Week One - The Door Problem

     “The Door Problem” by Liz England is an interesting piece describing the job of “game designer,” as well as other roles within game development. England utilizes a series of questions regarding the presence and function of doors in a theoretical video game to illustrate the responsibilities and approach of these jobs.
     The line of questioning used to outline the role of the game designer in “The Door Problem” mostly aligns with my notions of what a game designer does, which makes sense as England describes that the general audience for this unique description of game design is people who are not familiar with the industry. However, the questions laid out by England will likely prove useful to refer back to when making design decisions. England’s door questions follow thinking from a design perspective and can be a reminder for the many considerations that have to be made when making a seemingly innocuous decision in game design.
     In addition to the questions at the beginning of “The Door Problem,” England briefly describes how other specific roles in game development would handle or contribute to solving the door problem. Reading over this was somewhat daunting to me, as there are so many different roles in the games industry, and I get worried about focusing too much on one role, or not focusing enough. Am I specializing too much? Am I not specializing enough? What exactly do I want to do when I enter the industry?
Since coming to NYU, I have wanted to be a gameplay programmer, as I find programming to be fun and rewarding, but I would still like to make some design decisions about the implementation of mechanics. However, throughout my time here I have become more unsure. For example, I have dabbled in some 3D modeling but I found our first assignment of Intermediate Game Development — creating a 3D scene made out of primitives — to be incredibly fun and rewarding and I spent more time on it than I probably should have because I was enjoying it. But do I want to specialize in 3D modeling and not programming? No, not really. Is it common for someone to be able to program, design, and make some models? I don’t know.
      There are also roles outlined by England that are not very appealing to me, such as dealing with the legal aspects of development, or the marketing and monetization of games. However, I can see why all of these roles were included by England and how they are essential to creating a polished game. How will my game find an audience if no one markets it? I am looking forward to exploring and getting a better understanding of what I would like my role to be in game development.