Ernest Adams is a freelance game designer, writer, and teacher, working with the International Hobo Design Group. He has been in the game industry since 1989, and is the author of three books, including the university-level textbook "Fundamentals of Game Design" with Andrew Rollings. Ernest was most recently employed as a lead designer at Bullfrog Productions on the Dungeon Keeper series, and for several years before that was the audio/video producer on the Madden NFL Football line for Electronic Arts. Ernest is also the founder and first chairman of the International Game Developers' Association.
Covered all the basics of the craft of game design, covering core mechanics, gameplay, user interface design, concept art, level design, and even a small story. Began with a lecture, then we were all challenged to apply what you've learned to flesh out a new game design concept. Ernest handed out what he called dreams, which were ideas for games and in groups of four we designed the game conceptually. In teams of five each person took on the role of either, team lead, game designer, level designer, art designer and user interface designer.
Our dream was to create a game where we had to save whales from being killed for food in Japan. We designed the game as a top down flash based game where the player controlled a Green Peace Vessel called Esperanza to get in between the whaling boats and the whales.
To visually represent our game and ideas we designed a poster which we then presented to the class.
the overall day was very enjoyable, if I learnt anything it's that in the industry you'll possibly have to work on games you wouldn't piratically play yourself, one must adapt ones thinking to match the target market, this can be difficult. I also learned that group dynamics are very important and with out a like minded group of designers, many stalemate situation can occur. that's when the lead must use decisive action for the benefit of the game and not any particular member/s of the team. The lead designer has the final cut.
Overall it was a very enjoyable and creative experience.
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