Video Game Design

Game Design and Architecture 

By: Brad Hoepfner

After my first post in the blog you should have come to realize my interest in video games, their design, and their relationship with architecture itself. While doing some research into this topic, I have found a multitude of thesis and dissertations upon the topic. In one thesis, the student started his research by simply sending emails to some of lead designers of some of the leading video game design companies. One of them, Valve, actually responded to the student and wanted to work with him on his thesis.  Valve has created extremely successful games like: Counterstrike, Half-life, and portal and continue to prosper and each gives a very unique experience for the individual. He found out that this designer, Chris Chin, actually practiced architecture for nineteen years.  The concept backing the idea was the types of experiences that game designers create and how they could be recreated in real-world architecture. This idea even further developed into a Game Design and Architecture class at the Catholic University of America’s School of Architecture. The course asked students to create a video game by whatever means available then to have them translate their experiential elements into pieces of architecture. It started to show the benefits of experiential concepts in creating memorable architecture. It also helped show that game design could be a good supplement to architecture classes in general. He described his thesis paper as showing the difficulties of designing architecture with a traditional top-down design method while trying to create a user experience. Then it focused on how the game design methods of identifying core mechanics and play testing these can help supplement the traditional design considerations of site, materials, structure, behavior, and many more. Overall he thought that this method could be used to create an atmosphere of design that would allow people to have fun while designing as well as completely absorb design lessons and reconsider elements of their own design methods and how the individual really functions. So looking back at this, I start to think about what roles architects have played in the video game industry over the past 20 years and what their roles may advance to in the near future. I could really see architects becoming project managers for the video game design companies.