The Entrepreneurial Artist (Bethesda Softworks’ Simulation and Game Design Panel)
As defined by the Alex Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurs are men and women of action. People who- while not always in positions of recognized leadership- can identify goals and assess situations, mobilizing the assets necessary to achieve them. They solve problems through intuition and ingenuity. And while entrepreneurialism can manifest itself in just about every conceivable field of work or study, I felt uniquely driven to famed video game company: Bethesda Softworks’ panel on “Simulation and Game Design” for their insight regarding the inner machinations of the game development process.
Recognized by most review outlets as the greatest western-region RPG (Roleplaying Game) developer, Bethesda Softworks is home to thirty-three years-worth of intellectual property. And while one of their most influential designers, directors and producers (Todd Howard) has grown to become something of an industry-wide inside joke for his incessant peddling of “the award-winning RPG: Skyrim,” their everpresence has only earned them the respect of their peers.
In the “Simulation and Game Design” Panel led by Yuting Lian (one of Bethesda’s many Producers), Daniel Batson (User Interface Engineer), Doug Carrol (Lead E-Commerce Designer), Lee Ridout (Director of E-Commerce), Ryan Woodland (Technical Director) and Tatiana Malinko (Lead Artist) elaborated on many elements within the process of developing games. How to establish a strong design and the considerations that need to be made to honor that design. And while the conversation bounced around a lot, one of the most significant recurring elements was this theme of teamwork. Games are easily the most expensive and most time-consuming creative venture next to music, books, films and tv shows- and when you have situations where literally hundreds of people working on a single project, you know there’s bound to be conflict somewhere along the chain of command. These people are entrepreneurs because their jobs require them to act fast and with efficiency. There’s simply no way for a creative director to comb over every square inch of every single project- they’d never ship. Creative problem solving is essential to surviving in this industry, which is why it doesn’t matter if you’re an artist, a producer, a director or an engineer.
Ultimately, what I’d discovered (specifically from Ryan Woodland and Tatiana Malinko) was that my instinct to learn as much as I can about every field involved in game development was right. Communication is key, so being able to think about problems in a multifaceted way will enable me to become the Creative Director I’d like to be, one day. I figured these things were important, but it wasn’t until I attended this panel that I learned just how (almost) non-optional they are.
