Sometime this year, I became a game designer.
I could argue I’ve always been one. As a kid, I turned everything into a game. I ran a paper baseball league out of my house. I carved paths through the snow all around my yard for snow-path tag. I built puzzles and mazes. I even recreated Risk using components from the hardware store. I couldn’t play catch with a friend over some hedges without inventing a scoring system—and then adjusting it to account for the fact that I was on higher ground.
I do think there’s a distinction between someone who designs games and a game designer. As a kid, I designed games—but I did it because it made play more fun for me. I was competitive. That’s still why I don’t play single-player games.
On the original Nintendo, I didn’t make it ten minutes into Zelda, but I played hundreds of hours of Tecmo Super Bowl against friends. When I got the Nintendo 64, I barely moved past the first hill in Mario. Instead, I spent literal months of my life playing GoldenEye multiplayer and Mario Kart.
I designed games to play against friends.
Although I haven’t published a game yet, I think it’s fair to say I’m a game designer. What’s the difference? For me, it’s intentionality. I’m deliberately building games for my students, my friends, and other people to play.
I haven’t updated my LinkedIn profile. I don’t have a business card. I don’t introduce myself as a game designer. I’m saving that for the moment when the label actually means something to me.
This summer, I will be teaching a two-week board game design class to 4th- and 5th-graders. Through the podcast, building Abstract Game, and more than a decade of creating games for my classroom—whether in the recess yard or during math—I’ve gained practical tools for understanding how games are made, enough to pass that thinking on to kids. I’m not ready for a Gen Con panel or a TED Talk, but I can introduce game design from a place of real experience.
Mark called himself a game designer on Episode 24 of Season Two. I’d love to read his own reflection on that journey—he’s good with words. I’ll update this line with a link in the future.
A game designer, in my words, is someone who intentionally creates systems for other people to play—thinking about rules, balance, interaction, and experience—not just to win or entertain, but to guide players’ engagement and learning.
Next up: game publisher?
— Jason