I take an occasion to write down some notes about what I believe should be the role of a “lead designer” in a mmorpg. I know that things don’t work this way, but take this as another critics to the industry.

A lead designer for a game is the one directly responsible of the whole project, the one more exposed and that risks more. The one accountable for it. At the same time it’s one of the most exciting position but this should come at a price. His main duty is to observe, take the game as a whole, in all its part, even the most peripheral. Observe it as if it was on the palm of his hand. All the work he does should be at an high level only. He should never write a line of code, a script, a quest line or a character skill. His duties are elsewhere and not directly involved in the implementation. He supervises the implementation and the “flow”, but then the duty to make things work as expected is a responsibility exclusively of the team leads.

The second most important duty is about the communication. The communication happens in two moments, both equally important and part one of the other as two faces of the same medal:
– Communicate, and make communicate, toward the inside: between the developers and different departments, between the team leads.
– Communicate, and make communicate, toward the outside: to the community. Gather feedback, encourage discussions, contribute. With an active role.

Know, understand and dialogue with both these sides is essential and a direct duty of the lead designer without third parties working as filters.

The first part is also divided into two moments. There’s a first moment where every developer or designer should participate in regular meetings. No group of devs should work isolated and everyone should be involved when it comes to lay down plans and set a strategy. During these meetings there aren’t roles or distinctions between the devs. The situation about the whole project is presented and ideas are gathered from everyone. Things are organized and planned roughly. Everyone can participate and comment on all levels without restirctions. Every dev in the company should be made aware about how things are going and what the goals and the priorities are so that everyone can feel part of the project and can follow the progress. Here the lead designer can work as a moderator.

Then there’s a second moment. The main group without distinction is broken into “departments” with one “team lead” responsible of each. Once the overall goals are set, the different activities are assigned to the teams and on this second level everything is planned in detail. The schedules are set and the workflow organized. Each team is supposed to know exactly what are the goals to reach and the deadlines. Past this level the implementation becomes a complete responsibility of the team leads and the lead designer isn’t anymore involved.

The lead designer continues to dialogue constantly with every team to follow directly the work, but without directing that work. He is supposed to supervise the activities, monitor if the goals are reached, but the details of the design and practical implementation are a responsibility of specialized designers that are assigned to the specific teams. The lead designer is responsible for the design only at the high level, working in coordination with everyone else, as a communal effort. For example the identity of the classes are set, the skills and their effects are set. Precise descriptions are written down of the intended result. But the lead designer will NEVER decide if a fireball will do 50 damage instead of 80. He sets the goal, how the skills are supposed to behave and interact in the game and the idea of the intended balance. But the implementation of those goals is a duty of the different teams and responsibility of the team leads. During the tests the lead designer will monitor if the work of the team reached the intended goals or not. If the balance doesn’t feel right or if the implementation produces unintended results the lead designer forces a reiteration, underlining what didn’t work. But he is never responsible of that reiteration. He just sets goals and supervises the work, reiterating it till the result isn’t satisfying.

Then there’s the communication toward the outside, to the community. The duty of the lead designer doesn’t overlap with the duty of the community managers, but he still needs to maintain an active role, without third parties working as filters. Without passively gathering feedback. The lead designer should promote directly the discussions, participate to them, ask for feedback. Even comment and analyze other games. The players are made part of the development, made aware of the strategies of the development, the intended goals. Before these goals go in production. The first feedback comes directly from the community and things are discussed BEFORE they are set in stone.

The first reiterations happen here.

I always believed that it is a duty of the lead designer to dialogue directly with the community. Not a possibility. A duty. I don’t think that it’s possible to do a good work without doing it or doing it through third parties. I believe it’s an essential part of that role that cannot be opted out. If you don’t value this, if you don’t want to bother or if you cannot sustain the exposition and the harsh attacks you simply aren’t suited for this position.

These games don’t belong anymore just to the developers. It is important that the community is made aware of the development, integrated with it. Dialogue directly with it. This not for the benefit of the community itself, but for the benefit of the development. This is a crucial part of the development that till now has always been dismissed and underestimated. It’s important that it gets back its relevance and value. Developers and community are part of the same unit.

That “unit” that goes under the direct responsibility of the lead designer: observe and communicate with the system, where the system represents the unit of the two parts (developers + community).

A mmorpg is a “system” made by those two parts. Both essential. Both object of the work of a lead designer.

The lead designer is the creative director of the project. He is committed to it for ALL its life cycle. As a sacrifice.