Splash Damage Looking for Game Designers

(badman) #1

A new story entry has been added:

[drupal=910]Splash Damage Looking for Game Designers[/drupal]

We’re currently looking for several Game Designers of all experience levels to strengthen our development team. What will you be doing, you ask? Well, in a nutshell, you’ll be working closely with all development disciplines, including art, code, audio and (of course) design, to create compelling experiences that embody the overall vision of the game. Interested? Click on a position to find out more about it:

[ul]
[li]Game Designer [/li]> [li]Senior Game Designer [/li]> [/ul]

(tokamak) #2

Does a decade of arm-chair game design philosophising count as “Minimum of 3 years Game or Level Design related experience”?

(INF3RN0) #3

Nice try… nothing good ever comes from a “political gamer”.

(Slade05) #4

So, who jumped ship?

(badman) #5

We’re staffing up, actually. :slight_smile:

(tokamak) #6

Look, it genuinely sounds like a dream-job. I’d do it full-time at a minimum wage. I study environmental science and this is basically my field in micro-format. At the university we’re constantly having to devise policies that could ultimately lead to the fairest and most fulfilling experience of the public. Game theory is a branch of mathematics taking incredibly seriously here. However, there’s all kind of barriers that reality and human nature throw into the mix that make the entire process quite jading. Game design has no such barriers. Any ‘law’ you impose is an absolute law that players can’t help but adhere to. Any incentive is instantly gratified without transaction cost, without uncertainty, without corruption.

Map geometry is something inherently tied to this. Sketching the perfect situation for the most exciting shoot-out with the most interesting variations is another obsession.

Anyways, I’m ranting, I promised myself to finish my study first. But damn such vacancies really make me wonder if I didn’t make some wrong decisions so far.

(Nail) #7

you can always double up on studies by sacrificing any “free” time you have, I did and was able to progress very rapidly, but that was the '70s, life was different. I don’t regret giving up that time, but not sure I would do it again. Gaming or not, it’s called work for a reason, if you’re willing to make the sacrifice, double up. I’d suggest trying out full concept w/UDK see how much you actually like the minutia involved

(tokamak) #8

That’s why I’d rather have a go at it with a smaller company first, like Futuremark (and living in Finland seems cool as well). Though that of course depends on the projects they manage to haul in.

(Exedore) #9

Hrm, maybe I should’ve added “the ability to make the sometimes mundane seem TEH SEXY!” :stroggbanana:

There are probably a lot more similarities that you think. And that is probably the #1 lesson that experience with doing game design professionally will teach.

(tokamak) #10

Yeah it’s not just hard rules. It’s incentives and communication as well. Then there’s (basic) psychology, mob behaviour. Mathematical game theory like tragedy of the commons, opportunity cost and the prisoner’s dilemma. Off the top of my head. And then that’s multiplayer. Singleplayer suffices with simply being spectacular.

It’s fun to try throwing abstract models at human nature and see what sticks.

(.Chris.) #11

Or just do what the Japanese do and make fun games…

(tokamak) #12

The Japanese can have wonderfully elegant gameplay mechanics in their game. Advance Wars is brilliant.

The Electric Playground called the game “A deep, quite cartoony and consummately Japanese turn-based wargame with depth, character and replayability to burn”.[23] IGN called the game “Incredibly intense and amazingly addictive…especially when you learn every little nuance of the game design”.[7] Gaming Age stated There is a perfect blend of simplicity and complexity that makes this game so highly addictive".[24] GameSpot stated that the game is “Deep and easy to learn, and it contains a level of replay rarely witnessed in handheld gaming”.[19] Total Video Games noted “For a handheld, the AI of your computer-controlled opponents is surprisingly diverse and complex”.[25] Allgame commented “Ingeniously designed, Advance Wars manages to be both in-depth, and instantly accessible, simply because it presents the game in easily manageable chunks”.[17]

But I would agree that many of them get by on aesthetics and creativity alone.

(Dormamu) #13

They recently hired some girls, one of them loves Japanese games (Final Fantasy/rpg/stuff) :smiley:

(tokamak) #14

Western developers are great at such feats as well. Take Bastion. Singleplayer isn’t usually my cup of tea, but the way they made the action/roleplaying simple yet effective and personal is addictive.

(The Ranger) #15

work at bungie , you get FIRE . Nooo jk SD needs more designers .