The games industry role I decided to aim for is known as a “Technical Designer”. Based on my research, the specifics of the role varies a fair bit between studios and projects, but generally-speaking it is considered to be the middle point between the disciplines of design and programming. To learn about it I looked at online resources and also occasionally was able to ask developers in the industry themselves, through discord and at a gamejam hosted at Hypixel Studios.
I also looked at some interviews and talks given by technical designers themselves, such as Jess Hider or Aaron Biddlecom.
From this, I gathered that the role typically involves communicating with the game designers and programmers on a team, usually acting as a mediator between them. A technical designer would try to solve any technical problems or hurdles for the design team’s ideas, or as described on Into Games’ page on the role, “anticipate, identify and remove any obstacles to allow the design team to focus on their work”.
Another common aspect of the role is prototyping various gameplay systems before they are handed over to programmers / engineers to be properly implemented.
Portfolio Research
To get a better idea of the type of work I should focus on for this role and try to highlight in my own portfolio, I looked at a few different portfolios of technical designers working in the industry. Some really helpful examples in particular were Nathan Chandler-Gibson’s, Elroy Gopal’s and Hugo Peters’.
Most of the examples were simply hosted online on their own websites, and would usually list the projects they were involved with from the most recent. Usually each project was given its own page, where the designer talks about the various systems they developed etc.
By looking at the types of work that was usually highlighted for each project, I narrowed down the main areas I would focus on to:
Designing and scripting gameplay systems
Developing tools and systems to aid other designers
Plan of Action / Steps Taken
When I had the opportunity to talk to a technical designer at Hypixel, I learnt that the role is considered quite specialist and requires a fairly wide skill-set between both design and programming, so there aren’t typically many junior or entry positions for it. Typically, someone would first build up experience in another role such as Gameplay Programmer or Game Designer.
Whether I end up going for a different entry position or not, I still plan on aiming for a Technical Designer role overall. To better prepare for the wide skill-set required, I have started and will continue taking steps to develop my own design and programming skills.
While most Technical Designers aren’t required to have an advanced knowledge of traditional programming languages like C++, I decided to start learning how to use it alongside scripting tools like Blueprints in Unreal. With Unreal specifically, it’s extremely helpful to know how to expose certain functionality that is otherwise unavailable with Blueprints. For this I used some of Epic’s own resources, such as their "Introduction to Blueprint Vs C++" tutorial series.
I also began trying to develop more complex gameplay systems in the projects I was working on. Some examples include an animation notification system for Paper2D sprites, a State Machine for a player character, and an advanced system for Enemy positioning and attack management.
I was specifically interested in learning more about how these types of systems are implemented within the actual industry, so I looked at resources like Game AI Pro. Chapters like “Beyond the Kung-fu Circle” were very helpful for the Launch Title project in particular.
Outside of these development skills, I've also tried to improve my own communication skills when working with others, since as stated a large focus of the tech designer role is based around communicating between disciplines. In the Launch Title project for example, I was developing a number of systems that the other team members would be using, so to help facilitate this I developed some simple documentation alongside them.