Technical Game Designer Research

The job role I chose to research is Technical Game Designer as I feel it best fits my skill sets and what I'm most interested in.

Researching into the role of Technical Game Designer I began with looking online at different job applications to see what the current skill requirements are and what is expected of the role. I found this posting for Cloud Imperium Games, the team behind Star Citizen:

Looking at what a technical designer does, the main skill that seems to be needed is communication as you work closely with other designers to create different systems and solve issues related to the project, as well as a good understanding of game engines and their tools as you will be helping to implement different systems and solving issues within the project. From this posting and others, I’ve found, a skill or interest that is often looked for is a passion for games and learning new skills.

Comparing my current skills to the main ones I found while looking at different job requirements for Technical Design I found that there is a gap between the knowledge requirement of different game engines and programming languages like C++ or C#. Even though I do have experience in both Unity and Unreal Engine I feel like I do need to work more on learning what the engines are capable of and also learn more about the tools available in them by experimenting with them to gain more confidence in my knowledge of the different tools I will be using in the Industry. I also currently have been developing my communication skills from working in groups and if I continue to work on this I will improve and be capable of working in larger teams and communicate effectively to achieve goals so I would say I’m well on my way to bridge that gap in ability.

I also look at some portfolios of game designers that worked primarily on technical skills and found German Lopez’s portfolio, he is a game designer that specializes in gameplay and systems.

Looking through his portfolio at the different projects he’s worked on I found that he started small creating prototypes and small games and slowly worked up to eventually working on Vigor by Bohemia Interactive.

I also found this portfolio by Maxime Argon who has been in the industry for less time, with the portfolio mainly containing smaller projects that they were involved in but still holds some strong pieces of work.

The main piece on this portfolio that stood out is a small game called Solstice, a graduation project that mainly consists of exploration and puzzle-solving. This project really shows that even with small projects you can still demonstrate plenty of skill and ability with a well displayed piece of work that is high quality.

Looking at both portfolios and comparing to my own, I showed focus on making small and polished games to improve and demonstrate my skills to fill my portfolio as this will be key in demonstrating my abilities as a Technical Designer. I should focus on making games that I’m passionate about but also have a variety to demonstrate my ability to work on a wide range on projects.