GCG Feature: 'Designing Video Games … Sometimes'

Jez Harris, lead designer at Relentless Software, recently spoke at the London Game Career Fair about what it really means to be a designer. GameCareerGuide.com, the sister web site of Gamasutra.com, attended the event and has a new feature recapping Harris' talk, which he gave the foretelling title: "Designing Video Games ... Sometimes." In this excerpt, Harris shares his basic background in the game industry and begins to explain what other roles a designer might have to take on: “'I've worked in games for 7 or 8 years,' says Jez Harris, a lead designer at Relentless Software, 'and am a run-of-the-mill designer.' Though employed at Relentless now, and previously with Hothouse Creations, Jez Harris earned the bulk of his experience in game development at Electronic Arts working on the Harry Potter franchise. He spoke at the Game Career Fair in London recently about what it actually means to be a video game designer. The jobs a designer is asked to do, he says, are often completely different from what the general public probably assumes they are. 'I had no real notion as such of what being a designer at EA would mean,' he says. 'It is very different and it changes from project to project. You have to be very adaptable.' He cites as an example of having to work on cut scenes, which may be a skill that a designer isn't necessarily strong in -- or might not have at all. But it's the designer's job to fill in whatever gaps exist on the project, he says. Harris' list of game credits at EA includes Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup (2003), Catwoman (2004), Harry Potter and the Prisoners of Azkaban (2004), and Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (2005). While working on all these games, his business card said 'designer.' But Harris says the job title often did not match the tasks he performed. For example, on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harris spent a good deal of his day-to-day time placing objects and enemies in the game world. On the sequel game, Quidditch World Cup, his role was more inclined toward business. 'A lot of my job at that point was to look after the vibe of Harry Potter,' taking care of the intellectual property in a way that would respect author J.K. Rowling's vision, stay true to what she wrote in the books, and at the same time ensure that the game was fun and would profit EA.” You can now read the complete article on the subject at GameCareerGuide.com, including much more detail into Harris' tasks working in the game industry.