Published 2 minutes ago

It’s a lot more complicated than you think

Concept art from The Outer Worlds 2Image: Obsidian Entertainment / Xbox Game Studios

We all have a pretty clear idea in our heads of what a movie director does — they guide the performances of actors, interpret the script, and steer the overall visual style of the film. But “video game direction” is far less straightforward.

In video games, as with films, the scale of a project can vary widely, from a small and scrappy team to thousands of people scattered across the globe. But the end result can look like a million different things, as genres and play styles are spliced together. What’s more, the level of choice and interaction in a game adds further complexity to the task of transforming an idea into a full-fledged experience for players. So each year, when The Game Awards hands out a “Best Game Direction” trophy, and gamers everywhere debate the best work of the year, one wonders: What even is game direction?

To unpack what’s involved, we asked 13 directors across the industry two simple questions: how they define game direction, and what constitutes “good” game direction. Though their responses vary widely, some recurring themes emerged.

The responses below have been edited for clarity and brevity.

A view of Japan in Age of Empires IVImage: Xbox Game Studios

The ship’s captain

Christopher Rubyor, principal design director at World’s Edge, Age of Empires IV: A strong vision doesn’t just inspire; it creates alignment and focus. Without it, you’re just building features in the dark. There have been a couple projects in my early design days where this process was shelved in favor of moving directly into production with just an idea. Each time resulted in a team that was misaligned and many crucial development months were lost.

Good game direction lives at the intersection of creativity, technology, and psychology. Every design team will have to balance narrative and experiential ambition with technical feasibility and player expectations. Hard choices, like cutting features or rethinking entire gameplay systems help drive innovation, making the final product stronger.

Nate Fox, creative director at Sucker Punch, Ghost of Yotei: When a goal is murky, or we’re too broad with what the game is meant to be, members of the team pull in different directions. This is a frustrating experience for everyone as each member of the team is correct from their point of view, they are making the game they want to see, but at the expense of what their neighbor is making from their point of view. It’s far better when game direction sets a clear target for the team to collectively reach toward.

Jonathan Lavigne, game director at Tribute Games, Scott Pilgrim EX: When designing* Scott Pilgrim EX*, one of these principles was: Everything (weapons, characters, physics, etc.) is a vector of chaos and we embrace it. So, when a design problem arose, there were always multiple possible solutions, but I’d immediately discard anything that’d result in toning down the chaotic / surprising nature of the game.

**Lindsey Rostal, studio director and writer at Timberline Studios, Beastro: **I always try to build up both a theme and a vibe that we want to hit in our games. In our upcoming title Beastro, it started with the idea that “even a god needs help.” And that the world needed to be “charmingly weird.” Having both a theme and a visual vibe gave us a shortcut to see if we were hitting the goals of the game.

**Desmond Wong, CEO of Gentlebros, Cat Quest III: **Game direction is like trying to steer a massive ship towards a particular destination you’ve marked on the map. You can try to go everywhere, but if you try to you’ll end up reaching nowhere! With Cat Quest, the biggest challenge was condensing and simplifying complicated mechanics into something accessible for new players to enjoy.

Chris Parker, Obsidian Entertainment co-founder and game director, Grounded 2: Sometimes [working with super talented people that have strong opinions] means some long conversations about the how, what, and why of the various things you are working on. [...] You need to be able to trust your experts but also have enough of a broad knowledge base, experience, and conviction to have intelligent conversations and debate when big/tough choices present themselves.

**David Trammell, executive producer and game lead at Rovio, Angry Birds 2: **A game director is always juggling 15 balls at once. You have to know which ones are rubber and which are crystal. If you drop a rubber ball, it bounces back up… if you drop a crystal ball it shatters. Knowing which things you need to drop and which things you can’t is how you stay sane.

Concept art of Keeper by Lee PettyImage: Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios

License to create

Brandon Adler, game director at Obsidian Entertainment, The Outer Worlds 2: [Game direction is] creating a very specific player experience and being the advocate for that experience throughout the development process. It’s also being a leader who can convince a group of people to buy into crafting that experience and believe in it wholeheartedly. It’s also about selling that experience to The Powers That Be at your development studio and publisher. Ultimately, it’s also about connecting with the players and letting them know that you get who they are and what they want out of your game.

