Learning Design From Other Disciplines
For more great Instant Pot recipes, please visit InstantPotEasy.com
I talk about lessons I learned from my hobbies and other activities that I applied to game design. Video I reference: Lord Of Light …
You might also like
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!
This made me do a pastafrola today.
Nothin like listening to ma boy T-Kay drop some truth bombs about the game industry on my way to worm
Hi tim i rmemeber you mentioned something about comparative religion/mythology? Was this because of your interest in tabletop games lore?
I still think the most iconic line in gaming history is "War… war never changes." So that has to count for something, right?
Love the thumbnails, this time it´s Risitas Tim xD
Hey, Tim. Since you, as many designers, are constantly thinking about design ideas and mechanisms, have you ever thought of designing a tabletop game? Could be an RPG or a more classical board game. Might be a good outlet for your creativity 🙂
Hi Tim! I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about your thoughts on non-combat RPG's like Disco Elysium. Do you think removing/limiting combat has potential for creating new RPG experiences that is difficult to achieve in RPG's with combat?
Great stuff, Tim! You can work on writing better dialogue in an unusual but fun way. Don't wear headphones in public and pay close attention to people having unusual or emotionally charged conversations. Carry a small notebook and write stuff (ie memorable conversations you eavesdropped on) down. Over time you'll get a sense for speech patterns and how people actually interact. Most Marvel and Hollywood writers these days just can't do it.
I had a LOT of interests and pursued a LOT of different things before finally making it in to game design. It's the only discipline I know of that can find a use for just about anything you learn about anything. History, mythology, art, literature, architecture, psychology, geology, geography, sociology, civics, religion, literature, film, theater, music, engineering, chemistry, biology, physics, law — literally anything taught in a school can inform a design. Experiences, stories, songs, travel, books, movies, other games, other genres, other types of games, sports, hobbies, conventions, charity work — if you watch for it you'll find something cool that can make a game better in just about anything. If I had to describe what I look for when I interview people for junior positions, it's curiosity, breadth of experience (in life), the ability to change perspectives, and the ability to work with a team.
What is a video about a topic you've wanted to talk about?
Well said! I totally agree, just like the dice and card game limitations can yield better results, learning your own limitations and obeying them can make your creations even better.
that thumbnail is amazing, you look like you burnt your finger on the stove. I love it
Almost completely irrelevant, but do you pick these thumbnails or just let em do it for you? Cuz a lot of these are absolutely choice
Hello Tim, being a creative person myself on the artistic side, accumilation of passionate skills does seem to recombine in interesting ways and after these many years of working with it all, there are times when things just seem to come together like magic and surprise me as to how well it turns out without really being conscious of the process at all
That thumbnail is amazing. Thank you, Tim.
Some of the world's top rts gamers learned timing by being fry and line cooks.
Lmao I’m watching this while using my instant pot
On the reverse, I don't do anything related to game design as a guy with a finance degree working in banking. But your stories have really helped my outlook on office work in a more serious setting and office work in a less serious setting. Your hr and employee interactions, both negative and positive, are pretty universal!
Seeing someone be so transparent and upfront about their weaknesses and limitations is immensely refreshing. I would say a vast majority of people are scared to do this. I include myself in that number.
Hi Tim – I've looked all over the internet, and can't find a concrete answer: who actually coined "War never changes"?
So I was on eBay this morning, window shopping for alternative movie posters when I came across a really neat 70’s Logan’s Run looking sci-fi poster illustrated by Kilian Eng for Argo, the 2013 Oscar best picture winning Ben Affleck movie and I was confused. Argo was more of a period heist thriller not some cool 70’s sci-fi movie. Upon research, I realized Argo was based on a true story in 1979 when an undercover CIA team posed as a film crew making a movie in Iran to extract 66 American Embassy hostages. The movie they were pretending to shoot was an adaptation of the 1968 Hugo Award winning book: “Lord of Light” by Roger Zelazny. The poster on eBay was illustrating the fictional “Lord of Light” movie within the movie.
My ADHD brain then switched gears to tune in to your video and lo and behold, I was shocked to hear you mention “Lord of Light” being a video game adaptation dream project of yours! The coincidence was too much to pass up and my curiosity was peaked, so I bought the ebook then and there and I’ve been reading it all day. I’m really enjoying it so far!
Thank you for the serendipitous book recommendation and thank you for sharing your video game development wisdom, your videos are a wellspring of creative inspiration! 😊
Shoutout to all my fellow game dev cooks 🍳 ❤
Hey Tim! Do you have a PO box or anything of the sort? I think it would be really cool to be able to send letters and chocolate and things of that sort if you would be open to it! Love your channel and all your insight! ❤️
I think I have an idea who put the banana bread recipe in the arcanum manual
good stuff too, I tried it myself 🙂
The analogy of cooking/baking resonates with me because I've been working on my cooking recently, and it truly is a game of experimentation. There's no other way to figure out what does and doesn't work for you other than getting your hands dirty and trying out different things, and that mindset can go a long way being extrapolated into environments which can facilitate an iterative process of improvement.
I tend to find the 12 principles of animation are particularly great for designers to learn from because animation is all about clear visual communication and smooth flowing "juicy" feeling movement… People forget art is not just fancy wallpaper you stick on top of a finished design, it's an integral part of how you talk to the player and 'game feel'.
