The House of Game Design

Last year, after a particularly witty jab at a teammate, I remarked that I was like the ‘House’ (as in Dr.) of game design. At the moment, it was merely a comment about my rapier wit, but upon further reflection, the House of game design is exactly who I want to be. I don’t mean in the lonely drug addict sense, but rather the other aspects.

Primarily, House is good enough at his job that people, the hospital, put up with an amazing amount of crap (drug habit, etc.) in order to let him do his job. He does the work he wants and only the work he wants. He fills his specialized role and fills it expertly. I am for that reason cultivating a position of a specialist. I am focusing on gaining prodigious expertise in the area of motion control for games. I am making a wide variety of motion control mechanics, and also perfecting a few of them, so as to maximize my ability to devise and improve.

House also heads up a team of skilled doctors, that he can then have do all of the mechanical work that requires little thought, leaving him even freer to do exactly the work he is good at and enjoys, and no more. As I am the only member of a team that is slated to expand, I hope to leverage my seniority to, in time, have a similar position. Whether it is indeed a team of my own, or if I am a contract specialist, moving between teams and building their control mechanics, either leaves me free to not get stuck doing work that I enjoy less. (While I enjoy all game programming other than graphics, there are some types that I prefer to others).

Finally, House has exactly the right amount of autonomy. He chooses his own cases, but is occasionally forced to take one for the good of the hospital. In this aspect I am already there. My most skilled and excellent boss allows me fairly free reign to do the games that I want to do, while only three times so far giving us a design that was not our own to make. (Meaning that three out of the ten in progress concepts are not home grown)

All in all, I think that I’m on my way to awesomeville.


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