What do you do?
Ever have that question asked of you, “what do you do?” and you have a hard time answering that? I always do. A game designer is a relatively new profession and it is little understood. I end up getting very specific and technical. “I create the players experience, like if a door opens or not or creating a bunch of enemies for them to fight.” While that is technically correct, it doesn’t sound impressive and it doesn’t get at what I’m really trying to accomplish. I finally have come up with an answer I think accurately explains what I do, as a game designer.
“I engineer emotional responses in players of videogames using game mechanics and content.”
To arrive at this definition I had to realize that everything I did as a game designer was to create emotions within the player. Most of the time, it’s a sense of Fierro, but other times, I actively seek to make players feel sadness or frustration.
I think it works well. Then someone can follow up with, “and how do you do that?” Then I can explain the various elements I work with, like player abilities and obstacles.
I like it, but what about you?