Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Lazy Designer
    Lazy Designer
    Lazy Designer
    Ebook99 pages1 hour

    Lazy Designer

    By Brent Knowles

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Practical advice on starting a career in the video game industry and improving your design skills. This is your opportunity to learn from the lead designer of such commercial and critically successful video games as Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age: Origins. Discover how the author started his career, the pitfalls he encountered and how he overcame them. Written by an industry veteran with over ten years experience working for a major games studio.

    The Lazy Designer is geared primarily towards those looking to start a career in the games industry. It discusses how to obtain a design position, such as a writer, level designer, or game system designer. Though written specifically for the game designer most of the advice will be of interest to any newcomer to the industry.
    Along the way the author explores his own experiences with game development and the difficulties he encountered adjusting to life at his dream job. With practical and blunt advice, the Lazy Designer will give you the skills necessary for becoming a valued, and maybe even essential, member of any development team.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrent Knowles
    Release dateAug 31, 2011
    ISBN9780987687111
    Lazy Designer
    Author

    Brent Knowles

    Brent Knowles is a writer, programmer, and game designer. He worked at the role-playing game studio BioWare (Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Dragon Age) for ten years, during most of which he was a Lead Designer/Creative Director. Now he writes full time. He has been published in a variety of magazines including Neo-Opsis, On Spec, and Tales of the Talisman. In 2009 Brent placed first in the third quarter of the Writer's of the Future Contest. He is also a member of SF Canada: Canada's National Association for Speculative Fiction Professionals

    Read more from Brent Knowles

    Related to Lazy Designer

    Titles in the series (2)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Careers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      Chain Reaction

      Nov 4, 2021

      For a good while, ‘NFT’ has been just another entry in a long list of threeletter initialisms that was easy to ignore. Like so many technological fads before it, the thinking went, it would surely simply fizzle out. But with millions of dollars of in

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Link To The Past

      Mar 24, 2022

      One thousand. That, give or take, is the number of digital-exclusive games estimated to become unavailable for purchase once Nintendo’s 3DS and Wii U digital stores are shuttered. For everyone except those who already own affected games – a situation

      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Ultimate Era

      Sep 1, 2023

      It’s said there’s no such thing as overnight success and that’s certainly true when it comes to Ultimate, the label which ACG launched to assail the home-computer market. Having released four standout titles for the 16K Sinclair Spectrum during the f

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Becoming A Game Designer

      Dec 8, 2023

      Our basic rule set is perfectly good for a game at home or with our chums at the club, but as a commercial venture, it is lacking in the style or sparkle that will make it attractive enough for people to put their hands in their pocket and hand over

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Art Of Zezhou Chen

      Jan 16, 2024

      The Art Of Zezhou Chen
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Interview//

      Dec 3, 2020

      Interview//
      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Interview//

      Nov 30, 2018

      Interview//
      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Making talent PAY

      Sep 5, 2024

      Making talent PAY
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Cracking The Code

      Jul 17, 2021

      Cracking The Code
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Tetsu Tsukamoto

      Nov 26, 2021

      Do you have advice for artists wanting to work in video games? You should be able to use 3D tools and understand how character implementation works in games. Making sure you have that covered will enable you to avoid producing designs that demands hi

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Window On Your Words

      Jul 1, 2021

      A Window On Your Words
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      How To Do A Game Review

      Jun 1, 2022

      A long, long time ago, when I was just 14, I loved writing about video games. I used to practice all the time. I used to write reviews of the games I played and I even tried to build my own little website. When I was 17, a new magazine launched in

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Gabe Newell

      Mar 26, 2020

      Gabe Newell
      16 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      >GAME LOOP

      Apr 27, 2017

      >GAME LOOP
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      I’ll Read What She’s Writing

      Jun 12, 2024

      FEW events create more stress at writers conferences and workshops than agent speed-dating sessions. These short one-on-one meetings can be great opportunities to discuss your literary work with literary agents and have personalized, specific convers

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Gadget Doctor

      Dec 5, 2022

      ALWAYS ON CALL facebook.com/stuffsa • @StuffSA [email protected] Q YOU CAUGHT THE JOKE! A few issues ago you guys had a section for the best games for each console over the years and I thought Ninty titles would be reviewed too. Will there ever be a

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Tony Clark

      Feb 25, 2022

      Tony Clark
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Norm For Board-om

      May 7, 2020

      As I write this article here in the UK we’re under lockdown due to the coronavirus, and I’m extremely thankful for the wide range of board games I have in my house, which are liable to help make the next however many weeks pass that much quicker. We’

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Is This Good For You?

      Jul 7, 2022

      Is This Good For You?
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Is This Good For You?

