Summary
Game design is the discipline of creating fun and surprising interactive experiences for players
Games, as complex cultural products, demand a designer’s humility and self-awareness to resist biases or attachments to specific genres. The hallmark of a professional game designer is the ability to design for others, not merely for oneself
When I was still a wee pup brimming with excitement, I blurted out to the world I was going to make video games. But explaining game design to the perplexed uncles and aunties listening in with feigned interest was rough.
Curiously, I saw those same confused expressions on the faces of those aspiring to be game designers as they attempted to explore their career choices within the field. Understandably, the job can differ from studio to studio.
Let’s start with what it is. Game design is the discipline of creating fun and surprising interactive experiences for players. Depending on who you ask, it’s either an umbrella term housing various design roles or a core responsibility, the weight of which a single passionate soul would bear.
To some, the career is often misconstrued as a gateway to becoming game directors, facilitating the stigma of being “the ideas person” or the one who comes up with concepts.But really, game design takes years of study, and most of all, years of practise before it’s a viable path.
Over the decades, the career has seen itself split into more opportunities for folks to choose from. Common career paths today include:
Game designer: designs mechanics, dynamics, systems, rules, objectives, conditions and metagames to make satisfying core gameplay loops
Level designer: designs maps, areas, sections, levels and worlds using all the available art and design elements
Economy designer: designs resources and rewards to quantify the player’s experience
Narrative designer: designs mechanics and systems specifically to deliver story elements — often confused with game writing, which is different.
Technical designer: facilitates implementation of proposed and planned designs, including making “proof-of-benefit” prototypes.
With the higher adoption of smartphones and wider Internet access in India, studios have pounced on the chance to create mobile-first video games. Consequently, the Indian gaming industry has become one of the fastest-growing sectors, expected to create 2.5 lakh career opportunities by 2025. We can safely say that rich opportunities lie ahead for game designers.
The recently passed amendment to the Central Goods and Services Tax Act has shaken the industry up a fair bit. Supposedly 60 per cent of all monetisation of games in India comes from real money gaming (RMG), a segment that’s currently crumbling under the weight of a 28 per cent GST tax. This, combined with the occasional layoff, and the ever-ravenous competition, may make sculpting a game design career in India all the more difficult.
So how concerned should you be? And how, if at all, has the Act changed the expectations game businesses have from game designers?
“If the overall impact is negative, they could revoke it,” reveals Santosh AP, lead designer at Garena. “So it’s largely an experiment,” he says and goes on to reassure that game designers are here to stay. He adds, “The biggest studios in India have substantial game design teams, and their businesses are not centrally RMG. Opportunities are growing in and around metropolitan cities such as Bengaluru and Pune. Hard-working designers need not worry.”
Speaking of ravenous competitions, game design roles are often full of applications from design tykes. Standing out is in itself the challenge.
Huzaifa Arab, co-founder of Hypernova Interactive — the creators of the upcoming game Mayanagari — shares how he can tell amateurs from the professionals. He says, “A rigid designer is — in my opinion — a bad designer. A game designer’s role is akin to a salesman’s: persuasive yet accommodating of the needs of his customer. The designer must grasp the game’s vision, articulate it clearly to both management and the team, and create an engaging experience for players while ensuring profitability. This requires one to be multi-disciplinary and open-minded.”
He continues, “Games, as complex cultural products, demand a designer’s humility and self-awareness to resist biases or attachments to specific genres. The hallmark of a professional game designer is the ability to design for others, not merely for oneself.”
Being a game designer in India can be fulfilling, if you are patient. So if you’re bent on becoming one, pick up a game engine, throw in some assets, and put your idea together. Whether it’s on a piece of paper or a computer screen, making a fun game is a designer’s quintessential ability.
The writer is a game designer and reviewer
Last updated on 29 Aug 2023
