Skills

• 
  Communication
• 
  Problem Solving
• 
  Sketching
• 
  Writing
• 
  C++
• 
  Coding

What should I know?

Learn to program, draw and write. You just need to be good enough at these three, advanced level is not required.

• Basic coding knowledge will enable you to
  • complete basic prototypes alone
  • communicate with programmers in a better way
  • do the scripting better and faster
  • understand code written by others

• Sketching
  • a good game designer should at least be able to sketch or visualise ideas

• A classic liberal arts education is the best training for a designer. Don’t choose a narrow education. Choose a broad one – psychology, art, science.

Is this career suitable for me?

You need to play a lot of games to become a game designer. But that is only the beginning. You should be able to reverse engineer the games you play. Don’t play for fun, play for analysis.

If you want to design games, you should start designing games. You can design games with a deck of cards. With index cards. And a pen, don’t forget a pen. You can do it with some poker chips, with some Lego bricks, with an old chess board. Your first lesson is: “games are not their graphics”. Or their frame rate. They are their rules. You can start making games with whatever you have to hand. – Raph Koster

Additional Notes

Online Resources to start learning Game Design

• GameSalad
• GameMaker

Blogs on Game Design

• So, You Wanna Be a Game Designer?
• Game Design Logs
• I want to become a desinger

Read

• Ian Schreiber’s Game Design Concepts class and Game Balance Concepts.
• Clint Hocking’s article on ludonarrative dissonance
• Dan Cook’s Chemistry of Game Design article

Watch Game Design Videos

• GDC
• So You Want To Be a Game Designer – Career Advice for Making Games – Extra Credits