We are living in a time when “Game Design” is no longer this vague theory, accessible only to those who have long studied it’s inner-workings. Companies are starting to realize that fans and users have long been invested in creating additional content, provided they have at least some rudimentary form of dev tools. With games like Project Spark, and Doom’s upcoming SnapMap feature, it put’s developers tools in the hands of the communities so passionate about these games, and let’s their imaginations run wild. In the case of games like Skyrim and Fallout, it can breath life into games well past their expected shelf-life, and foster these incredible communities who come together and create incredible things to enjoy with their friends and strangers within their favorite games.
Some ambitious individuals set out to make their own version of games based off the existing framework, while others go for the total overhaul experience, tapping only the potential of the engine itself to power their own creative vision.
Perfect examples of these are games like DayZ, a mod for the realistic military simulator Arma 2. Counter Strike, which began as a mod for Half-Life, still lives as one of the most popular online shooters to date, League of Legends and the entire MOBA genre spawned from a little mod called DOTA (Defense of the Ancients), which was built off of the Warcraft 3 framework.
While some developers shy away from strengthening their communities and are fearful of providing them with the keys to the kingdom, other developers support them, and let them flourish, because they know that having a strong community is not only good for strong, persistent sales, but it extends the life of their product, and leaves a strong, lasting opinion of the game for years and even decades to come. When I was a kid, Unreal Tournament always stood out as the most moddable game. It had a level editor, and if you were so inclined, you could even edit some script and create your own scripted events and sequences, bringing your creations to life. To their credit, Unreal is to this day, one of the most prolific and substantial engines on the market. Seemingly every other game is powered by Unreal, and developers large and small carry on about how it’s the Industry standard, yet it’s still so accessible and powerful.
When Unreal, and shortly after Unity released their tools for free, they became the two most powerful tools aspiring designers could possibly ask for. Whether it’s for hobby work, or you are trying to pad your portfolio, you should be using one of these editors when designing a game. Not only are they simple to use, but the communities of each have dedicated time and resources into making sure that there are guides and tutorials explaining nearly every facet of the tools.
If creating and designing is your thing, there’s really no excuse anymore. Get out there and start creating!
-Ian
Autocaulk 