CAE (Advanced Exam) Listening Test 3

Part 2: Computer game designer

7 developer
8 animation
9 book covers
10 user interfaces
11 Star City
12 narrative
13 difficulty level
14 dedication

You’ll hear a man called Paul Osborne giving a careers talk about his work as a computer game
designer.
For questions 7–14, complete the sentences with a word or short phrase. In the exam, you have 45
seconds to look at Part 2.

Hi. My name’s Paul Osborne. I work as a designer in the computer-game industry. Like a lot of my
colleagues, I grew up playing video games; wasting money on arcades, playing the early game
consoles. Computer games have always been a big part of my life.
Basically, lots of people are involved in the production of a game. As a designer, I’m largely
concerned with the visual material that you see, so my background’s artistic. People sometimes
wrongly assume that I’m a developer – that’s the guy with a maths background who actually figures
out how the game works. We work closely together, of course, also with the game’s market
researcher, who tells us what players are asking for.
So, how did I get into game designing? My degree was in art and design, and I did courses in
painting and drawing as you’d expect, as well as one in computer graphics, which really captured
my imagination, and one in animation. That was the one which enabled me to build up the key
conceptual and visual design skills that I use now. But I wasn't afraid of technology, so my career
could’ve gone in a number of directions.
My first job was as a graphic designer, doing book covers largely, though occasionally video game
boxes or CD sleeves did come my way too. After a while, an opening came up in the company’s
games division for someone who had art and design sensibilities, along with some technical
acumen, to work on things called user interfaces. I saw that as the opportunity to move into
designing software. It was interesting to put together visual design, ergonomics, psychology and
technology. I had some great mentorship from the head of my section and really developed a
passion for the work.
Basically, what you're responsible for as a designer is whether a game’s fun or not. I’ve worked on
a number of great games: Purple Moon was my first big challenge, and I had a key role on
Defending Planet X. But the one I got most out of was Star City because I was working on defining
the multi-player experience. That’s when two or more people play against each other. We wanted
multi-players to play the game as if they were creating their own narrative, as compared to a single
player when they're experiencing a story you’ve made up for them.
I love being able to come up with a cool idea and actually see it happen. The most challenging
aspect of the game, however, is hitting the right level of difficulty. You want the game to be hard
enough to reward people who gain expertise, but not so hard that people become frustrated and
stop playing.
So, what does it take to be a game designer? You need the creativity to have a vision – see what
will make a game fun and create a great experience. You need the communication to articulate that
vision to other people and get them to do what you think needs to be done. But above all, you need
dedication to see your vision through – to work your way through the disappointments and failures.
When you're three months from shipping, working until two in the morning, that’s what sees you
through.