Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
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17
Values
The sculpture was perfect—an sinusoid re-creation of the human
form rendered in statuesque perfection. To show their gratitude, the
townspeople offered the sculptor anything he wished. He could have
herds of cattle, ornate golden weapons, or the mayor's daughter's hand in
marriage.
But even with all of this bounty laid out before him, the sculptor
only looked distracted. He walked past the riches and entered the village
blacksmith's workshop. There he began to go through the shelves, picking
out new sculpting tools.
THIS TOPIC HAS COVERED
a lot of knowledge about being a game designer.
Combine that knowledge with practice, and you'll develop skills. But I
don't think knowledge and skills are all that's needed for exemplary game
design. I think that to do this really well, we must also have
values
.
A VALUE is an emotionally driven choice about who we want to be. It's a
human quality to aspire to. Nobody can ever fully embody their values,
but we better ourselves and our work by trying.
Other professions have their own values. Soldiers have martial values
like loyalty, honor, and personal courage. Scientists value rigor, impar-
tiality, and integrity. Mainstream industrial culture values hard work,
thinking ahead, and doing your part. But none of these value sets applies
perfectly to game design because our task is different. Just as it would be
foolish to apply military values to scientific work, it would be foolish to
apply any of these to our work. We need a different set of values. But what
should they be?
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