Game Designers Quotes & Sayings

The video-game form is incompatible with traditional concepts of narrative progression. Stories are about time passing and narrative progression. Games are about challenge, which frustrates the passing of time and impedes narrative progression. The story force wants to go forward and the "friction force" of challenge tries to hold story back. This is the conflict at the heart of the narrative game, one that game designers have thus far imperfectly addressed by making story the reward of a successfully met challenge. — Tom Bissell

We are at the point where game designers have become celebrities due to the size of the market they serve. — John Romero

We absolutely need diversity [in game designers]. And not just diversity of gender, but diversity of cultures, of ethnicity, of sexuality. If we want to reach beyond the audience we have we've got to bring in more players, and to bring in more players we've got to bring in people who might be able to reach those players. — Brenda Romero

Finally, I want to thank all of the writers, filmmakers, actors, artists, musicians, programmers, game designers, and geeks whose work I've paid tribute to in this story. These people have all entertained and enlightened me, and I hope that - like Halliday's hunt - this book will inspire others to seek out their creations. — Ernest Cline

Three times a year, there's Strategicon convention, and I go for the board games. It happens Presidents Day, Labor Day, and Memorial Day weekends. You go and take a look at the new board games and meet a couple of board game designers, and you can check out games you don't own from the library and then return them. — Rich Sommer

Game designers are obsessed with emotion. How do we create the emotions that we want gamers to feel, and how can we really make it this intense, emotional experience? — Jane McGonigal

Until 1986, developing games was a mere hobby for me. Back then, I didn't know that game designers existed, because the designers' names didn't appear on the boxes. — Klaus Teuber

I earned my Ph.D. in philosophy, and one of my specializations was the logic and mathematics of game theory. I've also got a degree in drama, so I know about stories, characterizations, plot arcs, and the like. Lots of game designers can do one or the other: I've got the skills for both. — Brendan Myers

Early in my career, I was involved with engineer-led projects, where designers came in late in the game and were expected to put lipstick on an existing code base. This almost never works. — Ryan Holmes

Players like to know that they've discovered things that even the designers didn't know were in the game. — Will Wright

I'd advise all aspiring game designers not to aim for money when developing a game, because unfortunately it is very rare for game designers to be able to earn a living by developing analog games. — Klaus Teuber

There's a lot of art and comics and movies being paid homage to by game designers. — Clive Barker

The voice came from the other side of the divider, an older man, bald, who wore a leather vest over a dark blue button-down shirt, like a Radio Shack manager who moonlighted as a forest brigand. — Austin Grossman

The hardware manufacturers, game designers, cable companies and computer companies and, in fact, film studios are going to ensure that this thing marches on. They know that they are going to make an enormous amount of money from it. — Thomas Dolby

This is the entertainment industry, so game designers have to have a creative mind and also have to be able to stand up against the marketing people at their company - otherwise they cannot be creative. There are not that many people who fit that description. — Shigeru Miyamoto

The letters were universally complimentary, and we designers loved hearing that our games were being enjoyed, but if they weren't sending us a picture of their screens most of those writers would have spent their time playing the game rather than writing letters. — David Crane

There are only a handful of designers that influence other designers, and I have to keep one step ahead of the game. — Alexander McQueen

Reality is broken. Game designers can fix it. — Jane McGonigal

At Sir-Tech I went through the ranks, almost like an apprenticeship. I was very fortunate. The industry was smaller then, and I was able to work alongside some amazing game designers. — Brenda Brathwaite

The way games are designed is you create a story, and then you create an obstacle course inside that story, and the player has to endure it to see more. So it's artificial. Game designers are so intensely worried about people getting bored that they pile on busy work for players to do. — Tom Bissell

What if we started to live our real lives like gamers, lead our real businesses and communities like game designers, and think about solving real-world problems like computer and video game theorists? — Jane McGonigal