Game Industry Insiders #3

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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: gray;" lang="EN-GB">In the previous two interviews in a series of articles about people in the gaming industry we have met an Associate Producer and a Level Artist. This time we will meet Ditte Deenfeldt, Game Designer at Ubisoft Massive.<strong> <br /> <br /> </strong></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: gray;" lang="EN-GB"><strong> <br /> Could you introduce yourself to our readers?<br /> </strong>Sure. I'm a 28-year-old Dane who migrated over the 30 km wide belt from Copenhagen to Malm&ouml; to work at Massive. I've played games since I was 11-12 years old and have until very recently mainly played PC-games. I have a fairly diverse background, founded partly in design, partly philosophy and partly in games.<br /> <br /> I love all kinds of games, not just computer games. When I was younger I played more tabletop role playing games and board games than computer games, and I still play a lot of board games and have recently started a new role playing group after a long break. Board games often have such a clean and pretty mechanics design compared to anything digital.<br /> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: gray;" lang="EN-GB"> <strong>How long have you been a game designer?<br /> </strong>I've worked as Massive for 10 months and studied game design for two years before that. <br /> <br /> <strong>Could you describe more in detail what you are doing at Massive? How is a normal day at work?<br /> </strong>Game designers here do a lot of different things, fortunately. We work with system design, gameplay design and some of course work with story conceptualization and characters. While people can usually relate to what a level designer does, many people find it hard to grasp what it means to be a game designer.<br /> <br /> It's easiest to explain like this; we make all the bits the level designers later use to create missions and levels. Apart from the obvious like faction and unit design (including balancing), it's mostly mechanics. Examples from World in Conflict could be fortifications, the command point system and Tactical Aid.<br /> <br /> Recently part of my work has been being part of the team that makes the new patch for World in Conflict. That work is partly reading forums to get a good feel of what is most needed, partly implementing the changes either on my own if it's unit balancing or together with coders and artists if that's needed. Then there's testing, double/triple/quadruple checking that you didn't break anything and then watching replays and reading more forums.<br /> <br /> People often think we do art, but that's far from the truth. (Luckily, for the art.) It's convenient to be able to work in some sort of graphics software though, because we often do mock-ups of GUI, feedback systems and mechanics, but that's as close to doing art as we get.<br /> <strong><br /> Were there any difficulties starting as a new game designer in a team that had already released a game?</strong></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: gray;" lang="EN-GB">"Difficulties" may be too strong a word, but it will probably always be confusing and challenging to start on any team that's been working together for a while. Luckily for me there were several newer people on the team when I started, so the team as a whole was changing already.<br /> <br /> They were used to being only a handful of people sitting closely together in a small office, and now there were suddenly all these new people, and the office was bigger, and on top of that Massive changed publisher as I started here, so everything was changing for everyone.<br /> <br /> When I started Massive was working on the Soviet Assault "Directors Cut" version of World in Conflict, and everyone knew the game to a level of detail that I couldn't possibly match because I didn't take part in the production of the original World in Conflict. You just have to ask a lot of questions and listen and watch very carefully, play the game, and then eventually you'll begin having the needed level of understanding. This is the obvious challenge, I guess, of being new. <br /> <br /> As game designers we talk to a lot of people all the time. So there's another very basic challenge of learning how to work with different people and how to approach different types of people when you're new.<br /> <br /> I think the challenge is the same in every industry; get to know the product/service; get to know the people; keep updated on industry news; learn how the company works. One thing that makes it a easier to be new in the games industry is that I know that everyone here have the same interests as I do, so it's very easy to talk to people. You can always start with "Hey I'm DD. So, what games do you play?" That part has been incredibly easy at Massive.<br /> <br /> <strong>What do you believe is the core element in the current game you are working on?<br /> </strong>I can tell you what I believe are the core elements in World in Conflict: Depth in team play and loads of cool destruction. When it comes to what I am currently working on, you'll have to wait and see.<strong><br /> <br /> Besides game design, what other steps in the production of a game interest you?<br /> </strong>I don't really understand this question. It sort of assumes we work in a vacuum inside the company, which is far from the truth. I work with artists; I use the tools the tools-team produce, so I'm of course interested in what they're doing, and so on.<br /> <br /> Most things other people are doing in other parts of production affect my work and day to day tasks, so it's all interesting. It's interesting how the community is handled; it's interesting how the game is marketed; it's interesting what new cool shaders the tech team can come up with... and so on.