ABSTRACT
The role of game designers in video game development may seem obvious, but there is plenty of debate within the industry as to exactly what designers do and what they are responsible for. Unlike a programmer or an artist that has a well-defined set of technical skills and jobs to do, “game designer” is a catch-all term that encompasses a wide variety of roles and responsibilities. Some programming teams use a tech designer to interface between their team and the design team, or the design team has a tech designer to implement more technical gameplay changes without requiring programming support. Some games have heavy menu interaction in between segments of play. Most games have system designers, even if they are not referred to by that title. System designers are supposed to create their own features, sell them to the team and then shepherd their systems all the way to the finish line.
