The Brain of a Game Designer

or rather this game designer’s brain...

This is my brain....

...but what’s in it?

Åsa’s brain

Passion/ vision, career and tools

•Passion/ vision - to tell a good story, and to find new tools to tell that story

•Career - pretty long! from ca 2000, 10 years and counting! Yikes!

•Tools - lots of them, that I’ve collected for a long time

What does a designer do?

What does a designer do? Concepting

Analysis

What does a designer do? Concepting Describe the game play

(specifications)

Analysis

Test

What does a designer do? Concepting Describe the game play

(specifications)

And I also “tweak”, which means I make the game balanced and fun

Analysis

Test

Timeline? Ok!

Timeline? Ok!-73

Pretty empty

Timeline? Ok!-73

Pretty empty

80-talet Whoa!

A passion/ vision is bornWhat IF...

Meanwhile on my spare

time...

Timeline? Ok!-73

Pretty empty

80-talet Whoa!

-93

VisualisationProportions3-D think

Documentationsketch pads!

A passion/ vision is bornWhat IF...

Meanwhile on my spare

time...

DödaKaraktärers

Sällskap

Timeline? Ok!-73

Pretty empty

80-talet Whoa!

-93

VisualisationProportions3-D think

Documentationsketch pads!

A passion/ vision is bornWhat IF...

-95

SkissteknikBrainstormingProjektledningModellbyggeAnvändbarhet

Fokus på Brukaren

Target group!!

Meanwhile on my spare

time...

DödaKaraktärers

Sällskap

Game conventions!SydConGothConLinCon

Then I got to work...

Then I got to work...-00 Ideas

are fun!

CooperationProject management

ProductionCopywriting

DocumentationPitch

Writing for and arranging conventions

SydCon 10!

Role-playing game

“Starship”

Then I got to work...-00 Ideas

are fun!

CooperationProject management

ProductionCopywriting

DocumentationPitch

-02Overtime is

death!

A level is a metaphor for the whole game

I can tell a story without saying

anything

Writing for and arranging conventions

SydCon 10!

Lecture about and teach game design

Role-playing game

“Starship”

Then I got to work...-00 Ideas

are fun!

CooperationProject management

ProductionCopywriting

DocumentationPitch

-02Overtime is

death!

A level is a metaphor for the whole game

I can tell a story without saying

anything

-04

Writing for and arranging conventions

SydCon 10!

Lecture about and teach game design

Role-playing game

“Starship”

Then I got to work...-00 Ideas

are fun!

CooperationProject management

ProductionCopywriting

DocumentationPitch

-02Overtime is

death!

A level is a metaphor for the whole game

I can tell a story without saying

anything

-04

Writing for and arranging conventions

SydCon 10!

Lecture about and teach game design

Role-playing game

“Starship”

Then I got to work...-00 Ideas

are fun!

CooperationProject management

ProductionCopywriting

DocumentationPitch

-02Overtime is

death!

A level is a metaphor for the whole game

I can tell a story without saying

anything

-04

Writing for and arranging conventions

SydCon 10!

Lecture about and teach game design

Role-playing game

“Starship”

Then I got to work...-00 Ideas

are fun!

CooperationProject management

ProductionCopywriting

DocumentationPitch

-02Overtime is

death!

A level is a metaphor for the whole game

I can tell a story without saying

anything

-04

Cooperating with people whodisliked me

Project from beginning to enddocumentation

... that is actually readcopywritinglevel design

simulation gamesparameter tweaking

Colleagues mean a lot!

Writing for and arranging conventions

SydCon 10!

Lecture about and teach game design

Role-playing game

“Starship”

...and kept working...

...and kept working...-06

Project managementContent management

SCRUM

I want to work in production

Stockholms spelkonventLectures

...and kept working...-06

Project managementContent management

SCRUM

I want to work in production

-07

Game design from the bottom up in large games (AAA)

Scrum certifiedThe joy of creation

Publishers control the games

It’s no fun to not be able to talk about what I’ve

done

Stockholms spelkonventLectures

...and kept working...-06

Project managementContent management

SCRUM

I want to work in production

-07

Game design from the bottom up in large games (AAA)

Scrum certifiedThe joy of creation

Publishers control the games

It’s no fun to not be able to talk about what I’ve

done

Stockholms spelkonventLectures

...and kept working...-06

Project managementContent management

SCRUM

I want to work in production

-07

Game design from the bottom up in large games (AAA)

Scrum certifiedThe joy of creation

Publishers control the games

It’s no fun to not be able to talk about what I’ve

done

Stockholms spelkonventLectures

...and kept working...-06

Project managementContent management

SCRUM

I want to work in production

-07

Game design from the bottom up in large games (AAA)

Scrum certifiedThe joy of creation

Publishers control the games

It’s no fun to not be able to talk about what I’ve

done

Stockholms spelkonventLectures

Sveroks förbundsstyrelse

the game magazine Fenixthe RPG Western

...and now...

...and now...

-09

Project managementMovemet means something

Personality means somethingTarget group means something

The company matters

The concept of games contain more than

first person shooters

...and now...

-09

Project managementMovemet means something

Personality means somethingTarget group means something

The company matters

The concept of games contain more than

first person shooters

...and now...

-09

Project managementMovemet means something

Personality means somethingTarget group means something

The company matters

The concept of games contain more than

first person shooters

...and now...

-09

Project managementMovemet means something

Personality means somethingTarget group means something

The company matters

The concept of games contain more than

first person shooters

Sidentrosor och magiska amuletterStockholms spelkonventRollspelshandboken,etc.

...and now...

-09

Project managementMovemet means something

Personality means somethingTarget group means something

The company matters

The concept of games contain more than

first person shooters

Sidentrosor och magiska amuletterStockholms spelkonventRollspelshandboken,etc.

-10

Committment to a cause is a good thingA nice CV and portfolio does wonders

Use your connections

Learn from teaching

...and now...

-09

Project managementMovemet means something

Personality means somethingTarget group means something

The company matters

The concept of games contain more than

first person shooters

Sidentrosor och magiska amuletterStockholms spelkonventRollspelshandboken,etc.

-10

Committment to a cause is a good thingA nice CV and portfolio does wonders

Use your connections

Learn from teaching

Stockholms spelkonventComputer game institute

Operation RPGdiscordia

A typical day:•Research (about whatever topic I’m working on)

•Game design (game design documents, testing and tweaking)

•Illustrations (for docs, web and user interfaces)

•Planning

•What’s new? (going through sites such as Gamasutra, Kotaku and other gaming sites)

•Benchmarking (test and analyze games)

This is my brain on Game Design!

This is my brain on Game Design!

Whoa!

Target group!!

DödaKaraktärers

SällskapGame conventions!

SydConGothConLinCon

Ideas are fun!

Overtime is death!

Colleagues mean a lot!

Writing for and arranging conventions

SydCon 10!Lecture about and teach game design

Role-playing game

“Starship”

I want to work in production

It’s no fun to not be able to talk about what I’ve

done

Stockholms spelkonventLectures

The concept of games contain more than

first person shootersLearn from teaching

Stockholms spelkonventComputer game institute

Operation RPGdiscordia

... and (almost) all of this, that took me 10 years to master, you can learn too at Futuregames Academy! (yes, I know, shameless plug...)

Thanks for listening!

Music by Polyfonkenhttp://www.polyfonken.comVisit his site and donate!

Contact me (Åsa) at info@discordia.se and read more about game design at http://discordia.se