作者：Liz England

我一直很好奇为什么会有这么多人彻底误解了什么是“游戏设计师”。我的意思是，我想是因为没有足够关于什么是游戏设计的内容去帮助人们认清楚这点，并且他们也未真正去寻找答案。

但我却大错特错了！

以下是来自游戏设计建议文章中的一些引用内容。这些都是通过谷歌搜索关键词所找到的，如“如何成为一名游戏设计师”，“如何创造电子游戏”，“找到一个制作电子游戏的工作”以及“什么是游戏设计师”。这都是我希望人们在获得第一个暗示，即想要在游戏开发领域工作时能够去搜索的内容。

不幸的是，有很多内容表明存在许多关于提供“游戏设计”学位的盈利性学校的广告，而谷歌仍不清楚该如何应对这些问题。

证据1：Digital Dreamer的《如何成为一名游戏设计师》

这些公司想要雇佣那些知道如何创造一款优秀游戏以及如何会导致一款糟糕游戏的人。他们想要获得那些了解优秀的关卡设计vs糟糕的关卡设计的人。而做到这些的唯一方法便是通过游戏，即反复地玩电子游戏。

玩许多游戏并不能帮助你成为一名优秀的设计师。因为你可以玩游戏并不意味着你就可以创造游戏。我喜欢吃东西也并不意味着我就能够成为一名大厨。

证据2：Education Portal的《游戏设计师：工作信息和要求》

游戏设计师拥有像设计角色，关卡，谜题，图像和动画等职责。他们可能会编写代码，使用各种计算机编程语言。就他们的职业责任。他们可能也将承担起管理任务以及对于电子游戏早前版本的测试工作。

这是关于“所有创造游戏的人都是游戏设计师”的谜团的经典例子：

设计师=关卡和谜题。

美术师=角色和图像。

动画师=动画。

程序员=代码和计算机编程语言。

项目管理者或/制作人=项目管理。

质量保证测试员=测试早前的游戏版本。

游戏开发者=所有的上述内容。

证据3：HowStuffWorks的《成为电子游戏设计师有何作用》

电子游戏设计师必须拥有一整套强大的技能，包括编程，视频图像和硬件必需品。

似乎这是随机选择的3种不同角色。

编程技能是对于程序员而言。“视频图像”技能是相对于图像程序员，除非作者肯定地将“图像”归为美术部分。“硬件必需品”较为特别，但也许是指代索尼或微软中负责开发真正硬件的主机程序员或硬件工程师。这也有可能指代引擎程序员，即帮助让游戏运行于特定主机或平台上的人。

证据4：Study Magazine的《如何成为一名游戏设计师》

如果你想要在图像设计或网页设计中拥有一定的级别，这便很有帮助。你并不需要从特定内容开始，只需要拥有一些想象并坚定地认为游戏创造将是一份漫长且乏味的工作。

在1997年，网页设计也许还拥有一定的级别。而图像设计并不是我们在游戏中真正使用的一个术语，它更适用于2D logo的开发，网站或者UI美术师身上。

一开始作为游戏设计师的你需要许多特定的元素。而图像设计和网页设计则不包含于其中。

证据5：eHow的《如何成为一名电子游戏设计师》

学习与电子游戏职业相关的术语和技能。电子游戏设计师同样也被称为图像设计师。未来的电子游戏设计师必须熟悉摄影，特效，图像设计以及3D动画等技能。

第一个句子非常接近！它非常完美。而后面则跟着一个完全没有意义的声明。电子游戏设计师从未被称为图像设计师。

游戏设计师并不需要了解任何有关摄影，特效，图像设计或2D动画等技能。

证据6：Shmoop的《电子游戏设计师资格》

你可能会因为发现许多电子游戏设计师至少拥有一些图像设计或美术体验，甚至是完整的学术学位而感到惊讶。仔细想想：你将会创造离谱的背景，角色服装以及战斗场景。

设计师并不需要图像设计或美术体验，尽管拥有这些技能也不是什么坏事。

背景？也许它们意味着“关卡”，如果这样的话那就没错，但这是非常模糊的，并且使用了错误的术语。“角色服装”让我觉得这个人了解电影而不是游戏—-所以正确的术语应该是“角色美术”或“浮华”（指代服装件数），这都是属于角色美术师的领域，而不是设计师。

最终，要记得现实世界的业务体验也能够帮助你做到电子游戏设计师的工作。你需要监督预算，时间线，以及团队成员的工作周。

设计师从不会去监督预算，时间线或者工作周。这是制作人或项目经理的工作。在游戏产业中我未曾接触过财政领域。我可能知道发行商投资了多少钱于我们的游戏，但却不知道这些钱的细节。我不能控制时间线—-是制作人，工作室的高级管理层以及发行商共同决定项目的时间表。

