Game Design: Breaking Down the Roles of Developer vs. Designer

Part of the reason I started this blog was to write down design ideas and thoughts when creating and designing table top games. It is a way to track my journey through mistakes, accomplishments and to keep myself accountable to keep creating games. But some baselines need to be established. Today we will cover what does it mean to be a developer vs a designer. These two terms tend to be used interchangeably but in the games industry this is not the case at all.

At it's core, game designers are the visionaries of the game; game developers turn the vision into reality. Let's break this down into their respective roles.

Game Developer

A game developer is who creates the core gameplay. They make the decisions of what type of game it is, and how it plays out. They may even have a hand it the art style of the game. For indy games, the game developer and game creator often times are the same individual.

Let's take Bold Brew Games first game, Bounty Hunters of Ardenvale. This is a trick taking game like Hearts, Spades or Fox in the Forest. In fact, there are so many trick taking games that the core gameplay is there simply from deciding to create that style of game. What makes Bounty Hunter's of Ardenvale stand out is the difference beyond the core gameplay of a trick taking game and those decisions were made by the game developer. These include the players choosing a character that have abilities tied to card numbers that you play and scoring being based on a contract that changes every round instead of being based on the number of tricks won.

Game Designer

Now it is the game designer that takes the core mechanics and starts to create the end product. It is the game designer's ability to hone in on the game and develop themes that make their expertise unique. Using Bounty Hunters of Ardenvale as an example, the game developer created sample characters to test the gameplay and make it fun but as the game designer, I did the finalization of the characters and contracts used in the game. The sample character's did not have a theme, and were just a conglomeration of ideas to make sure that it is fun.

The game designer's job was to really focus each character so that they have a theme and abilities that stay within those parameter's. For example, the Rabbit Thumper's theme is about controlling the trump suit, the Fox Thief's theme is allowing them to "steal" cards by swapping cards from their hand. Every new character design comes from a theme first and then the abilities are designed around that theme.

Conclusion

When creating new games, it's important to understand your strengths and weakness'. You may be stronger as a game developer or as a game designer. Very rarely is someone strong in both. A good example of a strong game developer is Richard Garfield, creator of Magic: the gathering, King of Tokyo, KeyForge and many others. He creates amazing games and often is not involved past the first set. That is a bad thing or a weakness! If you are a hobby game designer you may find yourself doing bother developing and designing, but understanding which one is your strength will really help elevate your game to the next level.