Learning Game Design™

This is not really a review, but more of a remembrance.

I think any proper gamer has certain classics in mind in terms of what games have stuck with them from childhood. Something that really defined a particular period of childhood and influenced drawings, writings and so on. For some, it’s the Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Ice Climber (the favorite NES game of a certain old Finnish president) or Halo. Then there’s the guys who spent countless days and nights with roleplaying games or old, incomprehensible Avalon Hill strategy boardgames. For me, it was something different…

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Here at Digital Chocolate, we recently released California Gold Rush for both iPhone (get it from AppStore) and Mobile and here’s some design insights into the development of the game that has already garnered some critical reviews.

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Developing games isn’t an exact science. It requires pain and iteration to make a good game and very rarely it’s a slam dunk from the beginning. Especially with new IP, the growing pains can be immense, but should be expected.

Here’s a brief article about the bane of professional game development and some ideas that can start bringing in the remedy.

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Hi there!

My name is Rafael Kuhnen and I will be collaborating with Reko on this new blog. On this post I will be talking about my experience in changing from the a more hardcore MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) Industry to the more casual Mobile Industry.  Please keep in mind that all of this is a real wrapped up, over-simplified summary of my experiences. The Job is a lot more complicated then this. :)

The Beginning

As I started to work professionally  as a game designer, I had to first put behind all the knowledge I previously had about being a game designer. I knew what a game designer was suppose to do, but hardly had a clue on how everything was suppose to be done. It was a harsh learning period.

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Above: Part of our lego collection at Sumea for prototyping ideas

There are a few things essential for any game designer who’s job out there is to take a game from a concept/vision stage into full feature specs, to production and finally onto the shelves or in digital stores.

This is a list of what a good game designer should do and have.

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In “The Job” articles, we look a bit of what game designers should actually be doing, what are the fun and less fun aspects of the job and possibly in the future, even interview some designers.

So what’s it all about?

The “Game Designer” is almost like a blanket term for the people in the industry who fall in-between the artists and the programmers. They are the curious kind that always evoke the question “So what do you really do?” whenever the job title is mentioned.

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