For games designers Chris Carey and Chris Frost coming up with an original cool concept for a game is extremely rewarding.

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Chris Carey says he fell into his career of games designer - it wasn't something he planned. Chris once worked for an agency creating small Flash applications for corporate events. It was through "creating simple activities like quizzes and 'drag and drop' widgets" that he gained basic skills in building interactivity in Flash.

"I used to create rudimentary games at university for assignments but never really gave it much thought in terms of a career until I discovered Flash."

The first games he made were done in his spare time as experiments which allowed him to learn Flash 4.   He made his first large scale game working in a big team where he could learn from the senior designers.   Chris explains, "There are plenty of good resources on the web and some great books on Flash, but there's no substitute for face-to-face time with an expert".

But for those of you wondering about the path of study in this field there are courses which teach ActionScript and Flash but to Chris' knowledge there aren't any which focus just on game design.

He does say though that no matter what you'll definitely need to spend lots of time with a good games design book and sit at your computer and just try stuff out!

Spells/skills to collect

So what kinds of skills does a good game designer need? Naturally you'll need some basic graphic design skills but Chris Frost says it really depends on the complexity of the game, and the size of the team working on it.

"There is a fairly broad skill set required to pull off a decent game by yourself," Chris Frost explains. "Most people seem to be better at either programming or design and the project itself determines what mix is required.   For example, to build a version of Tetris in Flash would require a strong programmer but only basic graphic design skills."

For Chris Carey, one of the hardest things is coming up with a good concept. "It's the first big hurdle. The technical and design challenges can nearly always be overcome but no matter how slick it looks you just can't hide from the fact that if your game is not fun to play then it's a dud."

Inspiring Gameplay

Chris Frost loves games which are highly original. "It's one thing to clone an old console game but quite another to invent a new style of gameplay and make it fun."

Chris Carey loves games with humours elements (e.g. ones with "A good 'thump the fluffy animal' romp") but also enjoys the classically addictive kinds of games like puzzles.

Over the last few years developments with Flash have really enabled top games designers and developers to be innovate and push the envelope and this is something both designers find really inspiring.

Workin' It!

So you wanna work in the games industry?   According to Chris Frost, your best bet is to have skills in Flash. "There are really only a small number of Australian games developers who produce big budget games for PC, Playstation and Xbox. There are a lot more job opportunities for people developing flash based games. There are many Australian companies doing some really good work in this area."

Game Over

For Chris Frost, one of the best things about being a games designer is "finishing a game you have worked on for a long time - it's immensely satisfying.   Getting positive feedback from   players that the game you've spent SO much time making is great (rather than it sucks) is also really rewarding."

But Chris Carey adds that both of them also love the process of coming up with a good came idea in the first place. "It's pretty cool!"