There are two useful skills for game designers to have that I don’t see get talked about enough. They are subtle things, but significant enough that they separate junior designers from senior designers.

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The first is the innate sense to know when you should ask for something, when you should demand something, and when you should live with what you got.

This is a skill that bedevils every designer honestly - we’re innately hackers who make chicken salad out of chicken shit

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But getting a real sense of the potential impact of what you’re requesting and being able to make that case, and being willing to make noise when you have a good case, is what will either piss off everyone above you, or get you promoted. Promoted at the good companies.

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Incidentally, this is where being somewhat skilled in art or engineering helps a lot. You don’t need to be a full-stack coder, but when you can assess the potential cost of a change or request accurately, it’ll help you make that call.

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The other skill is a simple realization that a designer’s job is often less about ideation and more about synthesis. It’s not your job to come up with all the ideas. It’s your job to blend all the ideas into the best possible thing.

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Note that this does NOT mean design by committee. That’ll give you crap most times. But it DOES mean that before you pick a lane, you get feedback about all of the options, and cherry pick the stuff that elevates the lane you chose.

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And it also helps separate you from the design a bit. Designers often have to implement other people’s visions, and we have to watch our babies get butchered all the time. Good designers can do it bloodlessly.

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All of this is to say, being a designer is being the glue between all the other systems, and figuring out how to elevate the total vision. A lot of times, people underestimate the degree that soft skills in the service of ideation is crucial to success as a designer.

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