The Games Game July 2006

Tools of the (Design) Trade (July 2006)

Dear Tom,

I'm just entering college and I want to be a game designer. I'm ready to get started preparing now, so I'm writing to ask you my question. I want to know what software tools do game designers use. I want to start learning them and get a head start.

Thanks. Oh, and tell me where I can get cheap copies of those tools, too.

StudentX

Dear StudentX,

That's an easy one. Game designers mostly use the following tools.

Microsoft Word. You need a good word processor to write game designs. Word is pretty much the standard. Some computers come bundled with Word, and if yours did, you don't have to buy it. If your computer doesn't have Word, and you can't afford to buy it, you can go ahead and write your designs in any word processor. You want one that will save your designs in a standard format - .doc or .rtf are two of the most common. You want the ability to save into a standard format so your documents can be shared with collaborators. For writing your documents, the main thing is to have a tool that will let you use different fonts, formatted text and headings, bulleted lists, and images in your documents. Even the free WordPad that comes on all Windows computers can do a lot of things you need to do, at least to get you started.

Microsoft Excel. Game designs often include tables, graphs, and charts. Word has tools for some of those things, but a lot of us find it easier to create these things in Excel, then paste them into Word. If your computer didn't come with Excel, and you can't afford to buy it, then see if you have another spreadsheet program installed. If you have to make your tables and graphs in a non-Word-compatible format, you can always take a screen shot and paste the table or graph into your document as an image.

Microsoft Internet Explorer. This web browser comes bundled on Windows computers. You can download alternate browsers like Firefox, Netscape, or Opera, if you feel you need to thumb your nose at Microsoft. It doesn't matter which browser you use, because they'll all let you use Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo, IGDA.org, Gamasutra, and the game sites like GameSpot and GameRankings. Note that I listed Google, Wikipedia, and Yahoo first - that's because research is an extremely important aspect of game design. The Internet itself is one of the most important tools a game designer has at his/her disposal. And it's on the Internet that you can find all of these tools. They cost what they cost, but you might be able to get cheaper student versions of some programs - check on their websites, and at the college bookstore.

Adobe Photoshop. A lot of designers who create their own graphics for their designs use Photoshop, but it's expensive. If you can't afford Photoshop, look into CorelDraw and Corel's Paint Shop Pro. If you can't afford any of those, Microsoft Paint comes bundled for free on all Windows computers - and it's surprisingly useful, especially if you're not the greatest artist in the first place.

Adobe Acrobat. In a cutthroat business like the game industry, it's sometimes necessary to create documents that can be transmitted electronically to be printed and/or read - in such a way that the recipient cannot make alterations. Acrobat Reader is a common and free tool for reading Acrobat PDF files. Adobe Acrobat 3D is used to create uneditable 3D models. Depending on what level you will rise to or what job you will have, you may or may not need to gain familiarity with these tools.

If you want to get into design through a programming, graphics, or level design path, you should also get your hands on some mod tools. Many top PC games, like Battlefield, Battlezone 2, Half-Life 2, Max Payne, Neverwinter Nights, Quake 3, Dungeon Siege, and Unreal all come with tools you can use to create your own levels and scenarios. So if you have one of those games, you already have another useful tool.

It would also be useful to learn how to make a database. Make a database of every game you've ever played, and enter information about them based on their credits, your analysis, and research you do on the Internet. Use any database tool you can get. It doesn't matter which one you get; I'm suggesting that you become familiar with a useful sort of tool.

Lastly, since you emailed your question to me, you already know about another useful tool for designers - email.

Good luck, study hard, stuff like that!

Tom Sloper's game biz career began over twenty years ago at Western Technologies, where he designed LCD games and the Vectrex games "Spike" and "Bedlam". There followed stints at Sega Enterprises, Rudell Design, Atari Corporation, and Activision. In 12 years at Activision, Tom produced 36 unique game titles (plus innumerable ports and localizations), designed four games, and won five awards. Tom worked for several months in Activision's Japan operation, in Tokyo. He is perhaps best known for designing, managing and producing Activision's "Shanghai" line. He is currently consulting, writing, speaking, teaching, and developing original games. Find out more at Sloperama.

© 2005 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.