Game Designing

snake_2016

Hi there ,

how does one get into game designing ? I'm currently working on a few gaming projects but i don't know which gaming companies to contact in order to assist.

roguecode

Welcome to MGSA!

As far as I understand your question, you're looking to contract a person/company to help you make something?
If so, this list is the best place to start.

Fengol

Companies are going to ask for a portfolio of examples of your game design skills. You should also look at prototyping some of your own games.

EvanGreenwood

If the question is "How does one get hired as a game designer". The simple answer is "Make as many games as you can".

There's lots of tools that are easy to pick up and develop a game in. Also modding existing games should give you experience and portfolio pieces to further your game design career.

KleinM

Start by doing game jams: here is a good one to start with http://makegamessa.com/discussion/4134/sa-game-jam-2016-8th-10th-july-r20-500-prize-pool#latest :)

dammit

And I will keep posting this link forever: http://www.retroepic.com/applying-to-work-in-game-dev/

snake_2016

thanx for the responses back - really do appreciate it. How does ones compile a portfolio ? I'm new to the game design field , as i haven't released / created any games yet. It's just draft copies of how the game should start ( cut scene ) and taking it from there so its like brainstorming ideas. It's not a fully worked out game yet.

pieter

A portfolio is just a fancy word for "A list of things I've made", maybe in a Word document, maybe with some formatting.

You say you have some ideas, well test them out by making some prototypes. A prototype is just a bare bones version of your idea, no fancy graphics, sound or cut scenes, particle effects or shaders. It's squares and circles moving around on grids and different coloured squares. You use them to test if your core mechanic is fun, if yes -> refine, if no -> discard & move on to the next idea.

The important thing is just to get your list as long as possible, and every prototype counts towards this. Don't be fooled into thinking there's a magical amount of knowledge that you have to attain before you can start making games. You don't, you have everything you need, and everything you need to know you'll pick up while making games & prototypes. So start making them.

Free Programming Tools
GameMaker - If you're a beginner programmer wanting to create 2D games.
Unity - If you have C# programming knowledge and want create 3D / 2D games.
Unreal Engine 3 - 3D game engine
Twine - Story driven text based games
Construct 2 - 2D game engine

(Google these to find out which one suits your skills best)

EvanGreenwood

@snake_2016 It's probably quite tricky becoming a game designer without learning to build simple games by yourself to test your ideas.

There are a couple examples of it happening in this way. Like Alex Preston who started Hyper Light Drifter was an artist, and his vision for the game was so strong that programmers teamed up with him to make his vision come to life. Edmund McMillen has been the game designer/artist/animator on many of his projects where he paired up with a programmer (although I think Edmund has made games in flash by himself, just none of the games he is famous for).

Cases like that are pretty rare in indie game development, and I don't think anyone has had success with that approach in South Africa yet.

But it is totally possible to put together a really great animation that convinces people to work on your project. You'd probably have to be bringing to the table other valuable skills though (like appealing art or animations).

But I think there is some game design experience you can only practically get by making actual games. It'd be much harder, if not impossible, to put together a showreel of animations that convinces a company to hire you as a game designer. Everyone has ideas, it's the people who have tested their ideas and learned from their mistakes that can be trusted as game designers.