Monday, July 24, 2006

Game Design Curriculum: Fine Arts

Now we cover the really creative stuff. How much art do you need to be a designer?

Intro to Art or Intro to Architecture. Two reasons for this. First, some aspects of game design are pretty artistic, so understanding the basis of art can give you some perspective (or architecture, since designers are effectively architects: instead of creating blueprints and plans for building a structure, they create blueprints and plans for building a game). Second, you’ll be working with artists, and being able to understand some small part of what they do will help you communicate better with them.
Computer Art. Take a course that requires you to use the tools that artists need to use on the job (currently this would be either 3DSMax, Maya, or Photoshop). Again, this lets you communicate better with artists on your team, and lets you express your ideas more visually.
Improvisational Acting. You learn three things in this class, all useful skills to have as a designer: creativity; thinking fast; and making the other people on your team look good.

1 comment:

Patrick said...

I don't know if they should be requisites, not every game designer must be a renaissance man. However, they're all useful in their own way, improvisational acting particularly, as thay provides useful background experience for drama engine design.