Interview of a Game Designer
Interview of a Game Designer
By Peter C.
- Can I ask your name, age, residence (city and state will do), and official job title, as well as the full name of your company. I will be willing to forgo any information you are not comfortable disclosing, though unless you plan on being published under your pseudonym, I doubt most of the info will be that problematic. Lastly of the preliminary info, mind telling me how long you've been doing this?
My name is Adam Christopher Loyd, age 24, and I live in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I am a contracted game designer, currently doing jobs for the Arthaus division of Sword & Sorcery Studios, a subsidary of White Wolf Publishing. I've officially been working for them since late July/early August, though I have done amateur game design for ten years now.
*nods* of course. There's literally hundreds of materials out there, most bad, some good, but all have something that helps me do what I do. Maybe an idea that came out wrong but, with some tinkering, works wonders. I pull alot of my material from third-party publishers and even tv shows or animes, if the idea strikes me.
- Do you often find it hard balancing races for challenge ratings and playable races while accommodating how they appear in the video game?
Everyone has his or her 'official' idea of what a certain monster or race should be like. And not everything translates well. Take for instance the Forsaken. In WoW they're considered humanoids, but have the ability to shake off enchantments and hold their breath underwater longer. However, they're really undead creatures. In our RPG, we translated them as actually being undead, which means they're completely immune to mind-affecting spells and suffocation. However, unlike in the MMORPG, they have no way of healing themselves without magic or elixirs. They don't even get the Cannibalize ability (though this may show up as an ability, probably a feat, in the upcoming Horde Player's Guide. Purely speculation on my part, but I’d love to do it). They're also stronger than normal and can see in the dark, and even get a natural weapon with their class levels. Forsaken in the pen-and-paper game, thus, seem to be a bit stronger, but also have a much harder time at solo-ing.
Things like this come up all the time. You just have to do what you can to get it as cloose as possible, while still making it a fun and interesting concept.
- Do you find anything particularly frustrating when writing?
Not having the online game. LOL. My computer is worthless, so it can't run WoW at all. Thus I gotta rely on second-hand information from friends when statting out monsters that are not in the RTS, or coming up with new feats/classes/information/whathaveyou.
- Do you find it hard accommodating the flavor text and the creature stats when putting them into the D20 system?
Honestly, flavor's the easiest step. When you build a monster, it always starts with flavor, then you build off that. For stats, it's a bit different. I generally look at the capabilities of the lowest-level monster you come across, then work from there, attempting to find a mechanics way to explain their abilities.
- Have you ever tried to use other systems to make creature stats, even if only as comparison to the D20 system (or have experimented with your own)?
Not really. I spend most of my time in d20, and I really don't mess around with other systems. I do tinker a bit with the Storytelling system (World of Darkness, Exalted, etc.), but otherwise it's mostly d20. There was once, a long time ago, when i made my own system, but it fell apart. That and the fact that my hard drive crashed and I lost everything.
- Which piece of work are you most proud of (that is freely available)?
Nothing's freely available yet, but I'm proud of some of the critters I've made in an upcoming book, as well as the fiction pieces I’ve come up with. It can be chore, but once you make something awesome, it's a memorable experience.
- Have you any original work that you don’t mind disclosing?
Sure! I got a couple new races I did as an update to the rpg when 2e came out. You can find them here: http://www.geocities.com/MagusRogue . I'll be updating it with more neat stuff later when certain books get published. Do note that all races on my website are completely unofficial.
- What got you to doing this kind of work in the first place?
I'm a big dnd nerd, have been so since i was 10. I started reading fantasy when i was like four or five, and always have been hooked on the genre. Then an old friend of mine (that I still talk to today) brought his copy of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 2e. Old school, baby! I didn't get to play yet, but I sat and watched the game, and my first thought was: "This is just too cool!" Like I said, I'm a nerd. Sue me.
I remember the first game me and some of my friends ever played. I just managed to convince my mother to get me the Monster Manual, and that's the only book I had. Working off what I read in it from monster stats, I went along and made one of the funnest games I've ever ran, without even knowing the real system! I guess that's where I first learned how to de-engineer stats and change things to suit my vision of the world. I bought alot of the optional systems books, and reading those helped me further my abilities at making products. I still remember the time I made a custom Warcraft RPG booklet and adventure for 2e, when i was like 14 or 15. One of the most memoriable scenes was when a half-ogre (played by one of my friends) decided to sink an upcoming juggernaut with barrels of gunpowder, set off by his elven ranger friend (by another character) and his bow. That campaign was simply astonishing. It also shows you my roots in Warcraft, both the computer games and trying to make it into a dnd game.
3rd edition was a god-send, believe you me. A loose system such as itself, easy-to-understand concepts, and the ability to customize it to your whims, this is what I was looking for. Immediately I bought all 3 of the books, and started having a ball. I think I made two custom campaigns for it almost immediately, but like my own system, i lost them in the harddrive crash. I really got into the updates to my favorite campaign settings, like Ravenloft and Dragonlance.