It’s also about believing in your vision when other people do not and pushing through the hard times. If I shied away from a feature or experience every time someone had a problem with it, we wouldn’t have things like the player radios or conversational main menu of The Outer Worlds 2.

**Pascal Cammisotto, writer and director at Draw Me A Pixel, There Is No Game: **About 20 years ago, I worked on several so-called “work-for-hire” games, sometimes as a game director. My modest experience in that position could be summed up as a mix of bitterness, frustration, and disgust for the job. We weren’t shaping a game to make it the best it could be. We were shaping it to meet milestones and get paid. Passion had no place in that process. I don’t know how other game directors deal with this kind of “yes-man” position, but for me, it was a professional disillusionment that almost made me leave the industry for good.

Fortunately, the rise of the indie game market allowed many people like me to break free from that rigid Studio/Client relationship and finally take a more personal approach to the medium. When There Is No Game, the jam version, came out, it was a revelation. I finally knew how to return to the industry, and more importantly, what my place in it was. People often mix up creative director and game director. It depends on the studio, the country, or even the weather. Personally, I decided to take inspiration from cinema and prefer the term “director.” It’s roughly the same role, but to me, the word feels more universal.

**Frédéric Gémus, game director at Dotemu, Marvel Cosmic Invasion: **Once the core vision is set, [game direction] becomes a tool for innovation, as it can help you think outside of the usual tropes and see where new ideas can emerge. For example, we tend to make games inspired by a generation of classic tropes from the arcades, but with our direction and visions, we are able to completely modernize these concepts with new ideas that make sense with the games we are making.

Jordi Asensio, co-founder at Guard Crush Games, Absolum: With Absolum, we knew we wanted to expand the beat ’em up audience, so we imagined a fantasy beat ’em up with a modern twist inspired by roguelites. One of the biggest challenges was finding the right balance between the two. How much of a beat ’em up it should be, how much of a roguelite, and how to blend in some of the feel of a hack and slash without losing the game’s core identity, so it could appeal to both audiences.

Lans Wang, creative director at Veewo Games, Neon Abyss 2: To me, game direction is about shaping the soul of a game — its tone, rhythm, and emotional heartbeat. For* Neon Abyss*, the biggest challenge was finding balance between chaos and clarity, emergence and control: making every explosion, mutation, and joke feel wild, but still served a purpose in the player’s experience. The opportunity lies in turning creative contradictions into a cohesive vision that players can feel, not just see.

Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment

When it comes to defining what constitutes good game direction, there aren’t quite so many convenient metaphors to pull from. Among the developers we spoke with, there is a consensus that good direction is somewhat paradoxical: a persistent yet unobtrusive presence. A well-directed experience is immersive and engaging on a variety of levels, but also does not—and should not!—attempt to cater to every type of player.

A seamless experience

Nate Fox, creative director at Sucker Punch, Ghost of Yotei: I appreciate when an experience feels cohesive, that to me is “good” game direction. For example, the story marries up with the gameplay, the environment, art, UI, and music all blend seamlessly to convey a sense of tone. The metaphor I usually think about for game direction is that of being a conductor of an orchestra. When a conductor does a good job you don’t hear individual instruments, you hear a blend of all the instruments working together to provoke an emotional reaction.

Frédéric Gémus, game director at Dotemu, Marvel Cosmic Invasion: I believe a game where every mechanic, system and moment to moment gameplay makes sense and flows carefully into what would be considered “a freaking great game,” players will simply forget about the fact that it was built by a team and enjoy it. On the other hand, whenever you struggle with a sequence, have a hard time understanding how a system works or why something doesn’t work as you’d expect, then you fall into the territory of “what the hell were they thinking” and get pulled out from the experience.

