What is a game designer? From what i read they are basicly the dreaded “Idea” man? but i guess that cant be entirely true? i guess they need to be a strong writer to wright huge game design documents and they have to promote the game to investors and publishers.
They must do more then that, so what do they actually do?
Oh never noticed the bottom part on that page, thanks 
That would be a good job i think 
If you didn’t have a game designer you’d be everywhere xD they write the plot,narrations everything they’re the brain of the game
Generally you don’t just have “ideas man” roles. They’ll be able to program or do artwork as well as design. The only real “ideas man” roles will generally be the concept artists.
Where I work, the designers must be able to design fun stuff competently but also be able to program the things they design.
Anyone who claims they’re the “idea man” on a project… steer clear of them as they’re full of crap.
Do you work at a big company?
We are a small company but we do employ a “pure” game designer. Given the fact that our target is RPGs, the task of writting hundreds upon hundreds of dialogues, item descriptions, skill descriptions, designing the combat system, character portfolios/backstory, main plot, etc, pretty much makes it a full time job for him. I couldn’t imagine him having to also code or do artwork. Of course we have him add the in-game text directly to the code (by editing XML files and so on), but that’s not what I’d call programming.
game designer is the job I want. traditionally they often get started as playtesters or as level designers. most good ones know how to do a little bit of everything. some programming, some art, some composition.
That’s more of a writer than a game designer. Game designers supposedly take the important decisions when problems appear during game development. They are more comparable to a movie director than to a writer. And they should know a little bit of everything. They don’t have to write code, but they should be able to communicate with programmers and understand the problems. They don’t have to be 3d artists, but they have to know the process etc.
What you just described fits more to a Project Manager (which is my current position in our company). I guess terminology on our field is interpreted differently from company to company.
Good call. I feel that if your paychecks come from a company that designs games then your a game designer, even if all you do is take out the trash, your still part of the team.
As a Game Designer myself, I will try to explain it as well as I can. Explaining what a Game Designer can be tricky though, since we can do so much. Yes, a Game Designer is most certainly an “Idea” man, but that isn’t all we do. I should also note that Game Designers are not the only people who come up with ideas for a game. Programmers, artist, animators, writers, etc will all contribute ideas for the game, at least they should be. Game Designers do so much more than just come up with ideas.
Have you ever wandered who decided how much damage a weapon did? There is a very good chance that a Game Designer is that person. To name a few more examples a designer does, there is level, UI, mechanic, and system designers. Instead of thinking of Game Designers as an “Idea” man, think of us as the “Details” man. Where should the spawn points be located? When should scripted events occur? How high should the character jump? What kind of resource will the character have? How much of that resource will he have? Where should important game information be located on the HUD? I think I have made my point of some of the things we Game Designers do. There is so much more to a Game Designer than what I have described(such as all of the tools a Game Designer uses to help him Design), but I do think I gave a decent general synopsis of what a Game Designer does, for it being almost 2AM.
My background is as a game designer. To put it simply, a designer is responsible for how a game plays.
That obviously starts with the overall concept, communicated firstly by a concept document, and when approved, a design document. But that is only part of it.
A designer is also responsible for how game objects act, interact, and when they are present. This can include level designs, menu flows, control systems, player movement, damage tables, difficulty levels, enemy characteristics, mission scripting, spawn rates, weapon capabilities, car handling, credit systems, power-up frequency, character development, and many other things depending on genre.
A small team doing a simple game may not have room for a dedicated designer, so the team spreads the load. But on bigger teams, they are definitely needed. I have worked for a mobile games company where I was working as the only designer on several games at the same time, but have also worked on console games with 5 designers and 9 level designers full-time on one project.
When I went into professional development, from an amateur perspective, it was immediately obvious how valuable designers were. They allowed me to focus on what I was good at, and not worry too much about things I’d previously though I was good at, but which were not my core area of expertise.
I think, especially in amateur circles, everybody wants to be a designer, hence the comments about avoiding the “ideas man”. But making games is like doing a triathlon. You can do it all yourself, but you’re probably not top of your game at all three sports involved. If you can find other people who are better at the individual components then, as a team, you’ll do much better overall.
