So I’m sitting here, watching Kick Ass, and skimming Kotaku.
After reading of the latest FoxConn tragedy, I see a post called “I’m a
game designer.”
This title intrigues me. I’ve always had an interesting time when someone asks me what I do. To be honest, I didn’t read the whole article on Kotaku. I started to, but after a few paragraphs of fancy writing and Hawaii references, I skimmed the rest, thinking about writing this post.
“I’m a game designer.” The reason this post grabbed my attention is because it is so close to what pops into my mind when someone asks what I do. Interestingly, as a designer, I am often hesitant to say what I actually do. When someone asks, I carefully consider what my answer is, and my answer is usually based on who is asking and how much time I want to spend answering.
If the person asking the question is an INS officer, I respond “I work in software.” It’s the truth. It’s boring. The answer is designed to be as lame as possible so I can get the fuck out of there. I travel a lot, and spend a lot of time in customs/immigration lines. I don’t want to spend even an extra second there.
Back on topic..the average human who asks me. You would think that because I work in a position that I strived of for years to get to, I would get a big T-Shirt with “Game Designer” on it. Or maybe I would just introduce myself as “Hi, Christian Allen, I design video games, how are you?”
That being said, I don’t want to come across as modest. Anyone who knows me would call bullshit if I said I was modest. I don’t pull punches on what I have done. I’ve made kick ass games. I’ve worked on big IP’s. I was in the Corps. I have big guns. I have the cutest daughter on earth. I don’t fuck around. Got something to say about any of that? Didn’t think so.
However, just because I’m not modest doesn’t mean I want to always answer THE QUESTIONS. THE QUESTIONS always come when you say you are a game designer. Unlike the Kotaku article, my discussions about being a game designer usually follow a set pattern…
THE QUESTIONS usually go like this:
“What do you do?”
I design video games.
“Wait, video
games? Anything I know?”
Well, I worked on Ghost Recon…
“Ghost Huh?”
You might have heard of it, Tom Clancy’s Ghost…
“Oh sweet, Tom Clancy. Do you know Tom Clancy?”
Well, no, I don’t, I worked on Ghost Recon, which is a franchise…
“Oh, Clancy makes good
games. Must have been cool to work for
Clancy.”
Well, I didn’t actually work for Clancy. But I did design…
“Anything else I might
have heard of?”
Well, I worked on Halo: Reach.
“Oh my God, you
designed Halo! I fucking love Halo!”
Ah, well I didn’t design Halo, I was Design Lead on Reach.
“Halo was the first
fucking game I played on Xbox, that’s so awesome you made that.
No, I didn’t make Halo, I worked on Reach.
“Wait, you said you
made Halo.”
No, I said I worked on a Halo game.
“Ah, I thought you
said you were a game designer.”
I am.
“So if you didn’t make
Halo, what exactly do you do?”
Well, now I’m a designer for Warner Brothers Games.
“Warner Brothers makes
games?”
Yes.
“So what do you do?”
I design games.
“So you program them?”
No, I don’t write code. I design them.
“Ah, so you make the
graphics.”
No, that’s the artists. I design the games.
“Wait, so what do you
do?”
I’m kind of like a movie director, but for games.
“Oh, so you write the
games.”
Uhhhh, sure, I guess it’s kind of like that.
“Like Halo?”
Yep that's the thing someone needs to write a book about, "how to tell people your a game designer".
I don't think I have ever answered that question with the same twice as nobody ever gets it.
Posted by: MrNokill | August 07, 2010 at 04:58 AM
Lol! Yes, I've been getting similiar hard-to-answer questions since Halo:Reach has come out this week...great article!
Posted by: First_Fan_in_AK | September 17, 2010 at 04:05 PM
LOL. It's like saying 'I'm a screenwriter'. And, people ask you what movies you've written.
Cheers,
Interior Designer Detroit
Posted by: Interior Designer Detroit | January 16, 2011 at 06:57 PM
So true.
I've been a game producer for 6 years now, but if you ask my family what I do they'll say, "She's a programmer". I have no idea why, but they cant seem to make the distinction. *sigh*
Posted by: Lani Loo | February 23, 2011 at 03:36 PM