Job Roles

Submission Guidelines

It is also incredibly demanding and requires a particular sort of person to take on the role. Much of this is down to the creative aspects of the job – you essentially need to be able to create new worlds for the player to experience. However, the role also requires a fairly high degree of technical nous in order to cope with toolsets that can be very complicated.

Most complex of all will be the players' responses to the situations with which they will be faced. A game designer needs to be able to predict and cater for a baffling range of outcomes from every situation – yet keep the game consistently entertaining and enthralling.

If you're not scared off yet, then hopefully the rest of this section should help unravel some of the mysteries surrounding game design as a career.

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JOB ROLES
Way back in the mists of time (the 80's) the industry was young, teams were small, and the game designer would usually be responsible for just about every aspect of the gameplay, from the core concept and mechanics to the level design and scripting. These days teams are larger and the games themselves are far too large for one person to handle so much work; so an increasing number of sub-categories have developed under the aegis of design.

Level Editor
Level Designer
Game Designer
Design Manager/Lead Designer

You might find that a typical designer has some crossover ability or responsibility in several of these areas, especially as they gain experience. However it's quite likely that a newcomer to the industry will start off as a junior Level Editor.

Level Editor
Although this is often the entry point for designers, it is nevertheless an extremely important part of the game development process. The Level Editor is the person who actually places the items, enemies and interactive mechanics in the game world. In a typical game this might include monsters, health pick-ups, weapons and special items. However, it goes much further than that since the editor is ultimately responsible for the timing and choreography of the level itself. There are so many decisions to be taken when editing a level; for example, how many enemies should the player have to fight through before you offer them a health pack or special power-up? Or maybe you want to generate tension by having a few enemies attacking in a slightly unpredictable way.

Careful and skilled use of the available gameplay options will have an enormous impact on the quality of the final game. This is where you will learn a huge amount about the art of game design. You will discover how to pace the gameplay to keep the experience varied and exciting.

It is also a very technical job. As a Level Editor you will be ultimately responsible for the "script" that runs the level, the triggers and rules that cope with the actions of the player and the responses of AI entities in their vicinity. This requires a very clear and logical brain, coupled with the creative, imaginative mindset that puts the fun and excitement into the gameplay.

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Level Designer
This is a step up from Level Editor. The Level Designer is the person who creates the layout of the level, usually starting by drawing a map of the area and then actually building it in 3D, albeit in a very rough but completely playable form. This "grey box" mesh will eventually be handed over to an artist to completely overhaul into the visible art mesh that will be seen in the final game.

The Level Designer is usually responsible for defining the actual content of the level. So that might include where the big fights occur or the puzzles that must be solved. Clear objectives and understandable geography are a vital part of level design. If the player gets too many objectives, or doesn't know what to do next, then it is usually down to the designer to rectify that problem; sometimes this will entail changes to the layout of the level.

Of course, all this has to be achieved within the technical constraints of the game engine. No game engine is infinitely powerful, no matter what claims the creators may make, so the designer must ensure that only relevant areas are visible or active at any given time. The Level Designer will need to have an in-depth knowledge of these constraints and have a suite of solutions on hand to deal with them.

There is one more skill that a good Level Designer will need – level editing. Most designers will also edit their own levels. In a typical game development, a designer will design and build several levels, handing some of them over to Level Editors to complete, but retaining edit control over a few.

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Game Designer
The big one. The crux of the industry and one of the most exciting jobs there is! Creating worlds, manipulating emotions, defining the experience that you want the player to go through. This is a job about ideas – the actual content and theme of the game, the actions and abilities that the player will have available, the mechanics they will be able to use and the challenges they will face.

However, a good game designer needs much more than just raw creativity and imagination. The role requires enormous discipline and the ability to understand the needs and demands of your entire audience. You need to strike the balance between creating a game that you want to play versus the game that the audience want. It's a difficult task, constantly hitting you with contradictory demands.

