Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
As a result, level design is now a specialized skill, or set of skills, and is considered
just as important as game design. A project usually has several level designers
reporting either to a lead level designer or to the lead designer.
User Interface Designer.
If a project includes user interface design as a sepa-
rate role, it's performed by one or more people responsible for designing the layout
of the screen in the various gameplay modes of the game and defining the function
of the input devices. In large, complex games, this can easily be a full-time task. An
otherwise brilliant game can be ruined by a bad user interface, so it is a good idea
to have a specialist on board. (See
Figure 2.7
for a notorious example.) Large devel-
opers are increasingly turning to usability experts from other software industries to
help them test and refine their interfaces.
FIGURE 2.7
Trespasser: Jurassic
Park
was an innovative
game ruined by an
awkward and buggy
user interface.
Writer.
Writers are responsible for creating the instructional or fictional content
of the game: introductory material, back story, dialog, cut-scenes (noninteractive
narrative video clips), and so on. Writers do not, generally speaking, do technical
writing—that is the responsibility of the game designers. Few games require a full-
time writer; the work is often subcontracted to a freelancer or done by one of the
other designers.
Two other positions have a large amount of creative in fluence on a game, although
they do not normally report to the lead designer. Rather, they are people with whom
a game designer can expect to have a lot of interaction over the course of a project.
Art Director.
The art director, who may also be called the lead artist, manages
production of all the visual assets in the game: models, textures, sprites, animations,
