"The realities of being a game designer in a big studio like BioWare"

[Davaris]

The point is he didn't go to 'design school'

A lot of artists don't go to art school but one can get some benefit from it.

I read an artist comment where he said, DON'T GO TO ART SCHOOL! He said it ruins people. The only way to learn is to practice.

 

[Ninjerk]

In the US, they tend to be exorbitantly expensive and, from second hand knowledge, an alarming number of the professors do not have fundamental drawing or painting skills.

 

[JarlFrank]

The thing with any creative subject taught at a school is that while basic knowledge of the craft is absolutely required to produce something solid, such programs will help those who are willing to constantly improve their craft by showing them the basics but mediocre designers will just latch onto what they've learned and stick to blindly copying the design patterns they have been shown in their lessons.

It doesn't help that the stuff the game design students get to see and practice on is modern linear crap, real level design like Thief, Unreal, Deus Ex, Dark Forces II isn't held up as glorious examples of good level design. Cloning a linear corridor shooter's design should be enough to graduate as long as you make it look flashy and impressive, excellence is not required.

When copypasting banal "basic level design" floorplans is all you do, and when you're hired as a dungeon designer by Bethesda and you have 100 colleagues and you're working on dungeons together and everyone has had the same kind of education where you just cloned basic templates, you will end up with a game like Skyrim where every single dungeon is 100% linear and loops back to the entrance at the end.

 

[pippin]

an alarming number of the professors do not have fundamental drawing or painting skills.

This is the source of the problem, actually. They don't teach art in schools anymore. But it's not just a problem of art schools, most universities and collegesjust don't teach what it says on the tin anymore, partly because of the interests and inclinations of the academia, and partly because of the market. You have just too many people learning stuff. Actually, part of why immigration is so enforced is because you are importing poor people who are prepared and have the knowledge to do technical stuff, not just what it's considered to be professional (everything you learn by reading books). At the same time, the market discourages people from being self employed (like Deus Ex said) because the educational system trains you to be an employee. I've talked to kids studying video game design and their life goal is being pencil pushers at Bethesda.

 

[AArmanFV]

The potential to be a good game designer is innate. Like the potential to be a good artist, a good cartoon maker, etc. That's why in 80s and 90s there wasn't manuals or books or schools showing how to make a videogame, only "Masters" teaching in the industry (Richard Garriot learned a lot in programming from a guy in California Pacific Computer, accorded to him the guy considered one of the best programmers of computer videogames back then) and the own creativity and design philosophy of the videogame creators, and of course, playing other videogames to learn other alternatives of design and make them own (I mean, not just do a soulless copy)

You only can help the kid who have talent playing the violin, but you can't give him talent. I think that those "designers schools" are bullshit because they think that everyone can make a good game, and most of those fat boobed guys who want to work in the industry are like those 15 year olders who want to be rockstars, but they don't know how to play the guitar. Other disciplines at least have respect to the profession and have some inclusion and exclusion criteria.

 

[Volourn]

"He said egotistical thoughts need to be “excised,” because that will cause your whole project to suffer."

Bullshitz. One needs an ego to do great. That is the problem with nu BIO. When they made their first games they didn't give a fuck what others thought. they made the games as they saw fit. Now, they make games to make others happy. Design a game YOU would want to play and people will see that and welcome the vision (Codexers aside LOL) but play to all sides as possible you lose your way. This goes for nearly all creative endeavours.

 

[Ash]

^Yes, but too much ego in a 500+ man team would just result in a shitstorm that goes nowhere.

The core problem is having such large team sizes. Creativity cannot be both consistent and free on that level.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Shit I just brofisted Volourn.

 

[sser]

So he watched The Matrix and took the blue pill

 

[mondblut]

The realities of being a game designer in a big studio like BioWare:

 

[Stainless Veteran]

You can outsource both programming and designing to cheap sweatshop in 3rd world~

And then you'd get The Guild 2: Renaissance. No, thanks.

 

[Cool name]

The realities of being a game designer in a big studio like BioWare:

 

[Prime Junta]

^Yes, but too much ego in a 500+ man team would just result in a shitstorm that goes nowhere.

The core problem is having such large team sizes. Creativity cannot be both consistent and free on that level.

This is not true. You can be extremely creative in architecture, yet big buildings are designed and built by groups bigger than that.

Cf. film, theatre, opera, or any other large-scale production involving lots of people.

 

[Outlander]

The realities of being a game designer in a big studio like BioWare:

Gif ends too soon, look at his face in the very last moment

 

[v1rus]

The point is he didn't go to 'design school'

A lot of artists don't go to art school but one can get some benefit from it.

I read an artist comment where he said, DON'T GO TO ART SCHOOL! He said it ruins people. The only way to learn is to practice.

Art schools differ from country to country. The whole point of a functioning art school is to keep you practicing 'till you start bleeding, while topping it with some delicious, cold, harsh criticism. Also, a real art school will always keep their students aware of the fact that they are no special snowflakes, but just sum fucktards that could perphaps be good at their job one day, that aint gonna come for a long, long time.

 

[Ninjerk]

Sorry, you get the laugh emote because the impression I've gotten is that the reality is depressingly different.

 

[v1rus]

Sorry, you get the laugh emote because the impression I've gotten is that the reality is depressingly different.

Thats ok, cause as I've said, art schools differ among themselves, a lot. Heck, they even differ inside themselves. I've couple of more exams till I graduate from art uni (not sure what really makes an art school tho- I'm no sculptor or ilustrator, but I'll be bachelor of arts when i graduate), and even inside my uni - some courses consists purely of fucktard professors, while others (like mine) keep telling you to forget about all that art bullshit and focus on the craft. And heck, thats the onl way an art shcool can work imho. You cant teach "art". You can teach craft tho.

 

[J1M]

How pathetic is this cuck that after 20 years working as a "game designer" his corporate masters won't trust him to design a game?

Even at the top of the food chain he is beholden to the creativity-killing design committee.