Game design actually covers two different strands – development design and initial concept design. Of the two, the initial concept design is the one that most people expect to be doing: actually coming up with ideas for brand new games, but in truth that is only a small part of the designer’s life. You will spend much more time working on the "development design" where you will go into enormous detail on every action, ability and mechanic of the game.

In many respects, the term "Game Designer" is not so much a specific job performed by a given person, but more a general task that is performed by the senior members of the design team (Level Designers and Design Manager). So an excellent attitude to teamwork is vital for this role.

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Design Manager/Lead Designer
The Design Manager or DM (sometimes also called Lead Designer) is the person who is usually most responsible for the gameplay of the final game. It is their responsibility to take on all the ideas from the design team (and indeed the whole development team) and choose the best for the game. Naturally, they should be able to generate many ideas and concepts themselves.

Design management is only partially a creative role; the actual management side is crucial to the team and the game itself. As well as being responsible for the schedule of the designers on the team, the DM will be in constant communication with the art and technical leads, ensuring the requirements of the game are understood, approved and enacted by all departments.

Furthermore, the DM will be a principal point of contact with the publisher and will have to balance the desires of the development team with the requests of the producer (who will usually work for a completely different company – normally the company actually paying for the game to be developed). So some pretty good diplomatic skills are required for this role, as well as a deep understanding of the art and science of gameplay itself.

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Further Specialisation
Depending on the type of game you end up working on, there may be some additional specialist design roles, for example AI Designer or Script Writer, that require some very particular skills. It is well worth considering whether or not you could offer a dev team something of this nature in addition to general game and level design skills, since this will certainly raise your value as a prospective employee.

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GUIDANCE & ADVICE

Level Editor
Level Designer
Game Designer
Design Manager/Lead Designer

Level Editor

Skills Required
Since most games use custom tools written by the development studio, most of your training will take place on the job itself. It is not necessary to have traditional artistic skills and as a Level Editor, you will not be asked to use 3D art packages to edit the physical level environment.

There are many level edit tools available with games these days, particularly on the PC; first person shooters are especially well served in this area. You should be able to try your hand at level editing within either pre-existing levels that you have stripped out, or in some basic level layouts created yourself in the construction tools.

Best Tip
Try not to concentrate too heavily on FPS games as your sole source of home level editing experience. Whilst a great start, they only represent a single genre. Try different types of games: you might be able to find some puzzle, racing or skateboarding games that offer level editing facilities. Play with as many as you can. Every one of these will add something valuable to your skills as a level editor and ultimately as a game designer. At the end of the day, that will make you stand out more than the next CV to land on a prospective employer’s desk; and that is half the battle in getting your first job.

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Level Designer

Skills Required
A high degree of gameplay knowledge and understanding is vital for this role. The critical and analytical skills to work out why some game levels are works of genius and others are merely passable.

3D modelling skills will be very important. You will need to be able to actually build your level in 3D. This will require a good working knowledge of basic mesh editing. Advanced modelling skills will not be necessary – remember that you are only building the basic framework: all the detail will be created by a dedicated artist at a later date. A good imagination and a high degree of spatial awareness are the core skills of the Level Designer.

Best Tip
Very few people actually send samples of level design with their job applications; this is especially true of 3D level layouts built in Max or Maya. This is a pity because it is exactly the kind of thing we want to see. Any applicant who builds a few example levels and sends a nice set of screenshots or even a video flythrough from that level is going to raise the profile of their application a great deal.

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Game Designer

Skills Required
This is one of the most difficult areas for which to define a skillset. In many respects it comes down to game knowledge; you should have played games from every genre and every era. But a willingness to branch out and the self confidence to create is essential - the world does not need any more game designers who actually just want to remake their favourite game.

You'll have to be a resilient character who can withstand a lot of criticism, but who also knows when to listen to differing opinions and take on board other people’s suggestions. Communication skills are vital: those fantastic ideas of yours are worthless unless you can present them in an exciting and clearly comprehensible manner.

Experience is essential in this field. It is very unlikely that you will be hired as a game designer if you have no previous form or professional experience. At the end of the day, it is personal skills that will allow you to flourish as a game designer. Imagination. Creativity. Confidence.

