Main Responsibilities and Required Skills for a Game Designer

A Game Designer is a professional who breathes life into the virtual realms we love to explore. This creative mind is the architect behind the worlds we get lost in, responsible for shaping the gameplay experiences that captivate players. In this blog post, we explore the primary responsibilities and the most in-demand hard and soft skills for Game Designers.

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Main Responsibilities of a Game Designer

The following list describes the typical responsibilities of a Game Designer:

Adapt to

Adapt to technical and production constraints, reworking your design when and as often as needed.

Adjust

Adjust difficulty levels for optimal player experience.
Adjust game mechanics designs and tune to balance gameplay mechanics based on gameplay analytics.

Advocate

Advocate for our users in every step of the project.

Allocate

Allocate duties and follow the evolution of the team's progress on game design deliverables.

Analyze

Analyze and understand influencers and their audiences in order to make informed design decisions.
Analyze competitor games, benchmark best practices, predict new trends.
Analyze et optimisation des live event et core gameplay loops.
Analyze game KPI data to find trends and issues while creating data reports, segments and funnels.
Analyze metrics and suggest improvements to the development and live team.
Analyze the existing game economy and ensures it's balancing.
Analyze the impacts of various change requests.
Analyze user data and feedback to pitch and develop new content and game mechanics.

Assess

Assess and apply qualitative and quantitative feedback to improve game design and balance.

Assist with

Assist communication with the other teams involved in the game development process.
Assist in analyzing the game performance and help create new concepts to raise the KPI's.
Assist in the overall monetization strategy in planning and implementing virtual products for sale.
Assist with finding suitable development partners and perform due diligence.

Build

Build games and work on projects that you'll be proud of!.
Build immersive and interactive game worlds.

Champion

Champion the voice of the player within the development team.

Collaborate with

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate your assigned features.
Collaborate with level design to communicate the story, emotions and game mechanics of each level.
Collaborate with the design team on all game designs and provide active feedback.

Collect

Collect and analyze game metrics and propose necessary changes and improvements.

Communicate

Communicate project vision throughout the team and stakeholders.
Communicate your design clearly and collaborate with the rest of the team.

Conceptualize

Conceptualize and develop characters, rules, settings and stories for new games.

Conduct

Conduct performance evaluations and revisions.

Contribute

Contribute to an excellent and collaborative design culture.
Contribute to bizdev activities as subject matter expert.
Contribute to game designs for up to 5 games simultaneously, at various stages of development.
Contribute to the creation of captivating pitch decks to get influencers excited about new games.

Craft

Craft engaging narratives that drive gameplay.

Create

Create and own the implementation of fun, engaging in-game events and other game content.
Create and tune content to create an accessible yet deep experience for players.
Create captivating pitch decks to get buy-in from influencers.
Create clear and complete game design documentation for game content and features.
Create innovative concepts for game development.
Create IP-correct characters and events.
Create new features and systems for current and upcoming games.
Create pitches and design levels for new games.
Create prototypes to test gameplay ideas.

Deconstruct

Deconstruct and analyse mobile games mechanics in order to improve your own squad games.

Define

Define the rules and systems governing gameplay.
Define the story, emotions and mechanics of the game.

Design

Design and create wire-framed screen flows that are optimized for engagement and monetization.
Design and document new features which materially improve the game KPIs.
Design and implementation, leveraging our in-house engine tools.
Design considering hardware constraints.
Design engaging features and systems on exciting and diverse new titles.
Design engaging puzzles and challenges.
Design experience flows that are optimized for engagement and monetization.
Design features specs on time with minimal supervision according to the studio's design templates.
Design new user experience features and systems based on medical and educational requirements.
Design user interactions - what the user does and uses to perform the feature.
Design user interfaces for seamless experiences.

Determine

Determine and iterate on new sources of possible monetization.