Personally, I like working with “ideas men” whom I respect. I know that a lot of ideas which I think are novel have been done before, and designers often have a wider experience of games than I do - they know what’s been done before, how well it worked, and so on.
It is still valuable for team members to think about design, and express their opinions, of course.
From what I’ve read it’s pretty hard to become a game designer at a game company … it’s one of the top-most coveted positions because basically everyone else is beneath you and you’re basically the visionary who leads the whole thing, chooses what game gets made, what kind of a game it is and all that… the overseer of the project, so to get into that role you probably have you work your way up the ranks within the company competing against everyone else who wants that job too, or be an indie developer so that you automatically start out with that title 
ImaginaryHuman, that’s more of a Game Director position.
Getting there means you’re either running the show or programmed your way to the top and you’ll coordinate with the art lead. Nobody is gonna hire a “game designer” unless he is already deeply entrenched in the game industry.
Smells like “I’ve got a great idea so I’m a game designer and I can’t code” thread. If you want to be a “game designer” then you better be thinking of working for yourself, or being the best programmer or concept artist.
The closest job to game designer that doesn’t involve those roles is producer. He makes the hard calls and has a lot of say, but isn’t a grand visionary which designs levels, traps and so on.
You’ll find games that real game design is grown with the prototypes. It’s really primitive thinking that you know sod all how to make a game without playing it. Peter Molyneux is famous for saying he would play one of his game designs in his head for weeks, if not months. But even he was humble enough to admit that the best designs ever still often don’t work in practise. This is usually because you can’t think of everything and your imagination is actually limited, being human and all.
Farfarer works at Rockstar, he’s my hero.
It is definitely not the case that the development team are below the game designer. Programmers and artists are usually much better paid than designers.
And it is rare that a designer gets to chose what game is made. That will usually be a management decision, often dictated by a licence or existing IP. If they are lucky, a designer will get to pitch new concepts, but it won’t be their decision on if it goes ahead.
Most of a designer’s work is implementing the details, not coming up with new ideas.
for those new to the industry you must also understand that there are levels/steps within the career of a game designers and this can create confusion when describing what a game designer is.
On AAA larger projects at times (rough generalization) the more junior you are the more detail work you do… the higher up you are as a designer the more high-level concept-idea vision-holding decision-making your role is
junior designer, game designer, senior designer, lead designer, (at times design manager), creative director, (for multi studio companies or at least mutli project big company there is also a Chief Creative Director)
Within the general Game Designer figure, yes of course you have a number of parallel/complementary spcializations especially on large projects (UI designer, level designer, system designer (variations), specific mechanics desigers, etc…). Also the game designer is not always the story writer… often professional story/script writers are contracted to work that part under suprevision or in collaboration with the design team
if you have decision power or partial decision power on which games gets made varies from Company to Company…
like in other disciplines, the higher your position the bigger the managerial side of your job as well
the higher your position as a designer the closer you are to a Movie Director as mentioned in another post… also different companies have slightly different Job Names… for example in Company A the game director is the creative director… in Company B they may be two different people
at times it is hard to understand or accept that the Idea Man does exist, indeed inside and outside the industry most developers assume they are or can be good game designers… just as probably most people assume they can be good managers or whatever…
P.S. update: about the ‘dreaded Idea Man’… do not confuse how the term is used on the ‘Collaboration Forum’ and the value of such figure for a Commercial Studio.
When someone new goes to the collaboration forum and says…
“I have a great idea, I need a team to make this game… etc…”
You do get general replies like:
“So you are the Idea Man? What else can you do?”
this is because you are within an indie environment where most are trying to make their own games often for both passion and financial return. and most people do have plenty of game ideas.
And to top it up, the new guy with the idea is most times just that, a new guy with no ideaMan-history behind him 
For a Commercial Game Studio the situation is different, they want to employ the right person for the job (in each discipline). if they need a good game designer or visionary with good grasp of what works what doesn’t and why… they look for the best candidate to fill the gap of what is often called the idea man.
Oh by the way… it is surely a full time job, often a 24/7 job in some case and it does come with its own share of responsibilities, merits, stress, iterative processes, constant evolution, and what not…