Spotting game design poseurs
Codemasters' principal designer Phil O'Connor writes at length on how to hire a good game designer. Despite its dry and business-like air, it's a frequently-amusing guide on how to spot a charlatan in a profession that offers little in the way of accreditation, but which has an abundance of people who think they can do it.
The key qualification, he says, is game-making experience. For those with no development or modding skills, there must be a tangible obsession not with ideas but the mechanics of their implementation. Among the many other necessary attributes that O'Connor outlines, one other that stands out is the need for a broad interest in literature, history, music and art. Designers must also be able to adapt, because "no design survives first contact with code."
Finally, he warns teams about taking on two sorts of poseur: the Ideas Man and the Fanboy.
Photo: CraftyGoat
Opinion: How To Hire A Good Game Designer [Game Set Watch]
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I've gone through a lot of resumes and conducted interviews and I have to agree with most of the points he makes. Many (maybe most) people seem to have a completely false idea about the job of the game designer. The Idea Man is the one I most often see/hear. This has very little to do with the actual job, which in essence is solving problems. Strategy (the game design document) is very important, but most of the work is tactics. Day to day battle to keep the ship on course, together with the team.
When the charlatans take over, jump ship.
I've got over a decade of experience designing and implementing successful LARPs - one-offs, long-running groups, weekend events, 6-month storylines.
In my favorite LARP, a fanboy - with plenty of cash - toured the US in order to take the reins of overhauling the rules. He saw the game primarily as a sport - and not as a role-playing game.
Under his direction, it went from being fun and flavorful - as it was for the twenty years previous - to being as lacking in narrative as an afternoon of paintball, and less safe than one to boot. It began as D&D acted out - and has ended up as Team Fortress 2 (but without the fun or convenience, and saturated to the brim with vicious politics as individuals and groups fight over who can and cannot design or participate in an event - and thus no-one gets around to writing stories).
They literally wear jerseys now.
Ship jumped.
Damn! Now I'll never get that job at Blizzard!