This might sound funny to a lot of you but people who enjoy cooking as much as I do probably can relate. Game Design is like cooking. Why would I say such a thing? How did I get to that conclusion? Because someone rather unexpectedly asked me to explain game design to them. Usually it’s a simple answer, especially if you’re talking to a gamer. But the person in question had no idea about games nor design and yet we had one thing in common: Cooking.
Game Design Is Not Always Easy To Understand
Usually the discussion about what Game Design actually means is over rather quickly. As a Game Designer your job is to plan and layout the structure of the game. What kind of levels there are, how the game is built and so much more. But how do you explain something like this to a person who has absolutely no idea what you’re talking about? Who has never heard the term skill or quest in the context of a video game?
Some might wonder how that topic would arise in the first place if the other person doesn’t share the same interest. In my case it often comes through a simple introduction. Every time someone asks me what I do for a living, I answer with: “Oh! I am a Concept Artist & Game Designer”. Since I’m coming from a country where this isn’t exactly a common thing… The reaction can vary quite a bit. From positive, to negative ones.
Most people who are gamers themselves tend to bombard me with questions on how it is to work in the industry or stuff they want to know more about regarding game development. Since I love to help others and share my knowledge we tend to sit there talking for hours about games and similar things.
People who see games in a negative light either make a bad comment about it or simply nod and we move on with the conversation. Sadly, where I am from this is very often the case, especially with older generations. This is why I was so baffled when an elderly woman asked me, what exactly I was doing in my job and what exactly game design means.
Explaining Game Design Through Hobbies
I met this wonderful lady by chance on the subway while I was still studying game design and animation at my university in Vienna. She saw me doodling something in my sketchbook for one of my projects while I was on the way home and got curious about what I was working on.
When I explained it to her, I already waited for a bad comment or being criticized… Or at least something similar like that. But it was quite the opposite. In fact, there was curiosity written all over her face and she asked me to tell me more about it. Even though I was hesitant at first, I thought I wanted to give it a shot. But unsurprisingly… It was really difficult to explain. Where do you start if you have someone sitting in front of you who has no idea about technology, games or design? So I came up with an idea.
I asked her what kind of hobbies she had so that I maybe get some kind of idea of where to start. So she listed a few of them. Reading, knitting and most importantly… cooking. Suddenly the explaining got so much easier. I explained to her that designing a game is like coming up with your own recipe. You take your favorite recipe and then give it your personal note.
Even though our conversation was cut short since I had to leave at my station, I still remember it as clear as day. Ever since that, I have loved to use that analogy if I ever stumble across someone like her. It might not matter much to most people but I think it’s still nice to take your time and help people understand each other better. Even in a curious way like this.
Learning Game Design Is Like Learning How To Cooking
After meeting this old lady, my view on how to explain game design to someone completely changed. At first you learn the basics and you’ll learn about different tools like knives, ovens, pots, blenders, spoons and whatnot. Next you’ll learn about all the different techniques you can use with those tools. For example with a knife you can not only cut vegetables but also peel them, crush them or even carve them into shapes.
The more you practice the basic things like chopping onions, cooking water, frying meat and so on.. You start to get into more advanced techniques with time. But if you already jump into a 5-star dinner right from the start… you’re probably going to mess up. Not only are the complicated techniques going to overwhelm you but you’ll probably also be disappointed in yourself.
But if you start small and slowly build up your skills you’ll see that the more complicated recipes will also look a lot easier. This is exactly why you should design a super complicated MMORPG as your first game but you should start rather small. Make a small card game like memory or write a short story and turn it into a visual novel. You don’t even have to make your first prototypes public! Though the sooner you get yourself out there, the better it’s going to be.
Amazing Game Design Is Like A Delicious Steak
When you first start your game design journey, you might not know how to make a great game. You probably look at one of your favorite ones and try to imitate it as best as you can but somehow… It still feels different. You could have eaten that perfect steak in a restaurant but without the recipe you’ll probably have a hard time recreating it especially if you are a novice cook. Game design is very similar to that.
If you don’t know why the design implemented certain elements or how they made that jump feel so smooth… you’re going to have a hard time copying it even though it looks so simple. It comes down to the details. Everyone can put a piece of meat in a pan and it becomes somewhat edible but with the right seasoning, temperature, experience and time on the grill… You can turn even the cheapest steak into something delicious.
You have to start analyzing the elements. How long does he jump? What height does he reach? How wide does he jump? Why does the landing here feel so smooth but in my game it feels so janky? Did they use some sort of trick to get to that result? A steak can become well done instead of medium rare if you don’t time it right. While that is a matter of minutes, a jump can feel off because of a few milliseconds! If you give the steak a BBQ rub before you grill it, it’s definitely going to taste differently from when you would just plainly dip it into BBQ sauce. So why should the pacing of a game not also ‘taste’ differently depending on when you place certain elements into the game?
Everyone Has A Different Taste
While a lot of people play, that doesn’t mean that everyone has the same taste in games. Just like with food. Everyone needs to eat but not everyone likes the same things. A lot of gamers always fight over what the best game or genre is or that just because you play a certain game doesn’t mean that you’re a gamer. But all of that is personal preference and opinions.
Souls-like games are incredible masterpieces but even though almost everyone acknowledges that, not everyone is going to play it themselves. Either because they get frustrated by the difficulty or because they don’t like dark fantasy stuff. Maybe they prefer to play colorful games like ‘Ori and The Blind Forest’, but does that mean either of them is better or worse? No. It just means that they have different tastes. Like if someone prefers pizza over sushi doesn’t mean that sushi is bad, right? It just means they like one over the other.
Of course cooking isn’t the only thing you can compare game design to. If you think carefully you can find a lot of parallels in different kinds of professions and hobbies. But since cooking is such a huge part of our society it makes it a lot more relatable and understandable, even for people that have nothing to do with games or their design. Do you have any other examples why game design is so similar to cooking? You can write it in the comments down below!
If you’ve enjoyed our little article about the similarities between cooking and game design, you probably are also interested in the differences between Eastern & Western games:
Eastern VS Western Games – Two World Colliding
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