作者：Lewis Pulsipher

游戏邦注：本文发稿于2008年12月23日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。

游戏设计师必须将产品设计融入生活中。游戏设计不是你可以每天不断捡起和丢下的工作，它必须时刻伴随你左右，而你必须在这项工作中有所付出。坚持不懈比“创意性”更为重要。

许多小说家一生都在写作，甚至从孩提时代开始。多数游戏设计师早年便开始设计游戏，就像大部分艺术家年幼时便开始作画。然而，有些人虽然入门较晚，但依然非常在行。大量编写小说或设计已发行桌游和卡片游戏的人都有自己的全职工作。比如，曾经出过大量作品的科幻小说家Glen Cook从未放弃自己在通用汽车公司装配线的工作，他常在上下班途中写作。

兼职在视频游戏行业中并不常见，多数设计师全职为某个游戏开发工作室服务。但是，许多参与非电子类游戏发行的人将其作为兼职工作，他们有份“日常工作”来维持生计。即便是视频游戏领域，多数游戏发行商也是由个人发行商起家，他们销售的是自己的“游戏梦”。

video game designers(from boston.com)

通识教育

Anatole France说过：“教育指的并非你在记忆各种内容上花了多少时间，也不是你掌握多少知识。教育的目的在于让你认清自己知道和不知道的东西。”

假如你看过帮助你进驻游戏行业的建议，在不少顾问或导师认为学士学位是个不错条件之时，必然也会提到“尽量阅读更多的内容”和“尽可能地自学知识”这两点。比如，所有对进驻游戏行业感兴趣的人都应该阅读Tom Sloper的网站及其每月IGDA专栏中的大量建议。我曾经看过Ernest Adams编写的《Break into the Game Industry》，尽管出版时间有点早（游戏邦注：该书出版于2002年），但依然很有用。他的建议很值得阅读，尤其是那些如何获得工作和保住工作的内容，许多观点与Sloper相同。

通常来说，游戏设计师必须要抱有“学识渊博”的态度，即便他们只有高中文凭。我说的不是传统意义上的“受过良好教育的人”，通常上述人群指那些掌握大量某方面相关知识的人。我所提到的“学识渊博”指的是态度，而不是学历。幸运的是，游戏行业还未有学历要求。学历已经渗透到美国人生活的方方面面，好像学到东西的唯一方式就是获得学历。视频游戏行业仍然奉行能力主义，你体现价值和受到雇佣的原因在于你能做出某些事情。

获得博士学位的人有可能会让人觉得他并非学识渊博，尽管这种可能性很小。获得学士学位的人中，肯定有些不是真正意义上学识渊博的人。但是，18岁左右的人中显然出现过学识渊博之人，尽管他们还未获得证明他们有着丰富经验和知识的学位。所以，“学识渊博”与学位间没有必然的联系，这只是某种生活态度。这种学识渊博的态度正是游戏公司想要和获得成功的必需品。

哪些属于“学识渊博”的人呢？学识渊博的人想要掌握知识，也会努力去掌握知识，非学识渊博的人没有这种态度。举个简单的例子，学识渊博的人遇到不明白的单词会去查字典，他想要加深自己对语言乃至整个世界的理解，非学识渊博的人不会这么做。再者，学识渊博的人会在必要时通过书本或其他方式来自学，而不是等着接受教育。非学识渊博的人时常会抱怨，觉得自己无需掌握这方面的内容。毫无疑问，学识渊博的人会阅读大量内容，非学识渊博的人则不然。

在课程中，我会分派给学生维护笔记本电脑或其他“数据存储设备”的“任务”，他们可以将想到的游戏相关想法记录其中。他们应该自行养成这种习惯，我想要教授的是态度而不是这种“方法”。这时，“非学识渊博”的态度就会立马浮现出来，有些学生会问“我要在这里面存储多少信息？”。这些学生想知道能完成任务的最少信息量，而不是怀着学识渊博的态度，把这个当成他应该花时间想办法做成而且有价值去做的事情。

学识渊博的人喜欢最大限度地发掘他们的大脑，非学识渊博的人只想着过清闲的生活。我现在讨论的正是已经过时的“渴望知识”的说法，这是生产取向的部分内容。“消磨时间”或“做事只要满足基本条件即可”的人不会成为游戏设计师，他们必须是那些有时间便想着创造的人，而不是被迫进行创造。

掌握学习的方法

重点在于你知道什么以及会做什么，而不是上过什么课或者获得何种学位。好的课程会帮助你学的更快，因为你可以利用教师和作者的经验。如果要用几个词语来描述游戏设计师的工作，那么可以将其概括为思考、交流、创新和控制。

思考。游戏设计师需要确保脑子时刻运转。玩游戏之时，他应该思考哪些游戏元素发挥或没有发挥作用以及其中的原因。他必须时刻虚心接受各种想法。即便他在享受游戏带来的乐趣时，也必须思考如何改善游戏。游戏都是可以被改善的，只是有时候提升的效果不值得我们投入那些时间而已。

