andr_funzavod: переводы

→So, how is Fred? His words say “He’s fine. ” Great. Fred is fine. If you are just “surface listening, ” you might draw that conclusion. But if you listen more deeply,
paying full attention to Fred’s body language, subtle facial expression, tone of voice and gestures, you might hear a very different message: “Actually, I’m not fine. I have
a serious problem that I think I might want to discuss with you. But I won’t do that unless I get some kind of commitment from you that you really care about my problem, because it is kind of a personal issue. If you don’t want to get involved with it, though, I won’t bother you with it, and I’ll just pretend that everything is okay. ” All of that was right there, in Fred’s “I’m fine. ” And if you were listening deeply to what he said, you heard it all; clear as a bell, plain as day, as if he’d said it out loud. This is the kind of listening that game designers must engage in, day in and day out, with every decision that they make.

→By listening, I don’t mean merely hearing what is said. I mean a deeper listening, a thoughtful listening. For example, you are at work, and you see your friend
Fred. “Hi, Fred, How are you? ” you say. Fred frowns, looks down, shifts his weight uncomfortably, seems to be hunting for words, and then says quietly, without eye
contact “Uh, fine, I guess. ” And then, he collects himself, takes a breath, and looks you in the eye as he determinedly, but not convincingly, says a little louder “ I’m, uh, fine. How are you? ”

→This may sound absurd to you. Is listening even a skill? We are not equipped with “earlids. ” How can we help but listen?

→Game designers must listen to many things. These can be grouped into five major categories: Team, Audience, Game, Client, and Self. Most of this book will be about how to listen to these five things.

→The most important skill for a game designer is listening.

→Listening.

→Some say “communication,” which starts to get close. The word communication has unfortunately become corrupted over the centuries. It once referred to an
exchange of ideas, but now has become a synonym for talking, as in “I have something to communicate to you. ” Talking is certainly an important skill, but good com-
munication and good game design are rooted in something far more basic and far more important.

→Of all the skills mentioned in the previous section, one is far and away the most important, and it sounds so strange to most people that I didn’t even list it. Many
people guess “creativity, ” and I would argue that this is probably the second most important skill. Some guess “critical thinking ” or “logic, ” since game design is about
decision making. These are indeed important, but by no means the most important skills.

→The Most Important Skill

→And of course, there are many more. Daunting, isn’t it? How could anyone possibly master all of these things? The truth is that no one can. But the more of these
things you are comfortable working with, however imperfectly, the better off you will be. This is another reason that game designers must be confident and fearless. But there is one skill that is the key to all the others.

→Visual Arts — Your games will be full of graphic elements. You must be fluent in the language of graphic design and know how to use it to create the feeling you want your game to have.

→Technical Writing — You need to create documents that clearly describe your complex designs without leaving any holes or gaps.

→Sound Design — Sound is what truly convinces the mind that it is in a place; in other words, “hearing is believing. ”

→Public Speaking — You will frequently need to present your ideas to a group. Sometimes you will speak to solicit their feedback, sometimes you will speak to
persuade them of the genius of your new idea. Whatever the reason, you must be confident, clear, natural, and interesting, or people will be suspicious that you don’t know what you are doing.

→Psychology — Your goal is to make a human being happy. You must understand the workings of the human mind or you are designing in the dark.

→Music — Music is the language of the soul. If your games are going to truly touch people, to immerse, and embrace them, they cannot do it without music.

→Mathematics — Games are full of mathematics, probability, risk analyses, complex scoring systems, not to mention the mathematics that stands behind computer graphics and computer science in general. A skilled designer must not be afraid to delve into math from time to time.

→Management — Any time a team works together toward a goal, there must be some management. Good designers can succeed even when management is bad, secretly “ managing from below ” to get the job done.

→History — Many games are placed in historical settings. Even ones placed in fantasy settings can draw incredible inspiration from history.

→Engineering — Modern videogames involve some of the most complex engineering in the world today, with some titles counting their lines of code in the
millions. New technical innovations make new kinds of gameplay possible. Innovative game designers must understand both the limits and the powers that
each technology brings.