Level Up Your Game Design Skills: A Beginner’s Guide

Welcome to the exciting world of game design! As a soon-to-be world-class game designer (or so I like to think), I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share my knowledge and passion with you.

When I started as a game designer, I had no notion of how to proceed or even where to start. So I have decided to start a series of blogs (loosely calling it a course) that can help you out in the beginning if you decide to pick up ‘Game Design’ as your profession.

In this first blog post, we’re going to start with the basics. Game design can be a complex and daunting field, but don’t worry – we’re going to take it one step at a time, and I promise to make it as easy and fun as possible.

First things first: what exactly is game design? Simply put, it’s creating the rules, mechanics, and systems that make a game work. This includes everything from character design and level design to player feedback and balancing games or what you can call economy (don’t worry, we’re going to cover it later on). It’s a multidisciplinary field that draws on elements of art, programming, psychology, and more, and then seamlessly binds them into one bundle of joy – what you’d call a game.

But enough with the technical jargon – let’s get to the fun stuff. As a game designer, your job is to create an experience that is engaging, challenging, and ultimately satisfying for the player.

Think about your favorite games: What keeps you coming back to them? Is it the beautiful graphics? God of war, anyone? The adrenaline rush of a well-timed action/ combat move? Assassin’s Creed, no? The sense of accomplishment when you finally beat that boss? God, that Horizon Zero Dawn abominations, right?

Now, imagine being the person who created that experience. Pretty cool, huh?

But before you can start designing the next big hit, there are a few key concepts you need to understand. These include:

1. Game mechanics: the rules and systems that define how the game works. This includes things like how the players are going to interact with the game world, the movement of characters, combat moves, inventory management, and a lot more.
2. Game balance: ensuring that the game is fair and challenging without being too difficult or too easy. Remember when your player earns XP and levels up, the next enemies become better at beating you as well? That’s where balance comes in.
3. Player feedback: providing players with clear and meaningful information about their actions and progress, so they can make decide how best to move forward in the game.
4. Player motivation: understanding what drives players to keep playing, and designing your game to cater to those motivations. There must be a natural flow to the game. You don’t want the player to stop and question the sanity of the game designer, right?
5. Iteration: the process of testing and refining your game design over time, based on player feedback and other factors. It’s like the writers and their first draft; it’s not supposed to be perfect on the first attempt!

These concepts may seem overwhelming at first, but don’t worry – we’ll be diving deeper into each of them in future blog posts.

For now, please start thinking about your favorite games in terms of these concepts. What mechanics do they use? How do they keep you engaged and motivated? What could they do better?

And most importantly, have fun with it! Game design is all about creativity and imagination, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Who knows – you might just come up with the next big thing.

Until next time, keep on gaming!