My brain on game design. Held as a role-model talk at Futuregames 2010

1. The Brain of a
Game Designer
or rather this game designer’s brain...

3. This is my brain....
Åsa’s brain
...but what’s in it?

4. 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

5. What does a designer do?

6. What does a designer do?
Concepting
Analysis

7. What does a designer do?
Describe the game play
Concepting
(specifications)
Analysis
Test

8. What does a designer do?
Describe the game play
Concepting
(specifications)
Analysis
Test
And I also “tweak”, which means I
make the game balanced and fun

9. Timeline? Ok!

10. Timeline? Ok!
-73
Pretty empty

11. Timeline? Ok!
-73
Pretty empty
80-talet Whoa!
Meanwhile
on my spare
A passion/ vision is born time...
What IF...

12. Timeline? Ok!
-73 -93
Döda
Karaktärers
Sällskap
Pretty empty Visualisation
Proportions
3-D think
80-talet Whoa! Documentation
sketch pads!
Meanwhile
on my spare
A passion/ vision is born time...
What IF...

13. Timeline? Ok!
-73 -93 Game conventions!
SydCon
GothCon
Döda LinCon
Karaktärers
Sällskap
Pretty empty Visualisation
Proportions
3-D think
80-talet Whoa! Documentation -95 Target group!!
sketch pads!
Skissteknik
Brainstorming
Meanwhile Projektledning
on my spare
A passion/ vision is born time... Modellbygge
Användbarhet
What IF...
Fokus på Brukaren

14. Then I got to work...

15. Then I got to work...
Role- Ideas
playing game -00 are fun!
“Starship”
Cooperation
Project management
Production
Copywriting
Writing for and Documentation
arranging conventions Pitch
SydCon 10!

16. Then I got to work...
Role- Ideas
playing game -00 are fun!
“Starship”
Cooperation
Project management
Production
Copywriting
Writing for and Documentation
arranging conventions Pitch Overtime is
-02 death!
A level is a metaphor Lecture about and
for the whole game teach game design
I can tell a story
without saying
anything
SydCon 10!

17. Then I got to work...
Role- Ideas
playing game -00 are fun! -04
“Starship”
Cooperation
Project management
Production
Copywriting
Writing for and Documentation
arranging conventions Pitch Overtime is
-02 death!
A level is a metaphor Lecture about and
for the whole game teach game design
I can tell a story
without saying
anything
SydCon 10!

18. Then I got to work...
Role- Ideas
playing game -00 are fun! -04
“Starship”
Cooperation
Project management
Production
Copywriting
Writing for and Documentation
arranging conventions Pitch Overtime is
-02 death!
A level is a metaphor Lecture about and
for the whole game teach game design
I can tell a story
without saying
anything
SydCon 10!

19. Then I got to work...
Role- Ideas
playing game -00 are fun! -04
“Starship”
Cooperation
Project management
Production
Copywriting
Writing for and Documentation
arranging conventions Pitch Overtime is
-02 death!
A level is a metaphor Lecture about and
for the whole game teach game design
I can tell a story
without saying
anything
SydCon 10!

20. Then I got to work...
Role- Ideas Colleagues
playing game -00 are fun! -04 mean a lot!
“Starship”
Cooperation Cooperating with people who
Project management disliked me
Production Project from beginning to end
documentation
Copywriting
Writing for and ... that is actually read
Documentation
arranging conventions Pitch Overtime is copywriting
level design
-02 death! simulation games
parameter tweaking
A level is a metaphor Lecture about and
for the whole game teach game design
I can tell a story
without saying
anything
SydCon 10!

21. ...and kept working...

22. ...and kept working...
I want to work in
-06
production
Project management
Content management
SCRUM
Stockholms spelkonvent
Lectures

23. ...and kept working...
I want to work in
-06
production
Project management
Content management
SCRUM
Stockholms spelkonvent
Lectures It’s no fun to not be
able to talk about what I’ve
-07
done
Game design from the bottom
up in large games (AAA)
Scrum certified
The joy of creation
Publishers control the games

24. ...and kept working...
I want to work in
-06
production
Project management
Content management
SCRUM
Stockholms spelkonvent
Lectures It’s no fun to not be
able to talk about what I’ve
-07
done
Game design from the bottom
up in large games (AAA)
Scrum certified
The joy of creation
Publishers control the games

25. ...and kept working...
I want to work in
-06
production
Project management
Content management
SCRUM
Stockholms spelkonvent
Lectures It’s no fun to not be
able to talk about what I’ve
-07
done
Game design from the bottom
up in large games (AAA)
Scrum certified
The joy of creation
Publishers control the games

26. ...and kept working...
I want to work in
-06
production Sveroks
förbundsstyrelse
the game magazine Fenix
the RPG Western
Project management
Content management
SCRUM
Stockholms spelkonvent
Lectures It’s no fun to not be
able to talk about what I’ve
-07
done
Game design from the bottom
up in large games (AAA)
Scrum certified
The joy of creation
Publishers control the games

27. ...and now...

28. ...and now...
The concept
of games contain more than
-09 first person shooters
Project management
Movemet means something
Personality means something
Target group means something
The company matters

29. ...and now...
The concept
of games contain more than
-09 first person shooters
Project management
Movemet means something
Personality means something
Target group means something
The company matters

30. ...and now...
The concept
of games contain more than
-09 first person shooters
Project management
Movemet means something
Personality means something
Target group means something
The company matters

31. ...and now...
The concept
of games contain more than
-09 first person shooters
Project management
Movemet means something
Personality means something
Target group means something
The company matters
Sidentrosor och magiska amuletter
Stockholms spelkonvent
Rollspelshandboken,etc.

32. ...and now...
The concept
of games contain more than
-09 first person shooters
Project management
Movemet means something Learn from
Personality means something
Target group means something
-10 teaching
The company matters
Committment to a cause is a good thing
Sidentrosor och magiska amuletter
A nice CV and portfolio does wonders
Stockholms spelkonvent
Rollspelshandboken,etc. Use your connections

33. ...and now...
The concept Stockholms spelkonvent
Computer game institute
of games contain more than Operation RPG
-09 first person shooters
discordia
Project management
Movemet means something Learn from
Personality means something
Target group means something
-10 teaching
The company matters
Committment to a cause is a good thing
Sidentrosor och magiska amuletter
A nice CV and portfolio does wonders
Stockholms spelkonvent
Rollspelshandboken,etc. Use your connections

34. 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)

35. This is my brain on Game
Design!

36. Role-
playing game
This is my brain on Game
Design!
“Starship”
Stockholms spelkonvent
Computer game institute
Operation RPG
discordia
Döda
Karaktärers
Ideas
Writing for and Sällskap are fun!
arranging conventions Colleagues
I want to work in GameSydCon
conventions!
Stockholms spelkonvent
The concept mean a lot!
production GothCon
LinCon
Lectures of games contain more than Overtime is
Whoa! first person shooters death!
Learn from
It’s no fun to not be Target group!!
teaching
able to talk about what I’ve
SydCon 10!
done
Lecture about and
teach game design

37. ... 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!

38. Music by Polyfonken
http://www.polyfonken.com
Visit his site and donate!

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