最为重要的是，设计师必须具有批判性思维。潮男或潮女无法成为优秀的游戏设计师，因为他们通常会不加思索地褒奖某款游戏、某个题材或某个公司的作品。自我批判特别重要。如果你无法认识到自己最喜欢的机制并不适合游戏或者游戏根本不需要这种机制，那么你就无法设计出优秀的游戏。放纵在游戏设计中绝不可取。

交流。与非电子游戏设计师相比，交流对视频游戏设计师来说要重要得多。多数视频游戏需要团队合作设计。游戏设计师必须书面和口头交流游戏中的所有事物，围绕的话题是艺术师和程序员可以做出改动的方面。这做起来确实很难！非电子游戏设计师可以自行制作游戏蓝本和编写规则，但仍然必须与测试玩家进行良好的交流以改善游戏质量。而且，由于规则并非由计算机来控制实施，所以将规则写得清晰且简明易懂显得特别重要。最后，你所要做的就是把这些规则写下来，否则它们没有任何意义。

创新。尽管游戏设计可视为“10%的灵感+90%的汗水”，但这10%也很重要。“设计”出射击游戏复制品并不难。成功的设计师能够找到亮点，让游戏体现差异化。许多设计师将游戏设计成他们想要玩的类型，得出的产品与他们所喜欢的现有游戏几乎相同。“解放思想”正是这些人需要思考的问题。

控制。游戏设计师无需成为控制狂，但确实需要细心控制游戏设计中的所有事物。购买游戏的人希望设计师尽其所能来制作充满乐趣的游戏。他们不想看到所有东西都存在自由和随意性，除非设计师认为随意性能带来最好的游戏体验。

我曾见过某些学生制作的“夺取多面旗帜”形式的桌游，确实只是随意在桌面上放置旗帜，这让我大为震惊。如果你是专业设计师，应该为这些旗帜设定绝妙和有趣的位置，而不是随意放置。为何要让随意性来决定游戏的趣味性呢？不错，设计师确实需要花更多时间来制定和记录旗帜的放置样式，而且还要玩上数次来测试，但结果也会得出更好的游戏。

职业玩家

某些有抱负的游戏设计师问过：“要成为游戏设计师，是否需要先成为出色的玩家？”无论是《光晕3》或《超级马里奥兄弟》还是《命令与征服》或《轴心国与同盟国》，这些游戏的顶尖玩家都不会变成优秀的游戏设计师。因为成为游戏设计师和职业玩家所需的技能和思维方式有很大的差别。

但是如果你玩过井字游戏却并未领会到这永远是个平局，那么你还需要掌握很多东西，因为你很可能无法在更为复杂的游戏中发现最佳策略。换句话说，游戏玩家的身份会帮你很多忙，你会迅速发现游戏中的最佳战略和策略。你会在游戏设计中避开某些陷阱，否则就需要后期由测试玩家来指出。这完全是浪费时间，而且让人感到沮丧。作为游戏设计师，你不需要是出色的玩家。但如果你是个优秀的玩家，这确实会给你帮上大忙。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Characteristics of Successful Game Designers

Lewis Pulsipher

Game designers must have a productive orientation in life. Game design is not something you turn on and turn off daily — it’s something that must be with you all the time, that you must make an effort to pursue. Persistence is more important than “creativity.”

Many novelists write all their adult lives, even from childhood. Most game designers design games from an early age, just as most artists draw from an early age. But some come to it late and are still good at it. Most of the people who write novels or design published board and card games have another full-time job. For example, the once-prolific science-fiction and fantasy novelist Glen Cook never gave up his General Motors assembly line job. He wrote during his commute.

Moonlighting is much less common in the video game industry, which is where most full-time designers work for a particular game development studio. But many people involved in publishing non-electronic games work part-time, relying on a “day job” for their living. Most game publishers, even in video games, originated as self-publishers, distributing the “dream game” of the people who founded the company.

General Education

“An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t.” Anatole France

If you read good advice about breaking into the game industry, that advice will include “read as much as you can” and “educate yourself as much as possible,” even as the advisors suggest that a bachelor’s degree is a good idea. For example, everyone interested in “breaking in” should read the wealth of advice on Tom Sloper’s web site and his monthly IGDA column. I’ve used a book by Ernest Adams, Break into the Game Industry, now a bit long in the tooth (2002), but still available. His advice is well worth reading — especially about getting a job and how to keep a job — and amounts to the same as Sloper’s.

In general, game designers must have an “educated” attitude, even if they have no more formal learning than a high school diploma. I’m not talking about the classic idea of the “well-educated” person, which relates to particular things like knowledge of the Classics. Let me hasten to say that “educated” refers to an attitude, not a degree earned. Fortunately, the game industry does not yet have the “degree-itis” that is invading all walks of American life, as though the only way you can learn something is to get a degree in it. The video game industry is still a meritocracy, where you are valued and hired for what you can do and what you can create.