Then Warcraft RPG (the official one) came out. I am proud to say that I am one of the longest-running active board members of the WRPG boards, and that's how I got hired in the first place. I was considered an authority over there even before Luke contacted me about joining the team, doing all sorts of amateur work for the line, both in 1e and 2e (aka WoWRPG). While there are some... less desirable members on the boards, I found them and their help/ideas to be an awesome stepping stone into the genre I've loved since Warcraft game out in 89.
And now, after 2 years of being on the boards, I'm an official designer. That answer your question, I hope?
- Is there anything in your personal life that you look for for inspirations?
Hard question. I draw inspiration from my wife, of course, whose a fantasy and sci-fi author-to-be, and a dnd nut like me. My mother got me interested in books as a little kid, so that helped as well. I'm pretty sure this isn't what you're looking for, though.
- How much satisfaction would you say you get for your work?
Would saying that I'd do this even if I wouldn't be paid for it enough? *Grins* This is my dream job, since I first started playing dnd. Gary Gygax = god, man... Monte Cook is prolly the J-whiz too.
- Have you ever made anything you were really unsatisfied with?
Sure. Everyone does. But that's part of life. Don't like it, go back and work on it until you do. Don't let the little things get you down, you know.
- Do you ever get discouraged doing this?
Writer's block, man. I've tested the limits of my deadlines constantly, just because I can't think of something, or I find that I keep changing something else. But I keep going, because A) this is my job, and B) i'm a stubborn old bastard.
- Have you ever considered doing creative work unrelated to RPGs (or have done so in the past)?
I actually write fiction a bit too. Have a book I've been working on since high school, still tinkering away at it. Creative writing, yo.
- What is your most favorite thing you do in this job?
Can I say Everything? LOL. I like the prestige among other game nerds that I'm working on products for one of the biggest game infatuations out there. Look at the sales records of WoW (The computer game), if you don't believe me. Then there's my boss (Luke Johnson), who’s not much older than me and is a real whacko, but an awesome guy. Everyone I work with is cool. On an undisclosed product, we even got a writer from Paizo, the guys who do Dragon and Dungeon magazines. Her name’s Amber Scott, and is a freelancer who has worked on both Dragon magazine and one or two WotC books. Aaron Rosenberg also has his name on WotC books (as does Luke), and a couple novels. Awesome people, awesome work, and just simply awesome. Like i said, everything I do is just simply awesome.
If you’re interested, here’s a link to my boss’s website: http://www.lukejohnson.com.
- What is your least favorite thing you do in this job?
Struggling with deadlines while suffering from fevers, exams, work (i also work at a gas station), and financial difficulties. It's easy to loose yourself when you got everything in the world piled on your shoulders.
- How do you work out the creature?
As I said before, I start with the image of the creature, and the flavor text. I then see just how tough it is, and try to compare it with an already-made creature from DnD, tinkering here and there to mold it into what I want it to be. Sometimes I just pull it outa my arse, but I don't do that too often. Mostly I borrow and alter to my own whims, and be happy with it.
- Are there times when you are more creative or less?
How creative are you when you run a 102 degree fever while you have ten cats running all over you and digging their claws in? :)
- What exactly do you do when you’re working?
Type and listen to my music, ignoring everything else around me. You'll find me in front of my computer, in my lounging chair (who needs a computer chair when you got a loveseat for a chair!), surrounded by all my books and pouring through them to find just what I want. I'll also be talking to people on-line, but erratically whenever I remember I actually am talking to someone.
- Is the work competitive in any way with other design members?
Uh... I'd have to say sorta. The only real competition is getting a part of the job that you really want to do, while others want it as well. I haven't run into this yet since Luke just assigns chunks and doesn't let me decide what I want to do (most often I'll make a suggestion for material, and he responds with "that's cool, do it now!"), but on the next project I'm sure I'll be bidding for stuff like everyone else. And if, come the Horde Player's Guide, Luke doesn't assign me to work on all things Ogre, I'll sick my sadistic evil wife on him... *Cracks knuckles*
- Do you just take pre-existing material and translate it, or is there any originality that you get to work with?
As I said before, it's a mix of both. Nothing done today can be said to be TRULY original. Somewhere, some time, someone's already done what you have done. The only thing you can do is put your own stamp or twist on things. Believe me, it's alot harder to do things out of the blue instead of taking and adapting other material. Note, btw, this isn't stealing or plagiarism. That would be if I took something and didn't change a thing. And that, my friends, is illegal.
I want to thank my good friend Peter C. for choosing me to interview, just a lowly grunt making the bills. It’s really an honor to be thought of as cool enough to interview. I do wish to express that all statements conducted within this interview are my personal opinions, and may not stand for every person in the same staff as myself.
Thank you.