      Jul 7, 2022

      Is This Good For You?
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Letters

      May 21, 2024

      Letters
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Devon Fay

      Jun 15, 2021

      Devon Fay
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Playing The Game

      Jun 3, 2021

      Playing The Game
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Covering Up

      Aug 5, 2021

      We might not judge a book by its cover, but we all jump to certain conclusions when we see one. Book covers work hard. Not only must they convey the title and author, but also whether our book is fiction or non-fiction, its genre, and if it’s part of

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Lazy Designer

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Lazy Designer - Brent Knowles

      LAZY DESIGNER

      by

      Brent Knowles

      Smashwords Edition

      #

      PUBLISHED BY:

      Brent Knowles on Smashwords

      LAZY DESIGNER Copyright 2011 by Brent Knowles

      http://blog.brentknowles.com

      Discover other titles by Brent Knowles

      License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords .com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

      Preface

      Introduction

      If you love building videogames and aspire towards a career in videogame development I can relate. I spent my childhood writing stories, creating imaginary worlds and building games but never thought a career in the industry would be possible. It just seemed too impossible.

      I was wrong.

      What to Expect

      I had the pleasure of spending a decade working on top rated role-playing games with the games developer BioWare. I would like to share that experience with you.

      Who is this book for?

      This book is geared primarily towards those looking to start a career in the games industry. Specifically the book is about obtaining a design position (writer, level designer, game system designer) but the text should be of use to anyone entering the industry.

      Practical advice on how to enter the industry leads into an exploration of what a bright and shiny new employee might expect in their early years in the games industry.

      Later books will focus on design specializations, improving quality assurance, becoming a manager and other facets that I believe will be of more value to industry veterans.

      This is not a book with any tricks or magical techniques that will make you a better videogame developer. I am a practical designer and in my time with BioWare I built high quality video games in reasonable time frames and with reasonable resources. This is not a design book. It is a book about becoming a capable designer and an asset to your team and to the company.

      I will not go into great detail on how to design a game, the components used to build games, how game engines work, or even how to develop an emotionally engaging storyline from start to finish.

      To be blunt I learned all those skills after I already had started employment with BioWare. Certainly my fiction writing and gaming experiences had prepared me with the basic skills I needed but I was a raw recruit.

      I have since attended lectures and read several manuals on various design philosophies (some of which are referenced at the end of this book) and expanded my skills. But my practical work methodology and never-ending eagerness to learn is why I was constantly given new responsibilities early in my career and why I became a lead designer not long after starting work with BioWare.

      There are no shortcuts when creating great games but you can improve your own skills by understanding how others, like myself, solved common problems in game development.

      This book begins with a chapter on to how best prepare yourself for a videogame development career and how to find that first job. The next two chapters explore improving your skills and tackling the roadblocks you will encounter. After a discussion on how to design fun frustrations for players I end with a list of links to online references I have found useful in my own career.After reading this book you will know how to increase your chances of getting an interview, obtaining the job you want and excelling at the tasks given you.

      I encourage you to read other design books, to master the nuts and bolts of gameplay and story and world-building. Those are important. But without a strong work ethic and the desire and ability to improve yourself and your project, you will not have the opportunity to put those other skills to the test.

      What is a Game

      At this point in most books of this nature the author usually writes a lengthly discussion of what a game is and offers some descriptions. Because there are many great books already covering that topic, I will not do so in any great detail.

      Personally I think a videogame should have choices --interesting and entertaining choices and consequences for those choices. Most choices should influence the game's narrative. But not all. Some choices should simply be amusing or should help the player gain ownership of the game world they are experiencing.

      About the Lazy Designer series

      Throughout this work I'll make reference to other books in the Lazy Designer series. This is only the first book of what will eventually be five titles, each exploring a subset of the game development experience, mirroring my own career from new employee to specialist to manager. Later books will give advice on how to improve design skills, improve communication and balance work in life... all things I had to do as I moved onto my second project, the Neverwinter Nights franchise. Eventually, the final books will delve into my experiences as a design manager -- my successes and my mistakes.Before we start delving into content I would like to make a couple points clear.

      Feedback. I thrive on feedback. Please let me know when you find mistakes. My Contact Page has a variety of methods to reach me. I'm eager to know if there are topics you would like to see covered in later books, discussed on my blog, or even added to a later edition of this book. I want this to be a cooperative process where I'm learning as much as you.

      You, the Reader. I will often delve into topics of a higher level than a new employee needs to know. I do this because this is what I am familiar with. For most of my career I was a manager. I also do it because I think it helps prepare you for when you yourself might be leading teams. Even if that is not something you aspire towards it might help you understand the influence behind the decisions that your manager makes.

      Buyer Beware. Most of the content in this book is available free at my website www.brentknowles.com, in the form of blog posts I made over the past few years though it has been rewritten and reorganized here.

      Additionally, as mentioned previously, this is the first of a series of books. When later books are released this book's price will be reduced and perhaps eventually be

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1