Elements of game design, part two: art direction for games

 An Art Director is the person in control of the art department of a game. They are responsible for the visual tone, quality, and style for the game. This means they are in charge of how everything appears in a game. Art Direction affects the game deeply, as how it looks can affect the feeling the player gets when playing the game. The art director makes sure that all Art department creates assets, environments and characters which are consistent to the tone of the game. They manage the other members of staff in the art department to

An Art director is responsible to the Game designer. During production, the members of staff in charge of teams meet up to see how the game is coming on and if everything is going to schedule.

I think it is a creative role in the industry. Even if the role itself does not involve must painting or drawing, it requires lots of creative decisions to be made. A game with good art direction often has something different and original about it, a unique style. This can be achieved by the creative ability of the Art Director. They have to be able to come up with lots of new creative ideas for  the style of each new project in order to be successful. Even though they don't implement their creative ideas, they are usually still  head of the art department.

Unlike in games, the art director in the film industry is not the head of the art department. Instead they work under the production designer. They are in charge of the look of the sets, costumes and some of the lighting. Their role is somewhat similar to that of a Art Director in games; they still are in charge of the general tone of the production and make it visually interesting. However, there are some changes simply because there is a difference in the final product they produce. Films have different things that need to be designed in a physical form, such as character costumes, so the film Art Director would be working slightly differently than game Art Directors.

Art directors need to be good communicators. This is because they will be working with a large number of people who they have to co- ordinate towards the end result of the game. They also need this good communication to convey their ideas clearly to everyone in the team. This is so all the things that the art department creates fits together well in the final product. Being a good manager of people and time is also a necessary skill. They also have to be really perceptive, as they have to manage how everything in the art team produces, even down to the little details. As well as that, they need to be very creative, as they must be able to come up with new ideas for each games look and visual design. These are some of the many skills a Art director for games must need for their job.

Elements of game design part 1

Game design is the creation of the content of games, such as the background and rules of a game. It is a very important part to the creation of a game. Game design starts with the idea of the game, and it is usually the game designer who produces the game proposal document. This includes the concept, game play, feature list, setting and story, target audience, requirements and schedule, staff and budget estimates. Once the game is in production, it is the game designer who makes decisions about the content of the game, and oversees the various teams (such as art, programming and music) to make sure all elements in a game are consistent and work together. They also have to make sure that the game fits into deadlines, budget and hardware limitations. In short, they design the game play. 

A link to basic information about the job of a game design:

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/411/game_design_an_introduction.php

 

Game play is the interaction the has player  with the game . These provide challenges to the player using game mechanics to make the game fun and entertaining. It's how the player can change the game by interacting with the environments and objects within them. This can be seen in puzzle games where the player can interact with the game to solve the puzzle. It is up to the game designer to decide how the game play of a game works.

Game designers are needed from start to finish on the project. This is because they make lots of the creative decisions, from the initial design document and concept, to testing the game and deciding what needs to be changed for the final product. This is the process of a game being produced:

It is not a single persons responsibility, there is more than one type of game designer. However, in the past, when teams were a lot smaller, there was often not a dedicated game designer. In present day, the main types of game designer are lead designer, game mechanic designer, level designer, and writer. Lead designers are the leaders of the other designers and the team. They co-ordinate the team and make the large design decisions. The game mechanic designer designs the game play mechanics, and also makes sure they are balanced. Level designers, which is a more recent role, create the environment and levels of a game. Writers are often commissioned to write the games narrative, as well as anything else written within the game world, such as journals.

Different genres require different design principles. This is because each genre has different game play elements and different things that the players expect. For example, a player would expects something different from a first person shooter than a real time strategies game. However, a good game designer should be able to design games across the genres.

To me, it is mostly important that a game is entertaining. Across every genre, this is the most important part of a game, if it is not fun to play, then it is not worth playing. This can be achieved by great game design, whether it is art driven, or story driven.