证据7：eHow的《成为一名游戏设计师的要求》

关于初级游戏设计师的理念有点用词不当。存在初级图像美术师，程序员以及游戏音乐师，但设计师却是在他们的职业生涯中扮演着每一个这样的角色。

设计师并不需要作为图像美术师，程序员或游戏音乐师（游戏邦注：也被称为作曲家或声音设计师）。有些人（像我这样）是直接进入设计领域。也有些人之前曾从事过QA测试工作并从中获得升级。

存在初级设计职位这样一回事，但这要求一些先前的经验，即使这些经验是你利用空闲时间所获得的。这种情况同样也发生在美术或编程职位中—-初级工作是存在的，但你需要在获得该工作前先成为一名优秀的美术师或程序员。

证据8：Creativepool的《游戏设计师工作描述》

游戏设计师一周共工作35个小时。

我觉得这点根本不需要评论。

警告：他们提到的可能是加班，这是以英国为背景的文章，所以他们的劳动法可能比美国更完善，但这仍然让我觉得好笑。

不同的公司拥有不同的危机政策，这值得我们通过另外一篇文章进行正式。这里的关键在于游戏开发是一个辛苦且经常需要工作到很晚的职业，可能只有少部分领域避免了这一点。

证据9：Sokanu的《电子游戏设计师职业生涯页》

大多数设计师将花费某些时间作为测试员，那时候他们将能够编码并直接监管其他人的错误。

大多数设计师并不会花时间去扮演测试员的角色。有些设计师虽然一开始是作为设计员并从中获得升级，但并不是全部设计师都会这么做。

测试员并不需要尝试进行编码。我甚至不确定这是关于什么。

最后，环境设计师将负责创造游戏的不同场景和环境。

并不存在所谓的“环境设计师”。“关卡设计师”将创造场景（或者说是关卡，任务和游戏玩法）。而“环境美术师”将创造环境图像并致力于这些关卡的美学和视觉效果的创造。

证据10：How Do I Become A的《如何成为一名游戏设计师》

必须理解计算机编程语言。有一些电子游戏设计级别需要优秀的理想主义者。游戏制作，游戏机制，关卡设计，游戏资产评论者以及开发分析等等都是优秀的学生可以根据自己的技能水平而开始的领域。在每个游戏设计项目中的特定领域都存在一定的机遇。刚毕业的学生可以从战斗系统设计，游戏玩法设计，经济管理或多人游戏设计开始。

游戏资产评论者？经济管理？这些都是一些被编造出来的术语。我不知道“开发分析”意味着什么。其它术语也都是不准确的。这整段都是由各种乱七八糟的术语所拼凑在一起的。

我们并不想要理想主义者。游戏开发是许多具有挑战性和奖励的简单工作所组成的，但这些过程却并不完美。拥有一些乐观主义是不错，但理想主义者在这里将很快被伤透心。

同时……

在这些对游戏产业具有贡献的网站上存在真正令人不安的建议趋势：具有掠夺性且以营利为目的的学校。大多数建议文章都是瞄准高中生或充满抱负的游戏设计师，并不断地告诉他们需要获得像“游戏美术和设计”等学位，或者便找不到工作，向他们传输如果获得了学位，面前便会出现“源源不断的”工作机会。

证据11：Game Design School的《如何成为一名游戏设计师》

为了成为一名成功的游戏设计师，你不能只是依赖于你对电子游戏的满腔热情。你需要来自学校的有效教育才能巩固你的资格。

事实上你并不需要来自学校关于游戏开发的教育。我经常建议学生们从传统学校中获得4年制的学士学位，因为这是在美国的任何一项文职工作的基本要求，而因为他们之中的大多数人不一定能进入游戏产业，这时候这份文凭便能够带给他们长期的帮助。

基于游戏的学士学位并不能在你的奖励上给予加分，更不用说将其当成一个必要性。许多这样的课程其实真的很糟糕并且不能提供给带有技能的学生他们所需要的内容。他们中的许多人在游戏开发者圈中落下了坏名声（在看了他们的简历后），而这才是真正的危险信号。

你的简历是帮助你获得一份工作的关键，并且即使没有学校的帮忙你也能够拥有自己的一份简历。尽管有些学校能够帮助你创造作品集。但大多数学校并不会这么做。

证据12：How To Become A Game Designer.com

为了成为一名游戏设计师，你需要在提供游戏设计或互动娱乐等课程的众多学院中的一所或者各个国家的在线大学中参与一个两年制或四年制的课程。

这是错误的。这是网站想要教育人们关于游戏的例子，但却是作为掠夺性“大学”的市场营销网站。

对于游戏开发者来说，如果你曾经好奇为什么有许多学生上着那些教授着自己关于游戏开发和游戏设计的错误理念的课程时，你便能够得到答案。他们花了许多钱去营销和招聘，几乎每一篇关于深入游戏的信息文章都是付费广告。

对于学生来说，应该着眼于这些网站并识别哪些学校在对自己使用广告。如果你加入其中的一所学校，或者考虑加入其中一所，你就应该真正认真思考。关于蹩脚的内容网站的广告是学校对高质量教育并不感兴趣的标志，相反地，他们想要的是学生们通过学费和贷款等方式带来的利益。

（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）

What Game Designers Do (According to the Internet)

by Liz England

I used to wonder why so many people had totally wrong impressions of what a “game designer” was. I mean, I just assumed it was because there wasn’t enough out there written about game design to help people and that they, in turn, weren’t really seeking it out.

