In the beginning, There is the Designer

I began to read the first chapter of Jesse Schell's book: 'The Art of Game Design A Book of Lenses' and I have enjoyed reading it.

The chapter begins by discussing confidence and a lack of fear in the designer, in order to succeed within the industry. Utilising a method of self motivation as one of the opening paragraphs sets how the rest of the chapter will pan out, in an unformal 'im talking to you' method. My favourite line on the first few paragraphs is 'Some of the greatest inventions have only come from people who only succeeded because they were too dumb to know what they were doing was impossible' This single sentence insults many people in history, while also complimenting them. The chapter then continues to insult the reader in a positive sense, putting down the reader by admitting they will fail in design. But that is shown to be a sense of purpose, using failure as a tool in order to fuel the success of becoming a designer. This sense of trial and error is pushed upon as a necessary tool to become a successful games designer and I agree, learning from mistakes and using these lessons at a later date in future projects is the only way to progress as a better designer.

The chapter continues by listing multiple skills, over a spread of nearly two pages, that are needed for a games designer; these skills vary from Animation to Creative Writing, and Economics to Visual Arts. This list is broad and varied, with some obvious additions and others not so clear to the reader. The paragraph even mentions more skills and that noone is able to know all of them, however it also mentions that by knowing the majority and being comfortable with them you will improve as a games designer.

The following section within the chapter mentions the single most important skill that a Games designer requires: Listening. The chapter continues to mention this skill and engages the reader with a mention to how listening can be developed in a method of even deeper listening, utilising a story that involves body language and deeper meanings.

There are five types of listening, as stated in this chapter of the book and they are as follows:

The first is listening to the Team, ensuring that the team has a good spectrum of skills and opinions that can be mixed together in order to form a good team and create a good game.
The second is to listen to the Audience, they are the gamers who will be playing the game and therefore the ultimate goal of game design and making is to make the gamers happy.
The third is to listen to the Game,  a more vague form of listening, this involves listening to how the game runs and deciding if it is ok or not; not disimilar to a mechanic and a car engine, to quote the book.
The fourth type is to listen to the Client, the moneybags, the provider, the sponsor, or pretty much the person paying for the game to be made. If the game is not what they want, when they want it they may choose to stop paying for the game.
The fifth and final type is to listen to your Self, this is an important type because it involves working within yourself, and discovering exactly what it is you want.

 The chapter concludes with a talk about gifts. Gifts are split into two types, Innate and Major. The Innate gifts are natural talent in an action, such as piano or designing a game. The major gift is to love your line of work, and to enjoy what you are creating. What is the point of entering a long career line without any interest in the career itself? Without this love of the work you will never be able to use all of the minor skills you may posess to their full potential and then create good games.
This chapter has been an enjoyable, and fascinating, read which introduces many ideas that I belive will be necessary to know as a games designer.

I have decided to end this post in a similar manner to the chapter.

I am a games designer.
I am a games designer.
I am a games designer.
I am a games designer.

Peace out.