My name is Eric T. Elder, and I was just hired at MGA Entertainment, a major toy company, to design games. I have decided to start a blog here
to provide information to other aspiring game designers and also as a written record of my experiences for myself. The one thing that concerns me a little about doing this is that due to confidentiality agreements I will have to be extremely careful with what I post here, but hope that I can write things in such a general way that it will still be informative without devulging "trade secrets".
So here it goes:
My first day at MGA was very busy and exciting. I started with orientation at 8:30am. It was just your typical paperwork stuff. I was able to submit a list of all games I created before starting my position to retain ownership of those intellectual properties. I then watched a corporate video showcasing how the Bratz dolls have dominated the girl’s fashion doll market. MGA is now the 3rd largest toy company in the US. Barbie sales are down %13 total worldwide and %26 domestically. In 2004 two Bratz products were rated in the top 10 at #3 and #4.
After that I had a brief meeting with my boss the General Manager of Games, who gave me a brief status report on where we are with the Fall 06 line.
He explained to me that he saw my role being the gameplay and mechanics expert and that I should look to give feedback on all the current games in development from that standpoint. I agree this is my strong suit and how I can most serve the team.
He told me to meet with another new designer who started about a week ago and who has been assigned a major animation license to develop a board game and a card game. I read through the board game doc and thought it was a good start. I had a few suggestions that I think would improve the design. I am anxious to build a paper prototype and start playtesting it right away.
He also told me to meet with another gentleman who heads a trio of guys working on new technology games. I read most of a doc for what they are working on, but spent more time with the them talking and playing a game. I found them playing the Donald Trump game which seemed pretty awful. They were about to play Carcassone when I told them there was a great game that shared the same theme of building skyscrapers that involved bidding called 5th Avenue (one of my current favorite euro games). So I taught it to them and we had a really fun game.
I was also assigned to do some research on Neopets and Tamagotchi.
The GM also asked me to come up with a graph or chart to help classify different types of games and identify weaknesses in the market.
I also attended my first Creative Meeting where I met the people that handle rules, and packaging.
this is exciting... keep it coming...
and congratulations on your job btw... saw the earlier thread about it..