Develop

Develop and iterate on work processes of all designers on the team.
Develop and shape game systems and mechanics and get buy-in from the team.
Develop artificial intelligence for NPCs.
Develop characters with unique traits and stories.
Develop components for multiplayer experiences.
Develop flows and processes to improve our content generation pipelines.
Develop game-design concepts for video-games on mobile platforms.
Develop game features that monetize and engage players.
Develop the vision for a variety of game systems and content that support the creative direction.

Disseminate

Disseminate knowledge with other designers.

Document

Document design concepts and guidelines.

Drive

Drive and iterate designs from the initial ideation to final polish working closely with the team.
Drive content design and engage our audience with addicting, well-tuned gameplay.
Drive evaluation and iteration of existing designs to maximize their potential.

Engage

Engage in creative problem solving, crafty system design, and innovative ideation.

Ensure

Ensure a harmonious blend of story and gameplay.
Ensure cleanliness and stability of the data.
Ensure Dead by Daylight Mobile is an engaging, fun game in line with the DbD brand.
Ensure design is optimised for post ship monetization (where appropriate).
Ensure smooth and clear communication both within the design team and the team as a whole.
Ensure smooth, clear communication within the design, development and publishing team.
Ensure smooth gameplay on various platforms.
Ensure your design and implementation respect the technical constraints of the game technology.

Establish

Establish rules and data parameters for key systems in the game.

Follow

Follow industry trends and implement best practices.

Gather

Gather and analyze feedback from playtests.
Gather feedback and analyse data on games and features to improve various key metrics.

Generate

Generate new ideas and concepts that fit today's market.

Help

Help evolve departmental processes to ensure we remain as flexible and competitive as possible.
Help keep the relationship with developers as positive and productive as possible.
Help run and create games which bring joy to millions of players all over the world.
Help set, prioritize, and communicate levels goals and needs to team members.
Help the team by finding then polishing up rough ideas into hit games played by millions of people.
Help to craft and establish the vision of new games and features for the desired player experience.
Help unify user experience across all Products and Services.

Hire

Hire, manage, coach and train the game design team.

Host

Host design meetings to discuss design issues and design proposals.

Identify

Identify and exploit ways to leverage brand strengths in your designs.
Identify and resolve bugs and issues.
Identify any choke points and weak parts of the game (that could use improvement).
Identify strong and weak points and suggest mitigations.

Innovate

Innovate and show great creativity.

Integrate

Integrate monetization strategies when applicable.
Integrate new features into the game engine.

Interact with

Interact with players for feedback.

Keep

Keep abreast of emerging technologies.
Keep all relevant documentation maintained for future reference.
Keep up to date on the state of the mobile industry, trends and inspirational games.

Lead

Lead a team of one or more designers.

Learn

Learn about their proprietary technology, processes, pipelines and who does what in the studio.

Look

Look into data together with Analyst and Product Manager to see what can be improved.

Maintain

Maintain a clear and consistent design vision for each game.
Maintain a high level of quality while working with design, technical and deadline constraint.
Maintain database and feature configurations in Unreal engine.

Make

Make contribution to level design process / User interface or systems design is a plus.

Manage

Manage in-game currencies and economies.
Manage product roadmap and product vision with other discipline leads.
Manage the game income and the cost (unlock, upgrade, etc.).

Maximize

Maximize the work methodology, as well as the processes used.

Mentor

Mentor other game designers.

Motivate

Motivate and inspire your team through coaching and delegation.

Optimize

Optimize monetization based on player feedback and metrics.

Oversee

Oversee our in-house game team.

Own

Own game design development.
Own product design from the concept phase through post-launch.

Participate in

Participate in finding solutions to fix buggy features.
Participate in onboarding and nurturing new colleagues.
Participate in the conception phase by directing the research and directing brain storming sessions.
Participate in the development and evolution of creative projects.
Participate in the selection of team members.
Participate proactively in the search for solutions to improve the gaming experience.

Perform

Perform complete creation of prototype environments.

Plan

Plan and design the structure of game levels.
Plan data design to be flexible for a constantly evolving F2P market.
Plan the integration of audio elements.

Play

Play test and iterate on scenario and encounter content to ensure the highest quality.