There are people with legitimate PhDs who could be called uneducated (though this is unlikely). There are certainly many people holding bachelor degrees who are essentially uneducated. And there are 17 and 18 and 19 year-olds who clearly are educated people, though they haven’t had the time to accumulate a wealth of experience and knowledge that is associated with being educated. So “educated” doesn’t necessarily imply a specific academic degree. It implies a certain attitude toward life. It’s this educated attitude that game companies want and need to succeed.

What makes someone “educated?” An educated person wants to know and will make an effort to find out things. An uneducated person tends not to bother. Here’s a simple example. An educated person, confronted with a word he doesn’t know, is likely to look it up. He wants to improve his understanding (of language, of the world). An uneducated person isn’t going to bother. Further, an educated person teaches himself or herself when necessary, from books or otherwise, rather than wait for a class. The uneducated ones will frequently whine, “I haven’t been to training for that.” Not surprisingly, educated people tend to read a lot, and uneducated ones don’t.

In my classes I assign students the “task” of maintaining a notebook or other “data store” in which they record game-related ideas as they get them. It’s a habit they should get into on their own, and I try to teach attitudes more than “facts.” The “uneducated” attitudes surface quickly, with students asking, “How much do I have to include in this?” The student wants to know the minimum, rather than take the educated attitude that this is something he should do anyway, that is worth doing, and he should put some time into it.

Educated people like to use their brains in top gear; uneducated people prefer to run in idle or first gear. The old-fashioned “thirst for knowledge” is what I’m talking about. This is part of a productive orientation. Designers can’t be people who “kill time,” who do “just enough to get by.” They must be people who want to be productive whenever they can, not whenever they are forced to be.

Learning to Learn

What’s important is what you know and what you can do, not what classes you took or what degrees you have. Good classes help you learn much quicker, as you take advantage of the experience of teachers and authors. If I were to characterize what a game designer does in as few words as possible, it would come down to: think; communicate; innovate; control.

Think. The game designer needs to have his brain in gear all the time. When playing games, he should be thinking about what works, what doesn’t, and why. He must keep his mind open to ideas at all times. He must think about how to improve his game even when (if) he enjoys playing it. The game can always be improved; we just come to a time when the improvement we can get isn’t worth the time it will take (the law of diminishing returns).

Most important, the designer must think critically. Fanboys (or girls) will never make good game designers, as they typically praise a game or genre or company’s work uncritically. Self-criticism is especially important. If you can’t recognize that your favorite mechanic just doesn’t fit or just isn’t needed, then you won’t design good games. Self-indulgence doesn’t work in game design.

Communicate. Communication is much more important for video game designers than for non-electronic game designers. Most video games require a team to produce. The game designer must communicate in writing and orally everything about his game in a manner that enables the artists and programmers to reproduce it. This is really hard to do! Non-electronic game designers can make the prototypes and write the rules themselves, but still must communicate well with play testers to improve the game. Moreover, since the rules are not enforced by a computer, it’s especially important to write rules that are clear, concise, and understandable. Finally, if you haven’t written it down, it doesn’t count.

Innovate. While game design is “10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration,” that 10 percent is important. It’s not hard to “design” the next shooter clone. Finding that spark to make it more than a clone, more than just a shooter, separates the most successful designers from the rest. Too many designers design the game they want to play, which is almost exactly like some existing game that they love to play. “Think outside the box” applies here.

Control. Game designers do not need to be control freaks, but they do need to carefully control everything in the design of the game. People who buy games want the designer to make every effort to produce an enjoyable game. They don’t want to depend on random this or that unless the designer has decided that randomness will create the best game experience.

I once saw some of my students, who were making a form of “capture multiple flags” board game, literally just drop the flag markers on the board to create a random distribution. My jaw dropped. If you’re the professional designer, you should work out a set of excellent and interesting positions for the flags, rather than depend on chance placement. Why trust enjoyment of your game to unnecessary chance? Yes, it’s more work for the designer, making up and recording the patterns of placement, play testing each one multiple times, but the result will be a fairer and better game.

Pro Player

Some aspiring game designers ask, “Do I have to be an outstanding player to be a game designer?” Being a dynamite game player, whether it’s in Halo 3 or a Super Mario Bros. game or Command & Conquer or Axis & Allies, does not translate to being a good game designer. The skills and points of view are very different.

On the other hand, if you have played tic-tac-toe (noughts and crosses to British English speakers) and have not realized that it is always a draw when played optimally, you have a mountain to overcome, because you’ll likely not see the optimal strategies in more complex games. In other words, you’ll help yourself a lot if you’re a good enough game player to quickly see the best strategies and tactics in a game. You can avoid dominant strategies and other pitfalls that otherwise your play testers will have to reveal, at a cost of time and frustration. You needn’t be an outstanding player, but it helps to be a good player. (Source: Game Career Guide)