Why I want to be a game designer

There are several ways of answering this question, depending on your view of the universe. Determinists will say that I want to become a Game Designer because of the various events that have happened in my life that led me down this path. The Pragmatist in me knows I need to find a way to make ends meet some how. The Idealists rejects that and calls me to walk down the path less traveled to seek my dreams. The Existentialist in me says “Why not do both?”.

Let’s start from the beginning.

When I was a young boy, I was much like many other young people my age, sick of school, sick of being told what to do, to fulfill expectations and toe the line. Enjoyment, happiness, the ‘childhood’ aspect came from the small things, hanging out with friends, ice cream, cycling on a sunny day and of course videogames.

My father was a techie, though not a trend setter, he nonetheless traveled over much of the world and often when he returned home, it would be with a shiny new gadget, the first LaserDisc player, a LCD tv and once a videogame console. I don’t remember or perhaps even know what that console was. All I knew that it was white and had purple buttons and my brother and I could play Contra on it. We would be allowed to play for a limited period of time a day, so we made most of it. Eventually we learnt the Konami Code from one of the neighbours and finally completed the entire game in a single sitting. We weren’t very good and seldom reached the later levels. I still vividly remember the earlier bosses, the power ups and the crazy Rambo science fiction videogame experience.

I played the first Castle Wolfenstein on a Windows 3.1, it said “WOLF3D” on the floppy disc. I remember asking my dad what the word ‘strafe’ meant, since neither of us knew, I managed point myself towards a new door each time by slowly pushing the character in a diagonal manner towards it. I remember the green metal maze and even though no one ever believed me, the fireball shooting ghost-like enemy near the end.

New consoles came later, a Super Nintendo, a Playstation and the later iterations. I played all the classics without knowing why. It was like my experience with books all over again, I had no particular preference for either, I just read or played whatever came my way. I never owned a handheld, but often would borrow the clunky Gameboys or Sega handhelds of the day from my classmates.

That was my life until I entered adulthood or more precisely University. There came a point of time in my life where social norms dictated that you pick something you are good at or want to do (preferably something that will pay well in the future). I put off the decision as long as I could, not because I didn’t want to think or that I was lazy. I simply did not know what I wanted to do. But unlike many others I found it hard to convince myself that the first thing I chose would be the perfect fit. I enjoyed Literature and Philosophy, but Pragmatic me won over, I studied engineering instead, it was still a delaying tactic, I knew that if I could understand what brilliant minds took centuries to invent in a few years, I could eventually do anything I wanted.

Still I took interesting classes like Asian film history and Magic Realism. I still played games, but as graduation approached I had to decide what I wanted to do. I was what normal people would call ‘confused’. I liked reading, writing, I found history interesting and thought philosophy could possibly hold and answer to the usual question of the meaning of life the universe and everything. I watched all the classic films. I listen to indie rock and classical music. I sailed, canoed, trained in Aikido, played guitar and took photos. I read about pop psychology as well as money management strategies. I minored in Business.

I took care of bombs and ammunition in the army. I worked as a factory assembly worker, I waited at tables at a German restaurant, I sold powered mash potatoes, I sold internet access, I sold insurance, I sold household goods to housewives and Olympic medalists. I’ve traveled to Cambodia, London, Tokyo, Mauritius and Australia. I’ve backpacked through Turkey and Iran. I have a list places waiting to be checked off.

I was trying to find out who the ‘real’ me was.

The answer is probably all of it, all the little parts and no big parts. I remember a interview with Jackie Chan, he was asked the same question “What did you want to be when you grow up?”. He said that when he was younger, he wanted to be everything, an astronaut, a policeman or a superhero. He decided to be an actor so he could be all of those things at once.

I want to be all those things at once. I want to enjoy what I do for a living. I want to make a living, I want new generations to enjoy playing video games just like I had. I want to make use of my diverse experiences, wide ranging skillsets to create something that evokes emotion. I want what I do to have a positive effect on people.

So that is why I want to be a game designer.

Things I've learned from Street Fighter

I can't claim to be a fan of the fighting genre, my first experience was back in the 90s with Street Fighter 2 on the Nintendo. My brother and I would mess around as kids, randomly shooting fireballs, neither of us even knew how to pull off a shoryuken. In the end the match usually dissolves into a using crouching heavy kicks, you are a smaller target, deal quite a bit of damage and is really simple to pull off.

I saw SF4 out in the arcades when it first came out and the thing that caught my eye was the graphics of course. There have been Street Fighter games in between, but none in such fluid animation in 3d before. I of course watched as old vets and new players put in their coins, entering the a world of as dedicated gamers as they come. Soon enough, I joined the fray, hardly lasting 30 seconds against any player. Eventually I caved in and spent the full amount on a brand new PS3 Street Fighter 4. Here my journey begun.

Here's what I've learned from Street Fighter,

1) Players are among the most hardcore in the world, along side RTS players, Fighters requires the most technical expertise, discipline, mind games and practice for solo players. There are literally thousands of variations on combos, the risk/return ratio on 5% of the health bar. Technical moves put into muscle memory after continuous repetition ensures that it comes out
under high pressure tournaments. Mind games, nerves of steel are also required.

2) It' is not a casual game by any means although it may appear to be. Dave Sirlin has posted quite a comprehensive list of why. But as a new player into the genre, it marks a fresh start as others too throng to the game.

3) Basics 101, range, power and speed. Light moves are faster, less powerful and have less range, Heavy moves are the opposite.

4) Hit boxes, your character is a giant box, not too glamorous, but it helps when you realise that performing uneccesary moves causes your 'hittable' area to move closer to a counter-attack.

5) Frames, startup and recovery, you take time to perform moves and to recover from moves, do it at the wrong instant and you'll be left vulnerable.

6) Layers, there are 3 basic layers, crouching, standing and jumping. Each attack affects the layer adjacent to it, it's like rock paper and scissors here.

7) Mix ups the art of confusing your enemy, turtling opponent? Attack from the air, from below, bait them by throwing an empty punch just out of reach, throw them when they block. Offensive opponent? Wait for your moment and counter attack or simply bait for a barrage of your own. Mixing up your strategies throws people off and any confusion gained at the start ensures a victory for later rounds.

8) The game is people, most of the time, moves have to be executed before the opponent has even made a move, guess correctly and you win and people are predictable some times. So you don't have to be a technical expert to win matches, using bread and butter moves can win matches most of the time. On the other hand, expect weird stuff to happen, moves that you haven't figured out how to escape yet. Moves scrubs never learn to counter and call cheap.

9) Not to mention stuff too advanced for my feeble mind, like frame counting (memorising the entire list of frames required for each move, using simple addition and subtraction when ever a move is performed). Piano method (knowing how the game accepts commands and rolling your fingers across the buttons). Negative edge (holding a button and letting go to perform a move rather than tapping it) and memorizing 10 hit comobs.

Like I said, SF4 is not a casual game, people have played for a decade of this will beat you, but each generation has their own heroes, are you ready to start your journey to mastery?