**Federico Cardini, game director at Milestone, Screamer: **For me it all comes down to a simple question: how much ALL aspects of a game support the fantasy that it promised? While gameplay is always the key element of the experience, if it isn’t properly supported by the in-game menus, UI, controller layout, music, graphics and many other things, as a player you can feel that something is off, even if you can’t point out what exactly.

Christopher Rubyor, principal design director at World’s Edge, Age of Empires IV: Good game direction shows up in the experience, not in the credits. If the world feels stitched together from random ideas, it’s hard not to notice. [...] If the tone says “epic adventure” but the systems feel like a casual puzzle game, that disconnect kills immersion. When the purpose is clear and consistent, I stay fully engaged.

Flow is another big one. When challenge and skill feel balanced, when goals are clear and feedback is immediate, I’m in the zone. Bad direction? It shows up as frustration, difficulty spikes, mechanics that don’t fit, or systems that feel bolted on.

**Pascal Cammisotto, writer and director at Draw Me A Pixel, There Is No Game: **As far as I’m concerned, good game direction can be felt through several things:

• The game feel has been carefully crafted so that the experience is enjoyable from the very start.
• You’re immersed in the game’s atmosphere right from the menu or even from the splash screens.
• Every element, whether it’s the HUD, effects, visuals, sound, or music, is designed with a sense of overall coherence, serving the narrative or the game’s core theme.
• And of course, managing to leave a mark in the players’ little hearts.

And achieving all that is like climbing a mountain in slippers.

The unconventional stylings of There Is No GameImage: Draw Me a Pixel

Knowing your audience

**Chris Parker, Obsidian Entertainment co-founder and game director, Grounded 2: You see great direction in games that are super enjoyable. Simple, I know, but true. I think Expedition 33 and Blue Prince demonstrate excellent vision and execution (just picking two non-Obsidian titles I played fairly recently) that would imply great leadership and direction. They both play like games that knew exactly what they wanted to be, or at least managed to figure it out, and that shows in both player and critical reception.

Jonathan Lavigne, game director at Tribute Games, Scott Pilgrim EX: As a player, I like games that have a very focused direction. When a game has too many systems and features, it feels like it tries to please everyone instead of having its own direction. Games designed like this tend to all look and feel alike, and can even become a chore to play. Games with a good direction do only a few things but do them extremely well.

**Lans Wang, creative director at Veewo Games, Neon Abyss 2: **You can feel when a game knows exactly what it wants to be — like Portal or Journey, where every detail, from art to pacing, supports the same emotional arc. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it must have purpose.

Lindsey Rostal, studio director and writer at Timberline Studios, Beastro: I evaluate “good” game direction by how often I feel a sense of “of course” as I play it. This doesn’t mean the game isn’t surprising but that the mechanics, world, and game they’ve set up feels true to itself. Like “of course” there’s a weird casino in Dragon Quest XI, why wouldn’t there be? A game that has a soul that is consistent makes all the other bits make sense.

Desmond Wong, CEO of Gentlebros, Cat Quest III: The easiest way for me to evaluate good game direction is how closely it keeps to the core tenets of its design. One good example of this are the Souls games. They’re so relentless in pursuing a particular style of gameplay that they’ve purposefully omitted everything else that conflicts with their goal. In the end, it creates a particular gameplay feel that is extremely unique, and this, in my opinion, is good game direction.

**David Trammell, executive producer and game lead at Rovio, Angry Birds 2: **A Game Director is also the voice of the player within the studio. You need to understand what motivates your players’ engagement and spend, even when the players don’t know it themselves.

**Jordi Asensio, co-founder at Guard Crush Games, Absolum: **I often find that games with good direction are the ones that do a few things, but do them really well. When a game tries to do too many different things, it tends to lose focus and players can feel that. It starts to feel bloated or unsure of its own identity.

**Brandon Adler, game director at Obsidian Entertainment, The Outer Worlds 2: **I’ve played plenty of games which weren’t my cup of tea, which I thought were highly successful in terms of direction – mainly because I could see the player experience they were trying to give and I felt they executed it well. So, I guess good game direction doesn’t necessarily mean you will have a good game, but you sure as hell won’t have a great game without it.