A lot of people in our game developer community talk about roles within the video games industry.
Programmers, artists, sound designers, game designers are the most popular, but we want to tell you how the role of Experience Designer, one of the courses you can study here in Karlstad in connection to us at TGJ, is a bigger role than most might think!
What is Experience Design (UX)?
We are starting with the hard question. Or rather we should talk about what an experience is?
Google defines Experience as: "an event or occurrence which leaves an impression on someone."
How cool isn't that?!
Don't we all want people to enjoy our games and game experiences?
I also found this article on Medium, written by Player Research, and really hammers in the point!
This is the remit of UX: focusing on the true impact of design choices on players — and helping teams collaborate to make those choices. Hiring staff to “do UX” and become a player-centric voice in the studio is therefore an investment in directing the team’s attention, reality-checking design choices, informing the team’s judgement, and facilitating communication.
Everyone in your team, not just the ones with the word "design" in their title is a designer in your game. Every little choice you make, whether you are a programmer, game designer or producer makes a difference and by having someone with knowledge of the player's behaviors, thinking processes and capabilities in your team you can reality check if the choices you make are to the benefit of the game!
But why do we need to do all that? Is it not enough that I like the game I do? Of cause! If you don't enjoy making your game the slightest, then it might not be worth it. But if you want to make the best impression and, in the long run, monetize on your hard-worked game, then you need to make it accessible for your player.
Player Research has a lot of interesting thoughts so I suggest you take a couple of minutes and read it through, they go much deeper than I have!
If I have awakened your interest in Experience Design for video games, I encourage you to read more and apply to Changemakers course Experience Designer where you will learn much more!
Photo by Korie Cull on Unsplash