<br /> <br /> <strong>What various aspects of game design are there? What's your approach?<br /> </strong>The normal way into game design is probably to be a gamer who turns designer. I'm slightly different, I guess, because I'm a designer who's also a gamer. What fuels me is being a part of a design process, preferably on a team, and create something, iterate on it, and make it work.<br /> <br /> I've worked with this process in different contexts but was never really satisfied. I've dabbled with fashion design, architecture and furniture design, all of which confirmed that I do like designing stuff, just not that stuff... I've done costume design for theatre, where I realized that I like to be a part of a team, but I didn't have the passion for theatre which is needed in that particular industry.<br /> <br /> When I realized that I could work with design <span style="text-decoration: underline;">and</span> with games it seemed so obvious that I felt stupid for not realizing it sooner. I think it's a source of strength for me to have a slightly different approach and I can definitely use my previous experience even though the fields are so different. <br /> <br /> For me design is craftsmanship. Designing for a specific field requires craftsmanship plus knowledge and passion for that field.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: gray;" lang="EN-GB"><br /> The way technology is advancing every day, what do you think is or will be making the biggest difference in your field?<br /> </span></strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: gray;" lang="EN-GB">This will probably sound boring. What will make the biggest difference for me is if I can keep on making a living by making games. And I don't mean that I should be able to live in a penthouse apartment and drive a Porsche, I really just want to be able to make interesting games and have a roof over my head and food to eat. Admittedly, I'd prefer it to be nice food. I like nice food.<br /> <br /> But what this means is that people need to start paying for the games they play. In an ideal world we could just talk to people and explain to them that they should pay for the games, so that the game developers can make more games next year. But unfortunately this approach does not seem to work.<br /> <br /> It's so frustrating to see that the majority of players who play and enjoy games still don't feel the need to pay for them, and don't even understand how much it's hurting the industry. So unfortunately I think we have to rely on technology in some way or the other. It should be easy, accessible and non-intrusive of course, and we haven't seen that yet.<br /> <strong><br /> What were you like during your student days? Did your studies help you to where you are now?<br /> </strong>Yes they did. In different ways. I have a Master&rsquo;s degree in Multimedia and Games; Design and Analysis from the IT-University of Copenhagen. Before I took the master I took a BA in History of Ideas. Studying history of ideas (which is similar to philosophy) taught me how to understand complex ideas and complex systems, and how to communicate these ideas to other people in a useful manner.<br /> <br /> Studying games helped me because I got to spend two years full-time doing nothing but working with games. That meant that when I was done I had and a bunch of prototypes and small games that I could put into a portfolio. I also had a diploma, but to be honest I think the experience of making games count for more. I did what I could to make as many projects and games as possible during my student days. I worked hard but I had so much fun.<br /> <strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal;"><br /> </span></strong><strong>What is the best thing about working in the gaming industry?<br /> </strong>The fun and the people. Work is genuinely fun and I have a lot in common with most of my co-workers. Everyone is casual and nice.<strong><br /> </strong><br /> <strong>Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Will you still be in the gaming business?<br /> </strong>If I'm still having fun and enjoying what I do, of course I'll stay. Hopefully by then I'll have much more experience, and have worked on a variety of different games.<strong><br /> </strong><br /> <strong>Name a few of your favourite games of all time!<br /> </strong>Favourite games for me means games I've played the most, or had the best experiences with or was most impressed by at the time. To name a few of varying genres I like Heroes of Might and Magic III, Max Payne and everything Tower Defence (Especially WarCraft III, of course).<br /> <br /> Old school games that made a lasting impression were, amongst others, Day of the Tentacle, The Incredible Machine, and The Lost Vikings.<br /> <br /> <strong>What game are you currently playing the most?<br /> </strong>Demigod (on LAN) and Fallout 3 (on PC). Most played board game at the moment is Descent; Journey in the Dark and we recently started a new role playing group playing Dogs in the Vineyard, an indie system.<strong><br /> </strong><br /> <strong>Thanks for taking the time answering these questions! <br /> </strong></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: gray;"><br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: gray;" lang="EN-GB">You can read the first interviews in the series here: <br /> <br /> <a href="/article/504"><span style="color: gray;">Game Industry Insiders #1 &ndash; Barrie Tingle, Associate Producer at DICE</span></a> <br /> <a href="/article/515/Game-Industry-Insiders-2">Game Industry Insiders #2 &ndash; Michael Anderson, Level Artist at Ubisoft Massive</a></span></p>
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