
So we asked: How does Mark Gilbert unwind whenever he gets the opportunity to do so? Just like his portfolio, the list of Mark’s past-time activities is quite varied: If there was a secret recipe for managing to stay calm and collected throughout, we wanted to know it. And while Mark seems to be swimming comfortably in the rough waters of game design and leadership, he undoubtedly requires time to simply forget all of it for a moment. Unfortunately, everything we do takes development time, and that is limited, so I sometimes have to be the horrible person to say that we can’t do something even though the idea sounds awesome.”īut we like to think that it is necessary! A person who is an anchor, keeping the team’s feet firmly on the ground through good and bad, drives it all forward. This might sound like a strange response, but the Hash Rush team loves the game, and they want to do all the wonderful things they think of. It happens to the best of us! This is another essential point in which Mark’s leadership qualities come into the spotlight, bringing forth what seems to be the biggest challenge: Saying “no.”

The“fun part” of the equation often can drive teams away from realism into a risky optimism. In the video game industry, ambition and creativity are a significant part of the success formula. More generally, though, I love how everything is fitting together to make a complete experience, the new version of crafting solved an issue we were having with RNG whilst still giving the necessary depth, or the new Dungeons bringing a new way to play the game, whilst still being familiar.” “If I had to pick a single part, I would say the Heroes as they are so varied and (hopefully!) fun to play. This notion also reflects itself on his favorite part of the work process: He is a person that thrives on problem-solving and diverse ideas. Still, Mark evidently takes the best out of it, seeing every change as a way of ensuring future progress rather than a setback.
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It may seem like a daunting process of trial and error. Undoubtedly, with a game in development, many aesthetic and technical decisions that are being worked on are often updated, changed, or replaced altogether. The larger the team, the more high-level my work tends to be, giving overviews of how features should be to the designer who is going to write it.” “An average day is really varied but mainly depends on the size of the team the smaller the team, the more hands-on I tend to be in writing up the specific designs or balancing the game. If there are issues, I work with the whole team to identify exactly what the issue(s) are and ensure the solutions fit in with the existing game direction.”Īll of those things considered, how does an average workday look like for Mark? “A Lead Designer is responsible for the overall vision and direction of the project, ensuring that the new feature designs support what already exists while ensuring everyone in the team knows what the vision is and helping them with any questions or issues they have.
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After all, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link, but a good leader knows how to make any problem or question into an opportunity to learn and improve. Where the challenge of understanding various concepts ends, the challenge of articulating that knowledge to the rest of the team begins. Still, for a lead member of the design department, it is only a job half done. If Mark’s engagement is anything to go by, the importance of being able to think of many different things and predicting many different scenarios is a winner! For every game designer, understanding the game’s flow and creating modes in which problems are resolved is crucial. Be it a maths problem or a design one, everything can be simplified in some way and then tackled in smaller parts until you solve it as a whole.” “I’ve always thought of myself as a logical person, who breaks all problems down into smaller bits to work out the answer.

While he is willing to have his work speak for itself, he gladly took some time for a quick chat about the Hash Rush and his role in the team. Today, the vision for what we’re seeking to show thrives in the hands of our Lead Designer, Mark Gilbert. The requirements of Hash Rush - in this sense - are no different.įrom its humble beginnings until now, Hash Rush underwent numerous adjustments, and different ideas, and brought them together in various ways.

Each aspect requires an answer regarding its role in the story and gameplay, from its fictional world to the individual bits. It is the art of bringing together different components of a design and aesthetic to create a wonderful, unique experience for a player. Game design is often referred to as a form of art. “‘ If everyone has everything, then nobody has anything.’ This is something I believe many modern games are doing poorly in striving to make things fair, they’ve made some things (usually achievements) too easy.” - Mark Gilbert
