Username   Password  
Remember   Register   |   Forgot your password?

Upsides of Game Design

Blog Entry: Upsides of Game Design

Blog Entry: Upsides of Game Design
48173-1253169965.gif
Posted by: kittyshootingstar
Posted: January 19, 2009, 7:36:45 PM
Updated: January 19, 2009, 7:37:39 PM
Okay, when I wrote my other one, I was feeling a little down and needed to vent. It's all true though. But here are the upsides of game design!

The best part of game design (for me) is seeing your creations in a game. I recently took a team demo of the game I'm helping with and put one of my props in it. It was small, it was hardly noticeable, but it was there. And seeing that little battery hovering over the stage, well, that moment was just magical. That was the moment I realized, "Oh my gosh, this is real. I'm really helping make a video game. I'm not even in college yet, and I'm making stuff for a video game". That moment was just one word: WOW. If you ever get a chance to help with a game, whether it's modeling or texturing or just handing out ideas, jump on it, because there's nothing quite like when you first see something of yours in a game.


The coolest part of game design is seeing how games work. To use a chao garden glitch in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle as an example: Instead of just saying, "Well, that's cool", I know what went wrong in the design that Sonic or Shadow could fall out at that point, identify what I'm seeing beyond the boundaries of the game, look at the other sides of the rocks and environment map to see how they might have modeled it, and even take a look at the skymap from the back. Although, continuing the analogy, I still have no clue why the chao swim underground when you get back.


The most relieving moment of game design (for me, anyway) is when you find a shortcut to some time-consuming thing you were dreading doing, and it turns out that using the shortcut is fun. Think "God mode", only in a 3d modeling program or Photoshop.


The most exhilarating part of game design is playing a demo and climbing to the highest point possible and then jumping off the edge. If your stomach turns like you're falling, then programming did the gravity in the engine right. (What can I say, I'm a virtual daredevil)


www.senntient.com/forums/index.php for more info on the game