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Dreamlords: Dev Journal: Being a Lead Designer

StraddenStradden Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
in News & Features Discussion

Jon Selin writes a great developer journal letting us in on the highs and lows of being the lead designer for an MMORPG. In this case, Dreamlords.

There are two major turning points in my life. When I was seven I played Super Mario Bros on the NES for the first time. I ran straight into a Goomba and promptly decided then and there that I was going to make computer games. That moment set me on a course.

Then when I was about ten I saw the movie Salute of the Jugger with Rutger Hauer, and it showed me what I needed to do.

It is not the fact that it may or may not be the best movie of all time, or that it is a bit too gory for ten year olds to watch, it is all about one short dialogue. I'll retell the scenario from memory. Rutger Hauer is teaching some girl, I think the character is called Kidda, to play in the violent futuristic sport they are making a living out of. She gets tripped during the training and Rutger Hauer leans over her, all leather and chains and teeth. Then he whispers menacingly:

You can read the whole journal here.

Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com

Comments

  • gamedevergamedever Member Posts: 143
    Being a designer on my company's first MMO project, I enjoyed reading this article as when I saw the screens of the artist's desk with the hot 3D model and the leader's station with graphs and charts, I chuckled outloud. How true this is!



    Go into the artists' section of the studio and you see comic book art, movie posters, fantastic paintings. Go to the designer's office and you see text,  charts, a couple shelves of video game boxes, and more text.



    What the author said is very true, though. You have to have to have to know your team,  know what they are skilled at and capable of, and you must must must have the passion to make a game from start to finish!



    For me, being a game designer, I play games from a dissective perspective. I play a MMO and go "Hm, was that quest a Kill quest, a Fetch quest, or a Speak-to quest?"



    Good read!
  • Gammit100Gammit100 Member UncommonPosts: 439
    A good read.  I think I'd be good at this type of job... but how the HELL do you get there?

    MMO games played or tested: EQ, DAoC, Archlord, Auto Assault, CoH, CoV, EQ2, EVE, Guild Wars, Hellgate: London, Linneage II, LOTRO, MxO, Planetside, SWG, Sword of the New World, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard, WWIIOL, WOW, Age of Conan

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