Game Design – Nicolas Barriere

Flubs was my first project as game designer. It is definitely an important step for me, on a personal, emotional and professional level. I wanted to take the opportunity to write about one my first experiences at helping build a proper video game. You can play the game online by following this link.

I was selected as game designer by the National Institute of Digital Entertainment (ENDI) based on my previous experiences in multimedia, graphic/web design and 3D production. The way ENDI builds their teams for the development of their game projects is by recruiting graduate students from various fields (art, coding, design, etc) and combining everyone’s expertise on a single project.

Excitement and anxiousness begin to describe my state of mind back in April 2010 earlier this year. I knew I possessed good knowledge and culture of games, a solid grasp of core game design concepts and good communicative skills that would help me accomplish all tasks and challenges. Still, I worried a bit. Designers are often required to have a certain amount of leadership skills, which was something I previously had little familiarity with.

For the next few months, I would be spending around 20 to 30 hours per week working and tinkering on various aspects of the project such as establishing our pitch and initial concept, describing the game systems and mechanics and ultimately helping coordinate the direction our team took. At the same time, I was also splitting my workload by simultaneously developing an iPhone project at ENDI.

It was both hard work and a terrific learning experience. Luckily, our team bonded really quickly. With everyone’s help and support we managed to shape Flubs into a solid game.

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I am extremely happy to reveal the very first game I’ve had the pleasure of working on: Flubs! Flubs is a casual puzzle-action Flash game about construction and destruction. I was game designer on this project and it was a tremendous learning experience. You can play it here.