Workplaces: Roman Zorin, producer at Playkot

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Roman Zorin, producer and game designer at Playkot, shared with Lifehacker how computer games are made, what is the main problem of the Russian gaming industry and how to get into it.

Tell us what you do in the company

I am currently combining two roles: producer and lead game designer, responsible for the integrity of the product.

As a producer, I create conditions in which my team can be 100% fulfilled. That is, I make sure that the guys have everything: from working computers and comfortable tables to the absence of conflicts, the free flow of information and the feeling that the project and ideas belong to the team, and not imposed from above.

And in this matter, I have to restrain myself and not push ideas if the team does not accept them yet. In addition, there are things in which the last word will not be for me, but for my colleagues, for example, in matters of art.

Who is a game designer?

In different companies, a game designer is understood as a different specialist. For myself, I divide them into two large groups: technical and creative.

Technical game designers see the game as a set of rules; they look at the gameplay and mechanics. These are people with a mathematical mindset who can sense numbers and can balance the system endlessly.

Creative game designers are people who are able to generate ideas and thus enrich the game. They are able not only to invent something, but to be creative within the framework of the project. It is important that their ideas are realizable and improve the product. This part also includes narrative game designers, scriptwriters who work out the world, plots.

For some reason, it is believed that making games is easy. As a rule, most of the candidates for the position of game designer are urban madmen with "genius" ideas.

Large companies divide game designers by task: level designers, designers in charge of the combat system, and so on. The company Guerrilla, which made the Horizon game for the PlayStation, has a separate designer who is responsible for the movement of the characters: how the character runs, how he climbs, how he jumps. In small companies, all tasks fall on one person.

What knowledge should a game designer have? Is he a humanist or a technician?

The profession of a game designer is strongly discredited, since we have a historically very strong mathematical component of education, and the humanitarian one suffers. By humanitarian knowledge we mean reading the collected works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky. And almost no attention is paid to the fact that creating a plot also has its own laws: there is a monomyth, there is a hero's journey. To understand this, you need to at least read review articles about how scripts are written in Hollywood.

In the West, it turned out that they have a stronger creative direction, they are much better able to tell stories and evoke emotions. There, the school of creatives grows out of a huge layer of people who love board role-playing games.

From an early age, a game designer feels an inherent desire to create something. In the West, people start out by playing board role-playing games as a game master. We have a huge problem with this, because the stratum of geek-nerds that has existed since the 60s in Europe and America, we do not yet have.

How did you get into game development? What was the turning point in the decision?

At the age of 15, I played a role-playing game for the first time and immediately realized that I wanted to drive as a game master. At the same time, my friends, who had already played computer games, did not always understand what was happening: why sit down at the table, describe in words some heroes.

The first test task at work was just to come up with a chain of quests, describe locations and characters, dialogues. It turned out well, and they took me. No work experience.

What advice can you give to those who want to enter the gaming industry and become a game designer?

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Get to know the basics of screenwriting, for this it is enough to read one explanatory book.

It is important to read the Dungeon Master Guide for Dungeons and Dragons (any edition), write a detailed module on it (several is better), including the battles that the players face and the plot. So you will understand a lot about balancing, level design, enemy placement, difficulty curve (so that heroes develop interestingly and not immediately).

You will only have a piece of paper and a pen with which you need to captivate the players with your story.

Fully master the game editor for one of the coolest modern games: Divinity: Original Sin, Shadowrun series, Starcraft, and so on. Make a mini campaign, mission or mod with it. This is where the Beginning Game Level Design book by John Harold Feil and Mark Scattergood comes in handy.

Get started with Unity 3D and make some small games with it. This can be done without a technical background. But in the portfolio, you will have a concrete result instead of a bunch of ideas and documents.

Make sure you have basic calculation knowledge. Here I can recommend "Higher Mathematics for Economists" by N. Sh. Kremer, "Guide to Problem Solving in Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics" and "Theory of Probability and Mathematical Statistics" by V. Ye. Gmurman.

Where does the creation of a game begin?

