Criteria

For the past few months, my comrades and I have been working to remake the City of Heroes pen-and-paper RPG. It was originally started by Eden Studios, but something fell through (I don't know the specifics; the license, maybe?), and the project was scrapped. They did release the quick play kit they had demoed at Origins; we downloaded it and were disappointed at how clunky it felt. We decided to salvage Eden's good ideas and convert their foundation into a game that better matched the feel of the MMO.


As I've been working on this, I've started to get a feel for some of the necessary qualities a game designer needs. I'll admit that this list is skewed towards pen-and-paper design, as my mind is still in that frame, but I think it works for all mediums well enough.

1. A game designer needs to be creative.
This one is a little obvious. To be a game designer, you have to have a idea to design around. Where I see a lot of other hopeful designers trip up is in only being creative in the big picture. It's not enough to have a pitch for the broad strokes; you have to be able to fill in the cracks, especially because you need to be making those cracks. As soon as you have an idea, you need to shoot as many holes into it as possible, and then you need to fill in those holes.

2. A game designer needs to be analytical.
The greatest tool a game designer has is the rest of the medium. Hundreds of games have come before you, and they all had strengths and faults. In any genre there are fantastic games and terrible games, and a game designer needs to be able to tell the difference between them. Once you know what makes games in a particular genre good, you need to be able to find a way to adapt them into your work.

3. A game designer needs to be able to argue.
Whenever my team comes up with an idea, the first thing we do is try to break it. When we received suggestions we didn't like, I immediately asked, "What does this do for us that we don't have? Why do we want that? Why don't we?" Every idea should have to fight for its life, and a game designer needs to be able to both support and attack it. Nothing should be added to a game that hasn't be viciously debated and torn to shreds.

4. A game designer needs to be able to do math.
Game mechanics can be broken down into systems of equations and mathematical models. A game designer needs to be able to model a potential change and fully understand the consequences. For a while, my team tried to fake this by playtesting extensively to get a handle on the effects of every change we wanted to make. Eventually, I realized that we'd either have to spend every waking minute testing every possible situation to make sure we hadn't broken anything, or I'd have to run the numbers.

5. A game designer needs to be able to work in a team.
Game design isn't a solo job. No one can properly debate with themselves, and no one will be able to see every potential situation. Working in a group means that every member can provide something different, and more eyes and minds on a project will catch problems and find solutions that one man can't.

So there you have it.