I was so, so wrong about that!

Below are a list of quotes from advice articles on game design. These were found by simply googling key terms like, “How to become a game designer”, “How to make video games”, “Getting a job making video games” and “What is a game designer”. This is what I expect people to search for when they get the first inkling that maybe – just maybe! – they want to work in game development.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of content mills out there full of advertisements for for-profit schools offering degrees in “game design”, and Google hasn’t figured out how to deal with these yet. It took until about page 4 or 5 of the results to get any good articles from actual developers.

Exhibit 1: Digital Dreamer’s “How to Become a Game Designer”

These companies want to hire someone who knows what makes a game good, and what makes a game bad. They want someone who knows good level design vs poor level design. The only way to do this is by playing, and playing AND playing video games over and over again.

Playing lots of games is not going to make you a good designer. Just because you can play games doesn’t mean you can make them. I love to eat but that doesn’t make me qualified as a chef.

Exhibit 2: Education Portal’s “Game Designer: Job Info and Requirements”

Game designers have duties like designing characters, levels, puzzles, art and animation. They may also write code, using various computer programming languages. Depending on their career duties, they may also be responsible for project management tasks and testing early versions of video games.

This is a classic example of the “all people who make games are game designers!” myth.

Designers = levels and puzzles.

Artists = characters and art.

Animators = animation.

Programmers = code and computer programming languages.

Project Managers and/or Producers = project management.
Quality Assurance Testers = testing early versions of the game

Game Developer = all of the above

Exhibit 3: HowStuffWorks “How Becoming a Video Game Designer Works”

A video game designer must have a strong set of skills, including programming, video graphics and hardware essentials.

These are three different roles seemingly chosen at random.

Programming skills are for programmers. “Video graphics” skills are for graphics programmers, unless the author meant “art” in which case it falls firmly in the art department. “Hardware essentials” is bizarre but may refer to a console programmer or hardware engineer at, say, Sony or Microsoft developing the actual hardware. It may also refer to engine programmers, who help make the game run on a specific console or platform.

Exhibit 4: Study Magazine’s “How To Become a Game Designer”

It can be helpful for you to have a degree in something such as graphic design or web page design. You don’t need anything specifically to start, just a lot of imagination and persistence as video game creation can be a long and at some times tedious job.

Web page design might have been a degree… in 1997. Graphic design isn’t really a term we use in games – it refers more to developing 2D logos or websites or possibly UI artists (but they are usually called “UI artists”).

There’s a lot you specifically need to start a job as a game designer. Graphic design and web design aren’t really among them.

They got “tedious” right though.

Exhibit 5: eHow’s “How to Become a Video Game Designer”

Learn the terms and skills associated with video game related careers. Video game designers are also referred to as graphic designers. Prospective video gamer designers must be familiar with photography, special effects, graphic design, and 3D animation.

The first sentence is so close! It’s perfect! It’s… followed up by a completely nonsensical statement. Video game designers are never referred to as graphic designers.

Game designers do not need to know anything about photography (no one does this), special effects (the role of the FX artists), graphic design (not really a thing), or 2D animation (the role of an animator, not a designer).

Exhibit 6: Shmoop’s “Video Game Designer Qualifications”

You might also be surprised to learn that a fair number of video game designers have at least some graphic design or art experience, if not a full-fledged bachelor’s degree. Think about it: you’ll be creating outrageous sets, character costumes, and battle scenes.

Designers do not need graphic design or art experience, though it’s not a bad skill to have.

Sets? Maybe they mean “levels”? If so that’s true, but it’s so vague and using the wrong terminology. “Character costumes” makes me thing this person knows about films and nothing about games – the correct term is “character art” or maybe “vanity” (to refer to clothing pieces), and both are the domain of a character artist, not a designer.

Finally, remember that real-world business experience will also help you excel in a video game designer job. You’re overseeing budgets, timelines, and team members’ work weeks.

Designers are never overseeing budgets, timelines, or work weeks. That’s a producer or project manager’s job. I have never, ever had any experience with financial figures in the game industry. I may know what a publisher is spending, total, on our game, but not clue how that breaks down. I have no control over the timeline – milestones are agreed upon by producers, studio upper management, and the publisher.