Best Tip
As with all roles that carry a large degree of authorship over public destined artwork, the most important thing to do is to balance the amount of novel and radical concepts (which some players might find confusing or alienating) with some more traditional and familiar elements. Getting this balance right should enable most people to gain a foothold, a degree of understanding of your games, yet be constantly surprised and entertained.

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Design Manager/Lead Designer

Skills Required
In many respects this is the Game Designer plus a whole lot more:
more confidence, more experience and those all-important management skills.
You'll need a very diplomatic personality, be able to cope with demands from all corners and be able to switch between a game design and a personnel management mindset in an instant.

Management experience is obviously a bonus but this should be either from a creative field or coupled with actual game development experience.

Best Tip
Long-term experience of game development is essential. Both a strong desire to take on the challenge of management and a willingness to step back from some of the more hands-on elements of game design must be demonstrated in the candidate's application.

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
This following list is a guide to the sort of samples you should try to assemble when applying for a design role. Whatever you do, remember to be selective and send only your best work. Swamping a prospective employer with large quantities of old and new work can make your submission look inconsistent and patchy if the older stuff is of a lower quality. Don't worry if you don't have all of this stuff, just provide a few good items from this list.

• CV – in the standard format
• Professional work (if you are industry experienced)
• Practical examples – Level designs for existing games (eg. FPS games)
• Sample models/artwork
• Sample Documents

Professional work can be provided as screenshots and supporting material (with obvious respect to legal and confidentiality issues.) This support material could be documentation, maps and plan drawings or actual models.

Professional work should always be accompanied by a detailed description of what you actually did on the work in question. It is anticipated that most areas of a finished game will be collaborative to some degree, so highlighting key sections and areas of your responsibility is vital.

Practical examples could be your homemade levels for published games. Ideally work of this kind will include the playable level (obviously you'll need to hope that the actual game is available to the person reviewing the application), as well as some brief documentation illustrating the key design features and decisions behind the level. For example, the original concept and how it changed and evolved during its creation, what things you discovered didn't work and what actions you undertook to rectify those problems.

Sample models and artwork are not expected to be of the quality required by an Artist applicant, but examples of your level modelling could be extremely useful. These could be presented as actual model files (for example Max or Maya) or via a good series of still images and screenshots that illustrate the layout and views within the level. Initial maps and diagrams can help us judge how well you plan and present your work.

Sample documentation can take many forms; below you can find a few examples. The most important thing to remember is that quality, not quantity, is the most important factor. Keep each sample document short – 3-4 pages at most, and be selective with your work. Just a few of your best items will show your abilities in the best light.

• A short design overview for a new, original game. This could be anything from a small, free download arcade or puzzle type game to an epic fantasy adventure. The important thing is to get only the most critical information across in a short space (3-4 pages).
• A critical analysis of an existing game – this is not a review, this is a far more sophisticated and observant appraisal of why a game works very well, or why it falls flat on its face. You can assess the entire game in broad strokes, or choose a single section or level to cover in detail.
• A level design for an existing game, presented as a map and walkthrough. Be sure to capture the atmosphere and play style of the chosen game. Try to stay within the size limit of 3-4 pages. Stick to the point: long descriptive passages explaining the emotional state of the player are unnecessary.

Do not send a full game design document. It is very unlikely to be read in its entirety and it can be extremely difficult to find the crucial information that the employer will be looking for. Therefore it is likely to be ignored.

Finally, be a designer!
A trap that a great number of people fall into is confusing game design for script writing. We often receive a so-called "game design" that is in fact nothing more than page after page of often confusing and hackneyed narrative. Whilst it is important to be able to contextualise your game designs within a narrative framework, you must allow the game itself to be the most prominent part!

If you are particularly keen on storytelling, then consider creating a specific game narrative work sample of 2 or 3 pages. Explain how the narrative will relate to the gameplay and theme of the design. Unless you are applying for a specific scriptwriting role, remember to ensure that your full application achieves a balance of game design and narrative design.

Good luck!

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