Video Game Design For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Creating a video game can feel as challenging as mastering a final boss fight. Whether you’re just curious about how video games are built or dreaming of designing your own, the process is full of moving parts, creative choices, and technical steps. This cheat sheet outlines the game design skills, tips, and resources you'll need to bring your video game vision to life.

Top video game designer skills

No matter which type of game designer — systems designer, or content designer, for example — you want to be, having the following skills can help you and the team find the fun, scope the project appropriately, prioritize tasks, and iterate on the game until you release it into the world:

• Data analysis: Use data to solve problems, model systems, and inform decisions. Tools like spreadsheets, SQL, R, or Python help analyze player behavior and balance game mechanics.
• Project management: Know what’s feasible within time and team constraints. Set clear goals, prioritize core features, and prevent over-scoping. Constraints foster creativity!
• Communication: Clearly communicate ideas through concise presentations, flowcharts, and pitches. Strong articulation is crucial for team alignment and leadership buy-in.
• Prototyping: Quickly test ideas in Unity, Unreal, or animation tools. Basic programming knowledge helps you iterate faster and validate concepts.

What it takes to make your indie game a hit

When you become a video game designer making indie games, you won’t just need to know how to make a game, you’ll have to market it and get players as well! Beyond the skills you need to become a designer (like project management and prototyping), you need these skills to draw players to your game:

• Advertising: Craft compelling ads, optimize for platforms, find potential players, and track performance to get people to play your game.
• Marketing: Build a community, leverage social media, and create a strong brand identity to generate buzz. You’ll have to become a sales person and promote your game if your team is small.
• Perseverance: Being a solo founder or building a product on a small team is really difficult! You’ll need to push through setbacks, be optimistic, and stay motivated through long development cycles.
• Flexibility: If you’re on a small team, you’re wearing all the hats. If you don’t get it done, it won’t get done.

Important video game design terms to know

Every industry has its lingo, and video game design is no different. These commonly used game design terms will get you started speaking game industry lingo:

core loop: The main cycle of gameplay that keeps players engaged

core mechanic: The primary action players repeat (jumping, shooting, crafting)

game feel: How satisfying it feels to complete certain interactions, like movement or responsive controls

iteration: The cycle of making changes, testing, and improving

scope and scope creep: The planned size of the game vs. uncontrolled expansion leading to delays

prototype: A rough early version used to test ideas quickly

first-time user experience (FTUE): A player's initial impression, including onboarding

retention: How long players keep coming back, often measured in days

flow state: When players are fully engaged, balancing challenge and reward

progression: How a player advances (leveling up, unlocking areas)

monetization (IAP, hard/soft currency, virtual economy): The process of generating revenue from a game. This can be done through in-game purchases, ads, subscriptions, or even donations.

playtesting: Getting feedback from players before release

Best video game design resources

When you’re starting out in video game design, you may not know where to find resources for acquiring game assets, learning about game design, or analyzing other games out there. The following is an indispensable list of resources you want to become familiar with:

• Game UI database: This site houses more than 1,000 different game interfaces. This is a great place for market, research, inspiration, and seeing what’s out there.
  https://www.gameuidatabase.com/
• Game Developer: A great place to see what’s happening in the industry, from game journalists to developer blogs.
  https://www.gamedeveloper.com/
• Kenney: Kenney says it best themselves: “thousands of completely free game assets for you to use.”
  https://kenney.nl/
• Mixamo: When you want a quick animation for a character without having to rig and weight paint a model.
  https://www.mixamo.com/
• Unity, Unreal, and Godot marketplaces: Each engine has a marketplace where you can download models, interactables, or tools for your project.
  https://assetstore.unity.com/
  https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/
  https://godotmarketplace.com