Present

Present new feature proposals and gain team buy-in.
Present our product both internally and externally, including to the media and games community.

Prioritize

Prioritize tasks to meet project timelines.

Propose

Propose, design, and document new features which improve KPIs.
Propose solutions to improve overall user experience, assist in their implementation.

Prototype

Prototype and iterate on core and / or secondary mechanics to make the game's vision come true.

Provide

Provide a grass roots approach in helping establish the game economic vision and strategy.
Provide insights for promotional content.
Provide technical coaching for other designers.

Realize

Realize the prototypes and previsualization of Gameplay in Unreal.

Recommend

Recommend and implement best practices for game and activity development.

Refine

Refine and improve game design based on feedback.

Release

Release your features to millions of players and see the results through data.

Review

Review and guide feature development, driving high quality execution.

Revise

Revise your work based on feedback, user test results and data.

Run

Run user testing programs, defining learning objectives, feedback loops and key learnings.

Secure

Secure bike storage room and a subsidy to encourage active transportation (during the summer).

Set

Set design-based milestone content.
Set design intentions and priorities for key gameplay features.
Set in the Boom Beach universe.
Set scope and priorities of features, events, and economies to meet project goals.

Share knowledge with enthusiasm and empower your colleagues.

Suggest

Suggest improvements of the gameplay loops from a free-to-play perspective.

Support

Support for new employees relocating from countries or regions outside Quebec.
Support with relocation and EU work permits.

Surface

Surface and manage design risks from conception through the life of a project.

Understand

Understand and create progression and other game systems.
Understand and work within project requirements and constraints.
Understand casual games very well and what drives player engagement and retention.

Utilize

Utilize analytics and player feedback to make product improvements after launch.
Utilize analytics and player feedback to support suggested product improvements after launch.

Work with

Work alongside other designers to guide our development partners in all areas of multiplayer design.
Work closely with artists to bring visuals to life.
Work closely with developers for implementation.
Work closely with programmers, artists and economic / level designers to implement your designs.
Work closely with the creative director to develop gameplay.
Work in a process-oriented but agile mode.
Work in collaboration with the presentation and game director in the design of UI and UX features.
Work in the Unity projects to refine and iterate on gameplay elements based on feedback from testers.
Work well with and at times lead a team of fellow game designers and developers.
Work with Brand and Marketing to review and contribute to franchise extension opportunities.
Work with producers to determine production scope priorities and eventual adjustments.
Work with Scrum methodology, communicate with the Product owner and Scrum master.
Work with UA to grow the games.

Write

Write and maintain design documentation, and also iterate on existing systems to make them shine.
Write dialogues and script in-game events.

Most In-demand Hard Skills

The following list describes the most required technical skills of a Game Designer:

Proficiency in Game Design Software (e.g., Unity, Unreal Engine)
Programming Languages (C++, Python, etc.)
3D Modeling and Animation Skills
Understanding of Game Engines and Tools
Scripting and Coding Abilities
Knowledge of UX/UI Design Principles
AI Programming and Implementation
Data Analysis and Interpretation
Sound Design and Editing
Understanding of Game Physics
Experience with Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR)
Familiarity with Multiplayer Systems
Competency in Level Design
Mastery of Version Control Systems (e.g., Git)
Knowledge of Game Economics
Problem-Solving and Troubleshooting
Understanding of Graphic Design
Familiarity with Game Monetization Models
Mathematics and Algorithmic Thinking
Knowledge of Industry Standards and Trends

Most In-demand Soft Skills

The following list describes the most required soft skills of a Game Designer:

Creativity and Imagination
Communication and Collaboration
Adaptability and Flexibility
Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
Attention to Detail
Empathy for Player Experience
Time Management and Prioritization
Openness to Feedback and Iteration
Teamwork and Leadership
Passion for Gaming and Industry Trends

Conclusion

In this evolving landscape of digital entertainment, Game Designers play a pivotal role in creating the magic that keeps players coming back for more. By mastering the intricate balance of technical prowess and creative finesse, they shape the future of gaming one immersive experience at a time.0