With an idea. At Playkot, we have organized a process we call an internal greenlight, where any employee can propose an idea for a future game. We have several people in the company who make up the greenlight committee.

The task of the person who proposed the idea is to attract several colleagues in the company so that the backbone is formed that will make the prototype. Before the start of pre-production, deadlines and goals are agreed with the greenlight committee. A development and release plan is created.

A project can have three outcomes after a greenlight. The project gets either green light and goes into production, or red - and we deploy it. It also happens that there is potential, but there are still questions that the prototype does not answer. Then we give extra time for revision.

We try to avoid situations where everyone is making prototypes, but nothing is being released. Everything is built around the result. In fact, the toughness of a game is determined by how much money you could make on it. If people like what you have done, they will pay.

Creativity is impossible without frames.

If you look at any projects that humanity has implemented, be it a flight into space or the creation of legendary games like Diablo, Starcraft or Warcraft, there are no cool projects without super-efforts and limitations.

What's the most important thing about the game?

The most important thing is the fan, which the player should receive in the game, not the designer.

Do you have a favorite project and why is it the best?

The coolest thing I've done in my 12 years of work is Age of magic, which is now launching. It was created with the strongest team and evokes the strongest emotions.

How do you work with remote employees?

Previously, we believed that the whole team should be together, but now we have come to the conclusion that the cool specialists we need live in other cities.

The guys are part of the team, we bring them to corporate parties, when there is an opportunity, they come to stay in the office. We hold daily stand-ups for 15–20 minutes, when the whole team gets together.

We use Slack as a working messenger. Of course, in the case of remote employees, there is a certain loss of information: you can't just walk up, pat on the shoulder and ask a question. But this is compensated by the fact that the guys have a lot of experience, which they bring to the project.

Tell us which applications you can't live without in work and life

I use an email client, calculator, dictionary because I read a lot in English. Messengers - Skype, Telegram and Slack. Social networks - Instagram, Facebook, VKontakte. This is due to the fact that the production part of my work involves a lot of communication both with the guys inside the team and outside the company.

If we are not talking about applications, but about the main tools for work, then for me these are Excel or Google tables, the Word text editor or Google Docs. The work of a game designer mostly takes place in the head, so the simplest tools are needed.

At least the programmer's code is open, but I sit and look at some picture, it's also good if it's a plate with a balance - this can somehow be explained. But when you just stick into the wallpaper on your desktop, it looks intimidating from the outside.:)

You have a very interesting office. How do you work in open space?

It's hard to work in open space if there is no culture, if you ignore what other people are doing. We have no particular problems with this. If we need to discuss something, we go to the meeting rooms, you can always go to the terrace to get some air. We all work with their heads and there are no random people in the team.

But in fact, you can work in the basement as well. If you are passionate about a task, people around you are also passionate and there is a work culture, then you can work anywhere.

Where do you get your inspiration from? After all, you have to constantly come up with something new

I am a geek, so I love comics, role-playing games, wargames, movies and games, books. This is where I get my inspiration and ideas.

And if we talk about work, then you just have to sit down and do. And there are two approaches here. The first is on the forehead, when you can't do it, but you sit down and still start doing it. For example, a character is not invented or some mechanic does not work, the same scoring in a tournament. And often it is possible to break through this congestion and move on. You just have to sit down and start thinking.

A professional does it when necessary, and does not wait for inspiration.

If it doesn't work out on the forehead, you can take another part from the same problem. For example, think not about the tournament, but about the awards. You think, enter the flow and then return to the original task. The main thing not to do is to procrastinate. When faced with difficulties, people seek motivation, although they need discipline.

You mentioned games, that is, you still have energy after work?

I have been playing computer games for 28 years, I am a fan of games. I try to at least get acquainted with all the cool new things that come out on different platforms. In a year I play 3-4 single-player games completely, MMO projects can only be viewed, since they take a lot of time.

My family knows that if a new Mass Effect comes out, that's it, dad will be gone for a couple of days and will be playing all day long. But I have such spree 2-3 times a year.

If we talk not about inspiration, but about strength, then they come from the family. My wife, daughters, the time we spend together, trips out of town are the most important thing.