[game_edu] Brenda Braithwaite's game_edu rant at GDC

[Stephen Jacobs]

Does a Game Designer need a CS degree?  No.  You don't need to be able to build an engine from scratch to design a game any more than you need to build a motion picture camera from scratch to write or shoot a film.

(and yes, I know that games aren't films.  They are however major pieces of media created primarily by small or large teams)

They obviously can design games without being programmers, many do.  Many of them do a good, or even great, job despite the fact that they are non-programmers.

They don't need to be automotive engineers to make racing games.  Mario Cart doesn't need that level of accuracy. Forza may or may not need that level of accuracy, game designers cheat all the time because the simulate experience.  People who need to create scientifically and engineering accurate simulators for the automotive industry need to either be engineers or employ them as subject matter experts.

Any member of a multidisciplinary team is a stronger member if they've walked a mile in the other members' shoes.  Ideally game designers will have had some programming, writing, art/modeling/animation experience so they have an experiential understanding of the needs, processes, constraints, roles, etc of the   other team members and can " sketch" what they want from the other members using their vocabulary and/or tools.



Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 3, 2011, at 10:10 PM, game_edu-request at igda.org wrote:


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