Game Designers and Microsoft Excel

Nilix

So, I've been going through some job posts for Game Design and a number of them actually ask for proficiency in Excel. I've never really did much in Excel to think myself proficient in it. I've put numbers in boxes and changed the colors and borders to make a chart, but anything past that is foreign to me.

Anyone have an idea what kind of things you'd need to be able to do in Excel to consider yourself 'proficient' in it? I want to look into it more as I plan on moving more towards a design focus.

Ace-Angel

Depends from studio to studio, some of them require basic skills like you said, others require a more database like build for stuff to be synchronized on a sever XML style.

It would be nice if studio's actually bothered telling what they are looking for.

Paradan

they use it for DPS balancing, level progression,class balancing, trying to predict min/max behaviors the players will adopt, and other stuff along those lines. they put all their formulas on a spreadsheet so the rest of the team can see whats going on.

its one of the main reasons for stagnation in game mechanics in rpgs/ and mmos.

plus it lets em feel like they're engineers and usin math.


btw..I should probably state that I have never worked in the industry, or even set foot in a studio. so I'm totally talking out my ass right now.

but they write blogs and articles, and I read em.

jimmypopali

I think it would be what Paradan said. Something like formulas and possibly variables.

TrevorJ

Yeah, i can understand the confusion, its one of those things professionals dont really think about when someone asks them what programs they use. But almost everyone uses it everyday, bug lists/assets lists/stats/abilities. It's a huge organization tool.

I do wish schools explained at least the reasons for the use of excel in large and even small pipelines. That and versioning software, like perforce. I had no idea that stuff even existed until i got a job. Info that would have been ridiculously good to know. I saw an article on gamasutra about this kind of info, ill see if i can find it.

Kwramm

gawd I hate it when people use excel as database, because it isn't! Unless excel is used as convenient import/export format it absolutely sucks in a pipeline. I wish people would learn that the best choice for database functionality is in fact using a database and not a spreadsheet.

Multi user support, collaborative working, revisioning is just not something Excel is made for. Although it can be used as front-end for some databases I think. Excel is great when you alone work on it and you have good control who works on a file when and where, but otherwise it's just a pain.

Fortunately excel is driven out by real databases and web based systems, both in pipelines and when it comes to multi-user tracking solutions.

Having said that, Excel skills are nevertheless useful to have. I just hate to see Excel in places where it doesn't really belong.

arrangemonk

oh god learn do use tfs/sharepoint project protals! 0_o
using excel for importand documents is a bad idea

hobodactyl

Nilix: You're probably proficient enough in Excel I'm a game designer at Gameloft Montreal and we use Excel quite a bit, but generally nothing too crazy that you wouldn't be able to figure out.

r_fletch_r

Kwramm wrote: »

gawd I hate it when people use excel as database, because it isn't! Unless excel is used as convenient import/export format it absolutely sucks in a pipeline. I wish people would learn that the best choice for database functionality is in fact using a database and not a spreadsheet.

Multi user support, collaborative working, revisioning is just not something Excel is made for. Although it can be used as front-end for some databases I think. Excel is great when you alone work on it and you have good control who works on a file when and where, but otherwise it's just a pain.

Fortunately excel is driven out by real databases and web based systems, both in pipelines and when it comes to multi-user tracking solutions.

Having said that, Excel skills are nevertheless useful to have. I just hate to see Excel in places where it doesn't really belong.

Its not a massive step up but open office calc has a nice simple sharing feature that lets a team update a sheet concurrently. We use it for tracking sheets at work and it works a treat. Animation, and background approvals feed into the sheet so comp knows when they can work on certain scenes.