player’s attention by having a great Aesthetic. I don’t mean just Art Direction and Graphics but whats at the soul of the world and all it’s inhabitants. When you see somebody in a world looking at a castle that once stood tall but now is crumbing apart and if your main character is haunted by this, it gives you a direct link into the world. Building this around everything a player is going to experience. Then you come into the Gameplay, which should be informed by the Aesthetic. How a player interacts with the world should help re-affirm a players actions but it should also make the players actions meaningful. For instance in Infamous you have a scene where it’s a bad action to save your girl friend but a good action to save the doctors. The game doesn’t do a good job of making the player feel a connection to your girl friend so honestly the decision is informed by how you’re playing though the game. I want a build a game experience that makes your decision about losing her at the core of why you’re doing it, not because it’s good or bad, but because of your emotions. That’s the final part of it all, how much emotional impact will your game have on the player . Will it be so hard that at the end of it you feel really accomplished? Will you tell a story where you lose your best friend so you get as angry as Goku? How does this inform your decisions in a real way? I feel we can all make stories about say “A Boy and his Dragon”. It’s how we craft the world to inform the player this importance (or lack thereof) in the world, we have the player be best buds with their dragon have many a heartfelt and victorious moments, then it’s that one chance where you then have to fight your best friend. I want to build a game that looks at that and makes it gut renchingly hard for you to fight, but you must do it cause if you don’t you wont’ get your best friend back. Sure that uses tropes like “Heel/Face Turn” and “I know you’re in there some where” but that’s because you WANT there to be something in there to get back. Because you want him back GOT DAMNIT. Not just because he’s super awesome fighter or you’re at level 85 but because you were genuinely impacted by the experiences you had together. Because games are about crafting a journey. You want to create parts that resonate with the player mainly based on how they play. You want players minds to still be in the game even when they’re away because they can’t wait to come back for more. You want players to discover new things about the world that answers somethings but then opens up a new chapter of questions. It should be a ride that you don’t want to get off on until the very end and once you get off you want to tell everybody about your experience. So sure, this adventure did not lead to the destination I wanted, but maybe just maybe it lead to the destination that I needed. So I’m glad I went though it cause now I think my side projects like Yomimon and Ganjas y Tapas will be worlds better because of it. So in the end all I can say is.... Thank You.
