Second!

Read, Read and Read some more

During my first week of UCS Games design we were given a few small documents to read over to get us thinking like a games designer. To know what it is to be one, as well as what it takes to do it successfully.

Some key facts that we walked away with came from Jesse Schell and the book called ‘The Art of Game Design’, in which, Schell stresses the importance for having a passion for what you do. There is a lot of talk about, whether or not we are born talented, or if it is bred into us at an early age.

Personally – I believe it can be both. I think that some people are indeed born with immense talent, some of those people go on to use these skills and abilities to their fullest, while others wilt and don’t push themselves to their maximum potential. I also think that, anybody can grow into any role possible. There is a reason that the saying mothers are so fond of ‘You can be anything you want to be’ is so universally used and accepted.

The general idea being this, if you have no love for the work you do, you will not apply yourself with all the skills and abilities you have acquired, instead you will scrape by without showing that potential talent you have.

It’s made quite obvious, that the book is centred with a strong theme of being confident in your own abilities. It talks about how, as a novice games designer you will think things like, I have never done this before, people are so much more experienced than me. Also experienced games designers will be thinking along the same paths, perhaps I got lucky, maybe I just fluked my way through the past few years. It then moved on to even the most seasoned games designers and their doubts. How they may think the world has changed and they can’t get back into the way things run. But basically, it says that these things are normal, but as long as your enjoy what you do, they don’t matter.

Schell goes on to talk about many things, lack of ridicule, a deeper sense of listening, key skills that make a games designer, but it’s the confidence that stood out to me. I have never particular had a lack of confidence, or been overly confident in myself either, but the way that its said, anyone has the potential to be a games designer is a very positive thing to walk away with and fuels us on to strive to do our best. Proving to ourselves that we can do it, born with it or not!!

SM – iHK
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