Game designer

A game designer is a person who designs games. The term can refer to a person who designs video games, or one who designs traditional games such as board games.

Video and computer game designer

A video or computer game designer develops the layout, concept and gameplay, the game design of a video or computer game. This may include playfield design, specification writing, and entry of numeric properties that balance and tune the gameplay. A game designer works for a developer (which may additionally be the game's video game publisher).

This person usually has a lot of writing experience and may even have a degree in writing or a related field (such as English). This person's primary job function is writing, so the more experience they have with that activity, the better. Some art and programming skills are also helpful for this job, but are not strictly necessary. In addition game designers often study relevant liberal arts such as psychology, sociology, drama, fine art or philosophy. Due to the increasing complexity of the game design process, many young game designers may also come from a computer science or other computer engineering background.

With game budgets now running into millions of dollars, the industry can often be volatile and a failed project could force a company into bankruptcy. So the design of the game is critical and the industry has been repeatedly criticized for choosing to develop sequels and licensed titles where sales are more certain, rather than investing in new game ideas. In larger companies entry level game designers will typically be given simpler tasks such as level design and object placement, while the role of lead designer will be reserved for a designer with more experience and a history of successful titles.

History

The first video games were designed in the 1960s and 1970s by programmers for whom creating games was a hobby, since there was no way to sell them or earn money from creating games (the games required large mainframe computers to play). Some were designed by electrical engineers as exhibits for visitors to computer labs (OXO, Tennis for Two), others by college students who wrote games for their friends to play (Spacewar!, Star Trek, Dungeon).

Some of the games designed during this era, such as Zork, Baseball, Air Warrior and Adventure later made the transition with their game designers into the early video game industry.

Early in the history of video games, game designers were often the lead programmer or the only programmer for a game, and this remained true as the video game industry dawned in the 1970s. This person also sometimes comprised the entire art team. This is the case of such noted designers as Sid Meier, Chris Sawyer and Will Wright. A notable exception to this policy was Coleco, which from its very start separated the function of design and programming.

As games became more complex and computers and consoles became more powerful (allowing more features), the job of the game designer became a separate job function, with the lead programmer splitting his time between the two functions, moving from one role to the other. Later, game complexity escalated to the point where it required someone who concentrated solely on game design. Many early veterans chose the game design path eschewing programming and delegating those tasks to others.

Today, it is rare to find a video or computer game where the principal programmer is also the principal designer, except in the case of casual games, such as Tetris or Bejeweled. With very complex games, such as MMORPGs, or a big budget action or sports title, designers may number in the dozens. In these cases, there are generally one or two principal designers and many junior designers who specify subsets or subsystems of the game. In larger companies like Electronic Arts, each aspect of the game (control, level design or vehicles) may have a separate producer, lead designer and several general designers.

Notable video and computer game designers

• Danielle Bunten Berry, of the seminal M.U.L.E. and The Seven Cities of Gold
• Marc Blank, co-designer of Zork, co-founder of text adventure publisher Infocom
• Bill Budge, developer of Pinball Construction Set, designer who anchored launch of Electronic Arts
• Chris Crawford, creator of Balance of Power and the founder of the Game Developer's Conference
• Jon Freeman, designer of the Archon series and many original Epyx titles
• Richard Garriott (Lord British), developer of the Ultima series of games
• Ron Gilbert, creator of Maniac Mansion and the Monkey Island series
• Tomonobu Itagaki, creator of the Dead or Alive series, and the new Ninja Gaiden series
• Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear Solid series
• Jordan Mechner, designer of Prince of Persia, Karateka, and The Last Express
• Sid Meier, creator of Civilization, Railroad Tycoon and other game series
• Shinji Mikami creator of the Resident Evil series
• Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox and Super Mario series
• Peter Molyneux, creator of the Populous, Black and White, Fable series, and Theme Park series
• Brian Reynolds, developer of Civilization II, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Rise of Nations
• Warren Robinett, developer of Adventure, the first graphical adventure video game (and first instance of the Easter egg), and as the founder of The Learning Company
• John Romero, creator of Wolfenstein 3D, the Doom and Quake series
• Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey
• Tim Schafer, creator of Grim Fandango and Psychonauts
• Bruce Shelley, co-creator of Age of Empires series and Civilization
• Warren Spector, developer of System Shock, Deus Ex and Thief series
• Roberta Williams, designer of King's Quest and several other computer game series
• Will Wright, designer of SimCity, The Sims and Spore

Notable designers of non-video games

• Milton Bradley - creator of The Checkered Game of Life and founder of Milton Bradley Company
• Allan B. Calhamer - Designer of Diplomacy
• Frank Chadwick - Co-founder of GDW and designer of over 50 war and role-playing games, including Twilight 2000 and the Assault series
• Jim Dunnigan - Founder of SPI Games and designer of over 100 wargames, including the PanzerBlitz/Panzer Leader system
• James Ernest - president and lead game designer for Cheapass Games
• Richard Garfield - collectible card game (Magic: The Gathering) and board game designer.
• Gary Gygax and David Arneson - creators of Dungeons & Dragons
• Steve Jackson - Designer of Ogre, The Fantasy Trip, Car Wars, GURPS, Hacker, Illuminati and others.
• Reiner Knizia - prolific designer of German-style board games who designed 6 of the top 20 games on the Internet Top 100 Games List.
• [[Alan R. Mors