"20 minutes later Chicken… mush" absolutely killed me 🙂 So funny!
Instapot is awesome.
This thumbnail scares me.
I'd love to know what Tim's favorite thing Bethesda added to Fallout's lore is.
Hii tim I love you and most of your games so much . I don’t wanna restart gamergate here but I’ve recently been thinking a lot about the role of the female main character in RPGs (in particular fallout 2, if you know you know) and all it entails. Do developers put thought into this when making the games ? What was the attitude and state of mind of the teams when designing with the female player in mind ? The questions are vague but I don’t really have any other way to articulate them without going on and on. Never stop making these videos !!
Tim,
I'd like to know how you would apply story telling principles and game design to other game "mediums". Specifically pinball. Pinball was the entertainment of choice before video and PC games and is making a comeback. Analogies of a world under glass (as compared to a display screen) that engages players with light, sounds, and physical interactions based on real physical engagements with metal, wood, rubber and plastic mean that no two games are ever the same. This goes for no two copies of the same design or even two plays on the same machine. Most games are short as these money making machines had to turn over games quickly to maximize coin drop and still have enough of a "just one more…" appeal to them to make a successful design.
If there is one change in the industry, it is that the buyers of games today are primarily home users. Location play still drives the industry, but location play is usually adult oriented. Even Dave and Buster's doesn't have pinball. Mechanical complexity and technical failure means more downtime and less profit.
I am curious to hear what you think of what you think of all of this. I enjoy listening to your channel and have learned quite a bit from it. Be well.
-EMcB
On the note of books with interesting mechanics, House of Leaves is a freaky read
I think my background in going to school for anthropology feeds into my artistic creation so much its impossible to point where it's influence ends and my others begin
"long form", "dialog", "characters", It happens to be the hardest parts of writing. Isaac Asimov only learned to write believable female characters towards the end of his lifetime. Tells you everything.
Of all the wonderful thumbnails…this is in the top 5
Thumbnail: You have become addicted to psycho.
Hi Tim, it's me some guy named Ryan you don't know. I really enjoyed the cooking analogies as baking and tabletop are 2 of my favorite things. I have a question about the end of the first fallout game.
Was that ending inspired by events in the lives of any of the development team? Also, how useful have some of your own personal experiences been in writing stories or incorporating themes into them?
The ending of that game felt very real and stuck with me, even more so as I got older and found that many family members and others look at me like I am an alien or something simply due to the experiences I have had.
Thanks for your time, I hope this day finds you well.
Tim you could absolutely write better if you put in the time. Why do you believe the skill to be unlearnable for you?
Hey tim! I was curious on your thoughts on (usually difficult) games with a single, set difficulty. This is a topic that comes up every couple of years and I haven't come to any sturdy conclusion yet.
Its true that in a Dark souls or Sekiro, theres a very clear lack of accessibility. Is this a price worth paying when pursuing a singular vision? I understand that you're personally a fan of customizable difficulty, but would not including any have to be a bad thing?
I've watched both your video games as art and difficulty video but never saw you touch on this, sorry if you already have.
Oh noes, Tim doing thumbnails with screaming face, the algorithm got ya 😂
I have in fact made very good cookies without measuring, and I haven't measured my spices for baking in like 10 years, easily.
I happen to know that programming and algorithms are my strength, and that I would do bad in 3D design, like human models and animations. So I am in the process of creating a space combat/exploration game that spans the observable universe, with a single global realm, using elaborate procedural generation algorithms. Everything that has to be done I can do, and the parts I can't/won't, I can use assets for, like sounds, music, models, textures, shaders. So I can focus on maximizing the parts I am strong in, and tackle the challenges that are hard to solve – like making procedural generation good.
Hey, Tim!
Recent advancements in AI technology have been incredible to see, but I'm starting to wonder how it will affect the game industry in the next 5-10 years, and am unsure what skills I need to focus on to remain applicable.
Me being unsure of what skills and directions I should prioritize to best prepare myself for a future in game development, I wanted to ask what your thoughts were.
If you started again today from scratch, what skills would you distribute your time and energy into the most? Do you think that most coding will be done by AI in the near future? Thus, would focusing on less AI prone aspects of the industry be a good idea? If so, what would those areas be?
As someone who is interested in game development, film, and VTX it's great to see so many AI tools being created to assist in this type of work, but it's also worrysome to think about how many of these jobs could be completely replaced by AI in the near future.
Would love to hear your thoughts, love the videos :),
– Kane
That thumbnail lmao 😄
There is a lot of architecture in the games, so what about architects and other specialists from outside graphics, programmers, sound/music creators and professional script writers sphere? How many of those kind of people are involved? How many of them are or could be employed by game development industry and/or how many of them support projects through external consultations and commissioned works?
Hi Tim, question: How do you choose the thumbnail for each video? Do you let youtube choose it automatically or do you look for the best face possible? Your thumbnails are the best thumbnails.
Thanks,
EJ
A very funny story: In one of my college social circles, a friend once called me "the stylish one" which confused me like crazy, until she clarified that she was talking about (specifically) clothing color combinations and asked where I got my grasp of color theory to which I had to reply ". . . 3D modeling".