Everyone can be game designers, and yet not everyone can be game designers… know why? The question “Who do game designers design the game for?” will give the answer to the question.
WHO DO GAME DESIGNERS DO GAME DESIGNS FOR?
The answer, at least for me, is that the game designer designs the game for the gamers and for the game development team.
The game designer must remember that the game is designed for the target audience, and also to remember, that, in order to get the game to the target audience, he needs the game development team to create the skin and bones of the game. If the game is designed without a thought for the game development team, don’t even think about how good the game will be, because it will never reach the gamers!
GAME DESIGNING FOR THE PLAYER
Designing for the Player is the part where almost anyone who are gamers are able to throw ideas into. Everyone who have played a game before would have some ideas of what they think are good game ideas, thats why many people feel that they could be game designers.
Even then, it is still not as easy as it seems, for, in this portion, the game design features must always be thought of as a part of a whole system, and not as individual components, also there are game design issues like characters stats, gameplay features, controls, interfaces, inventories, characters, levels, story, play-testing, balancing etc…
GAME DESIGNING FOR THE GAME DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Designing for the Team means designing the game so that the assets required to support the game design features would be manageable by the game dev teams while yet retaining the core game design. Now, the game designer would have to tailor whatever game design and fit it to the game development team’s profile.
To do that, the game designer needs analyze the game and see how the specific feature ties in, visualizing the game in the mind, and finally cutting out assets for certain features, or even to the extent of removing and adding features.
