作者：Arcade Berg

不同公司对于“设计制作人”的定义也不同，特别是对于设计师的定义。

让我们先明确什么是“关卡设计师”（游戏邦注：大多数人都不了解关卡设计师，只是将他们当成与创造关卡内容有关的人）。

但是问题就在于有些公司的关卡设计师将承担起所有与创造关卡有关的工作。他们需要规划设计，创造图像，设置布局并撰写游戏玩法等。但是其它公司则可能会有其他人员在撰写脚本或创造游戏世界。并且通常情况下大多数公司都有自己的专门图像美工来创造游戏图像。

但我今天想要讨论的是设计制作人的角色。有些大公司会将制作人与游戏设计师的角色整合在一起。

制作人：

保证内容即时完成。

追踪大局的发展。

与所有部门（包括设计，编码，美工等）保持沟通。

会说：不，我们不能这么做，因为它太费时间了！

设计师：

发挥创造性想象力。

追踪大局的发展。

与所有部门（包括设计，编码，美工等）保持沟通。

会说：我们必须这么做，这样才能创造出更棒的游戏！

im_a_producer vs designer(from arcadeberg)

通过我所列出的这两个角色的任务，我们可以发现他们有2个交集任务。即他们都将追踪游戏的大局发展并需要与团队中的其他人员进行交谈，以确保任务的顺利进行并根据当前状态做出合理的决策。

掌握了这一点我们便能够拥有一名兼职(游戏邦注：即可以同时提升两种或多种职业）的设计制作人，这时候我们便不用担心制作人与设计师之间的交流，并且也可以压缩所需要的人员。

事实上，制作人控制时间而设计师发挥创造性并不是两种相互矛盾的任务，所以他们的“结合”也就不成问题。

问题是出在于最后一点。制作人的主要工作便是对那些会浪费时间和金钱的任务说不，而设计师则需要努力证明其创意的可取性并争取获得认可。而他们间的这种“矛盾”起源于他们都要权衡其做法的合理性。但是通常情况下最终决定权都在于制作人。

所以便会有人认为不应该设立设计制作人这个岗位，因为这将破坏制作人的整体目的，并导致游戏不能按时完成或者永远都不可能完成——因为设计师总是想要尝试更多内容并通过迭代去完善这些内容。

老实说我并不喜欢设计制作人这一理念。但是不管怎样我都必须承认它的有效性，并且如果我们能够找到合适的人这将给我们的创造工作带来巨大好处。我认为只有具有技能且能够诚实面对自己与项目的人才能承担这项工作。

因为设计制作人能够在创想中做出决策，所以便能节省下不少时间。并且这种结合也将省去了设计师与制作人之间的争吵。

但是这一角色所面临的一大挑战便是难以有效平衡两种角色间的分量。就像我曾经在大学期间以及空闲时间的多个游戏项目中扮演过设计制作人的角色，但不可否认的是，有些时候我会更偏向于设计师的角色，而有些时候则又更明显地体现出制作人的身份。

总之，明确一个设计制作人并不是一个多高明的想法，但是如果你有合适的人选，那就再好不过了。

游戏邦注：原文发表于2010年5月20日，所涉事件和数据均以当时为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The “Designing Producer”

Arcade Berg

What a title actually means differs from company to company; especially the title of designer.

First a quick description of the title “level designer”. You never know what a level designer does at a company untill you ask. All you know is that it’s level creation related.

The thing is, at some companies a level designer does everything in regards to creating a level. They plan the design, create the graphics and implements the layout and gameplay scripting. At another company, there are different people for scripting and creating the actual game worl. It’s most common to have dedicated graphics artists to make the art as well.

Anyway, what I wanted to discuss was the role of the designing producer. Some large companies merge the roles of producer and the role of game designer.

Producer:

Makes sure stuff are made in time.

Keeps track of the big picture.

Communicates with all disciplines (design, code, art, etc.)

Says: No, we can’t implement that, it’ll take too much time!

Designer:

Handles the creative imagination part of the game.

Keeps track of the big picture.

Communicates with all disciplines (design, code, art, etc.)

Says: We must do this, it’s gonna make for a much better game!

So, by looking at my lists of what I think they do, we can see that they both share two critical tasks. They both keep track of the game as a whole and they both must talk to everyone, to make sure things are running smoothly and act depending on the status.

With this in mind, it would be wise to have the multi-class Designing Producer guy, because you don’t have to worry about the communication between producer and designer and you might need less people.

The fact that the producer keeps track of the time and the designer handling the creativity doesn’t necessarily work against each other, so no problem there.

But here’s the problem, the last point of each role. The producers main job is to say no to doing things because it cost time and money, while the designer must push for the good stuff and really argument for having them made to create the best game possible. This “battle” is the constant struggle of measuring the “bang for the buck”. Usually, the producer has the final say.

By now, one would think that then of course, you can’t have a designing producer because it defeats the whole purpose of the producer and the game will never be finished in time, or finished at all, because the designer will always want to do more stuff and iterate them to make them better.

And here it is, at last, my opinion. The opinion that shapes worlds, the opinion that cures cancer and make blind people see again. I personally, am not too fond of the designing producer idea overall. However, I do think it works if, and this is a big if, you can find the right people for it. I think it requires very skilled people who are very honest with themself and with the project.

A designing producer can save a massive amount of time, because they can make decisions on the fly. The discussions and bickering between designer and producer can be held inside the head within a few minutes instead of out loud for several hours or days.

The issue at hand is that it’s incredibly hard not to be more of one than the other. Me for example have often had the role of designing producer during many projects at the Game Development at the University as well as during the spare time. I’d say I do a decent job, but there are times I’m way too much of a designer and other times when I’m way too much of a producer.

Okay, so I’ve blah blah blah’ed quite a bit now. Summary; in general I think it’s not a wise choice to have the designing producer, but if, IF, the right person assumes the role, it’s a very good thing.(source:arcadeberg)