What experience with game engines do you need to become a successful game designer?

Generally speaking, having enough proficiency to prototype and create basic game mechanics is a solid starting point for aspiring game designers. Beginners can start with user-friendly engines like Unity, known for its accessibility and extensive community support. As designers progress, delving into more complex engines such as Unreal Engine offers advanced features and opportunities for intricate game designs. Proficiency in scripting languages like C# or visual scripting systems enhances the capability to implement game mechanics.

Picking up visual scripting is the first line of task a game designer should do . A lot of designers are afraid of code at a glance but game engines provide you alternatives go with visual scripting learn to prototype and shift to programming a prototype as soon as possible .

A good approach is to draft the narrative freely first, without being tied to any specific technical approach and, only after, sort out what can and cannot be done with the time, fundings, workforce and other resources at your disposal. Designing and developing a game is an iterative process, so you should be prepared to tweak and change some aspects of your project multiple times anyway, but starting with this premise allows much more creative freedom which usually results in greater originality overall.

To deal with the complexity of game engines do what the programmer do Learn the basics and then learn what's needed by the game for you to learn that's the only way to navigate complexity All tasks as a game designer should be broken down to so small fundamental peieces that AI like chat gpt can help you as well as the community can help you as well

Common game engines are 1. Unity 2. Unreal 3. Go dot As a beginner go for the unity engine as it had great content to learn great support by community and of all it is the lightest to run on a machine. Then shift up to unreal if needed by the scope of the game as unity works well for prototyping or even game with small scope but is not the best choice for AAA game. Try building web gl games

Game designers don't need to master game engines They need to understand - 1. Prototyping - A way to envision what needs to be build 2. Scope of the game & defining it - how big or small is the game and what timelines might work 3. What features of the games are feasible - you'd be respected by the developers if you know whats possible and what's not 4. Delegation & product ownership - Own the game as a product and overloop the execution you bring the team together Alot of games die because they are never completed don't fall in the loop of scope increment

It's not important for designers to master game engines, but they will be an immense asset to teams if they understand at some level what is feasible and infeasible overall, what can be prototyped in a week and what can't. Especially when working with more complex systems such as multiplayer, a knowledge of engine technology allows designers to be far more efficient when working in tandem with an engineering team.

Design and game engines go hand in hand - A designer who can make prototype is worth gold - want to be respected as a designer build a game, learn to see the game as a product, have clear delegation and deadlines