The role of a designer - 26/3/2015

So with all of this group stuff going on, recently I've started to wonder about what my role would be on an actual team. I know it involves theorising ideas, putting things together and roles like that, but if I were to join an actual team, what would I be tasked with, and more importantly, which roles would I prefer to do?

I personally feel like I really understand people. I understand what people want, and I've always been good at critically analysing why people like games and why they don't. Even before I considered games design or programming, I always felt like I had a deeper understanding of my fellow gamer's mindsets.

As far as scripting goes, I have a lot to learn but I essentially "get it". If I need to do something, I can learn how, and once I've done it once I never have to learn it again because I keep all of my scripts. But for this project we have 2 programmers, so that's not really an issue.

As far as art goes, not really my forte but I am going to be teaching myself 3DS Max in my spare time to compensate, and I'm also learning Gimp and Photoshop more and more every day.

Another thing I feel I am good at is setting out a level. With assets available to me I feel I am quite good at putting a level together and making it feel like a real game, which is good I suppose. 

Audio wise, I usually head to royalty free music/sound effect sites and grab from there or I contact artists directly and ask if I have permission to use their material in my games. That being said, I actually used to play piano so if I got my hands on a keyboard and was able to export music from the keyboard to my computer I feel I could actually put together a few simple tracks for a game. So the potential is there.

The only real thing I would have an issue with design wise is art, but like I mentioned I am totally willing to learn how to put models and art together. I suppose animation ties in with this but I am yet to actually try my hand at animation. Perhaps I'll give it a go this weekend. 

That being said, I am having trouble finding motivation on the weekends, usually I have the most motivation during weeknights from Tuesday to Thursday. I believe this is because I get home from class feeling pumped up with an idea or something.

Anyway, just felt like venting, hence the during-the-week blog rather than the usual weekend blog.

Thanks for reading, sorry for the lack of humour.

Knock knock.