Exhibit 7: eHow’s “Requirements to Become a Game Designer”

The idea of an entry-level game designer is a bit of a misnomer. There are entry-level graphic artists, programmers and even game musicians, but designers work as each one of these during their career.

Designers do not necessarily work as graphic artists (proper term: artist), programmers, or game musicians (proper term: composers or sound designers). Some, like me, entered directly into design. Others have previous experience in QA testing and were promoted up through there.

There is such a thing as an entry level design position, but it requires prior experience even if that experience is developed in your own free time. The same is true of an art or programming position – entry level jobs exist, but you need to be a good artist or programmer before you can get the job.

Exhibit 8: Creativepool’s “Game Designer Job Description”

Games designers work around 35 hours a week

I feel like this one really doesn’t even need a comment.

Caveat: they do mention possible overtime, and it is a UK-focused article so their labor laws may be a bit better than here in the US, but this still made me laugh.

Different companies have different policies about crunch, and that deserves a whole other article to do justice. The main takeaway is that game development is a work-hard, work-late, work-often career for the most part, though there are a handful of places that have avoided this.

Exhibit 9: Sokanu’s “Video Game Designer” career page

Most designers will spend at least some of their time as testers, where they can experiment with coding and watch others’ mistakes firsthand.

Most designers do not spend time as testers. Some start off as testers and get promoted up through the ranks, but not all of them.

Testers do not get to experiment with coding. I’m not even sure what this would be referring to.

Lastly, an environmental designer is responsible for creating the different scenarios and environments of the game.

There is no such thing as an “environment designer”. There are “level designers” which create the scenarios (better referred to as levels, missions, and gameplay). There are “environment artists” which create the environment art (duh) and work on the aesthetics and visuals of those levels.

Exhibit 10: How Do I Become A’s “How To Become A Game Designer”

Computer programming language understanding is a must. There are several levels of video game design that want good idealists. Game production, game mechanics, level design, game asset reviewers, development analysis and more are all places where a good student can start depending on his skill level. Opportunities are open in specific areas of each game design project as well. Fresh out of school graduates could begin in combat systems design, game play design, economics director or even multi player game design.

Game asset reviewers? Economics director? Those are made up terms. I have no clue what “development analysis” means. The other terms are pretty inaccurate, too. This whole paragraph is a mess of terminology.

We don’t want idealists. (Similarly, a lot of articles use the term “perfectionists” – that’s also a lie). Game development is a lot of grunt work that is challenging and rewarding in its own way, but the process is far from perfect. It’s nice to have some optimism, but idealists are going to have their hearts broken really quickly.

Meanwhile…

There’s a really troubling trend of advice on these sites that contributes to an awful part of the game industry: predatory for-profit schools. Most of the advice articles are aimed at high school students or aspiring game designers and tell them, over and over again, that they NEED a degree in things like “Game Art & Design” or else they cannot get a job, but imply that if they get the degree there’s so many ‘limitless’ jobs out there.

Exhibit 11: Game Design School’s “How To Become A Game Designer”

In order to be a successful game designer you can’t only bank on your passion for video games. You need a solid education from a respected school to solidify your candidacy.

You actually do not need an education in game development from a school. I often recommend students to still get a 4-year bachelor’s degree from a traditional school because that is essentially a requirement for any white collar job in the US, and since the vast majority of them will not get into the game industry a degree will help in the long run.

A game-focused degree program does not give you extra points on your resume, let alone treated as a necessity. A lot of these programs are really bad and do NOT provide students with the skills they need to actually enter the workforce professionally. Many of them have developed such a bad reputation among game developers that seeing them on your resume is a red flag.

Your portfolio is the key thing that will get you a job, and you do not need a school for it. Some schools can help you develop that portfolio. Most of them can’t.

Exhibit 12: How To Become A Game Designer dot com

In order to become a game designer, you will need to attend either a two year or four year program at one of the many colleges and online universities across that nation that offer programs in either Game Design or Interactive Entertainment.

This is wrong. Wrong! This is an example of a website pretending to educate people about games but really acting as a marketing site for predatory ‘universities’.

For game developers, if you ever wonder why there are so many students in bad programs teaching them wrong ideas about game development and game design, you have your answer. They spend so much money on marketing and recruiting, almost every top-ranked information article about getting into games is basically a paid advertisement.

For students, take a look at these sites and check out what schools are ‘advertised’ on them. If you are attending one of these schools, or contemplating attending one, you should think really hard about that. An advertisement on a crappy content-mill website is a huge red flag that the school isn’t interested in quality education but in how many dollars students can bring to them in the form of tuition fees and student loans.

That’s the end of this for now. I’ll do a follow-up with misleading (and sometimes unintentionally hilarious) game development advertisements eventually but I think this article sums up the scale of bad information out there.(source:gamasutra)