On The Muse Of The Videogame

Thanks to the IGDA for its 'Ivory Tower' article discussing whether the creative training for game developers is being taught alongside the technical specifics in university and other educational programs. The article argues: "Vocationally-focused university programs and trade schools have jumped on the opportunity to supply the next set of technically trained personnel for the game industry... but who will supply the next set of visionaries and artists?" The author goes on to suggest: "In large part, education for the game industry is a predictably useful business... what we need in the game industry are technically competent developers, artists, and designers who are fundamentally versed in the rich subtleties of human experience." Can this kind of game design vision be formally taught?

Comments

subject

[capoccia]

Can this kind of game design vision be formally taught?

I don't see why not. Schools teach all kinds of other creative outlets from painting to music to writing. As long as the student is ready to learn and willing to be criticized, he can learn an awful lot.

Re:subject

[nkodengar]

Can this kind of game design vision be formally taught?

I don't see why not. Schools teach all kinds of other creative outlets from painting to music to writing. As long as the student is ready to learn and willing to be criticized, he can learn an awful lot.

They can teach peeople how to use their creativity effectively, however nothing can be done if the creativity isn't there allready.

Strange...

[fozzmeister]

Well the games industry is going to bring in people who have gone through game making degrees / college courses as programmers / level designers, Artists for the graphics, Sound Techinicians and Musicians for Sound Effects and Music. Degree's could not teach the full wealth in all the area's, nor would should it hope to.

Does NASA only employ astronauts?

Maybe

[black mariah]

To some extent good game design can be taught. Why do you think so many games are quite a bit like other games? Some things just work right, some don't. Teaching that much is simple.

But can you teach someone how to be creative? No, you can't. People that have absolutely no artistic aptitude will still suck after 4 years of art school. At some point you have to have some innate ability.

What makes a good game is a designer that knows from the beginning what the game is supposed to feel like. From the simplest puzzle games (Tetris, Puzzle Bobble (Frozen Bubble ;) )) to the most complex wargames and RPG's, if the game doesn't feel right it will not work. That isn't something you can teach. Hell, I could probably get 20 different answers from as many people as to what the 'feel' of a game is.

One of the biggest problems is that the industry is getting so large so fast that companies don't have room for risk. They only want to hire people they know can do the right things (which is why John Romero has to hire himself to get a job ;) ). There isn't any room for the people that have no experience. Go look at some game-related job boards. Everyone is looking for someone with 5+ years of experience and at least two shipped titles... how many people like that are there in the industry, and how many of that subset can design games, and how many of THAT subset can design GOOD games? Until the industry at large settles down and looks outside of the known for answers, they're screwed.

The way I see it

[Apreche]

Is that there are so many game developers nowadays that are super succesful despite completely lacking any brains whatsoever when it comes to good design and human experience that it wont matter. The market, especially the PC, PS2, XboX and GBA markets, are flooded with crap games nowadays. Many of these games turn a profit despite being total trash. Until the game players force game makers to step up the quality nobody will need this training to get in the industry. And while the hardcore of us know which are good and which are bad, even some are guilty of buying crap games, like progress quest MMOs/RPGs and movie license games. When gamers stop buying into such unoriginal crapass games developers will go out and start trying to make quality.

Re:The way I see it

[nkodengar]

Ironically many of the most creative and innovative games hardly sell at all. We only need to look at companies like Looking Glass Studios who folded due to poor sales... It's the larger corporations like EA who produce the majority of the trash we see on the shelves of game retailers.

Some would call it...

[b0r0din]

....Creative Writing? A good writer can create a storyline that is fluid and can conform to the concept of a video game, and most games nowadays involve a story of some sort.

That said, I don't see why it couldn't be taught. Hire a few former or current game developers who are well-known for their creative talents, write up a textbook that lays out the problems with creative game design, elements that make such designs hard, etc. Slap a high-level course name like Game Design 490 on it, and you're done.

However, there's an obvious difference between Game Design and Graphic Art Design, so there would probably need to be more than one course.

I think it would be important to list the limitations and risks of such designs, though; making an innovative game often involves a lot more effort because you may have to code an entire engine yourself, or make any number of unique decisions about a game, rather than say, making a mod, which could cost you if you're a small-time developer. Still, I'm surprised this isn't a course somewhere.