Artists and core game design
The process of making a game obviously involves the combined effort of many people specializing in different areas: asset creation, programming, game design/testing etc.
To what extent can someone who works on a different aspect of a game contribute to another area? For example I started primarily in core game design itself, learnt unrealed and max and am now fully focused on modeling and creating assets, however I am still very much interested in the game design itself.
What's your experience of contributing to areas of a game project (or any other CG related project) that are different from your own speciality? Is it quite common for artists to be making assets for a level design and then recommend alterations or even core gameplay changes? This extends to other areas too, maybe your a programmer who loves game design or a games tester who's also quite artistic etc.
To what extent can someone who works on a different aspect of a game contribute to another area? For example I started primarily in core game design itself, learnt unrealed and max and am now fully focused on modeling and creating assets, however I am still very much interested in the game design itself.
What's your experience of contributing to areas of a game project (or any other CG related project) that are different from your own speciality? Is it quite common for artists to be making assets for a level design and then recommend alterations or even core gameplay changes? This extends to other areas too, maybe your a programmer who loves game design or a games tester who's also quite artistic etc.
Replies
Your example, isn't an example... core game design?
The answer I'd give to your question above, is that these boundaries depend on the studio and its people that you're working for.
"What's your experience of contributing to areas of a game project [...] that are different from your own specialty?"
My experience leaves me to believe that an individual's roles can easily broaden into new areas and I feel they do so naturally so long as its allowed to.
Give; Managers want you to be happy and allow you to grow in the direction you'd like to grow in. They will try their best to throw you a bone. They want to ensure the company's resources (you) are being efficiently used.
Take; Circumstances may arrive where you will be needed to flex outside your normal means and delve into realms outside your area of expertise. It might involve objectionable assignments and roles, but that's the game your apart of.
"Is it quite common for artists to be making assets for a level design and then recommend alterations or even core gameplay changes?"
This is very common and usually encouraged. You'll also receive your fair amount of suggestions and feedback regarding your work. Some feedback is more constructive some will make you wince, again, it's all apart of the game.
I've made suggestions that have been incorporated into the games I've worked on. The way I approached it was to outline why something didnt feel right to me and then explain a suggestion on how it could be improved. All the time I kept in mind the over all experience that the player was supposed to be experiencing - which is key.
Design, just like art take time to come together and can require a multitude of systems to be online and working in a complimentary way before all the individual parts become fun. If you give feedback with the bigger picture in mind and are sensitive to the goals of the design team you 'could' find them more receptive to your feedback.
By this I mean actual gameplay mechanics (for me this even goes back to making alternative systems for 'pure' games like D&D and board games) and extending to level design the flow of the level, item placement, theme, flow, puzzle design, weapon placement, enemy difficulty and tactics to beat them etc.
But I'd imagine it ultimately has more to do with where you're working at, and what kind of team structure there is.
at my current job, my opinion is actually sought out by the designers and programmers [which they regret immediately, I'm sure]
I do respect the game designers though, Ive written and updated a GDD the past halfyear and it's incredibly boring work(even if the game you're working on is fun).
No I don't frankly. It's great to have ideas, they are the seeds great systems, art, etc. But like seeds, they are cheap and abundant in contrast to what they can become. It is the execution- the care and growing of those seeds that's the real hard work and the true test of merit of any good designer.
Game designers have to do a great deal of balancing between what they want to see happen and what they know is possible. It's resource management. Any designer who does otherwise and sits all day dreaming in an ivory tower is most likely unrealistic about what is possible with their project.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions I see with would-be designers in this industry; that there is little elbow grease involved.
That said, you may have had an unlucky run of dealing with bad designers in the past and that's a shame, but if not maybe look back and see that those designers were most likely wholly reliant on your efforts and the art and engineering teams to accomplish their own goals and thus perhaps the most realistic members of the team when it comes to ideas.
As to the original post... Personally I've worked on Environment Art, Level Design, Game Design, Scripting/Coding, and Technical Art all in the past month of work. There are several other people here who wear multiple hats as well. I don't know if that's a good representation of the whole industry, but yea, I definitely would say that it is very possible to multiple disiplines, though I'd imagine it'd also depend on the company. (I wouldn't suggest doing too many things though, I can't freakin wait until some new hires start so they can take some of this junk off my plate. :P)
what this industry needs is directors - a single person to unify all the components. right now having things split into different departments is totally crazy. look at halo 3..
i played it for quite a while before i actually stopped and looked at the environment i was in.. and found there was a whole backstory, etc etc. you can't be aware of that when you play, or you lose. same thing for detailed RTS games like company of heroes. if you actually match the focus that the art department has, you'll get your ass handed to you.
art should support gameplay. right now we've got systems where a bunch of different departments are all working away doing their thing and the detail in the art almost never matches the gameplay.
so yeah. to get back to the question, we need a better understanding of working accross the disaplines.. because at the end of the day, it's all about the user's experience. the components need to be congruent..