You want to believe

There are companies that make games and do not believe in game designers. It may be hard to understand what a game designer is capable to do. Also, not all game designers are able to stand out for the craft. I’ve met people like that who transitioned into other roles.

Every game starts with assumptions. They can be interpretations of market insight or straight fingers pointed at the sky to feel the wind. Assumptions are good to start conversations and show security and vision in early stage, but dangerous for the success of a game. There are successful companies that have in their cultural deck “do not believe any assumption”.

Having people specialized in taking those assumptions and supporting the vision holders to land them down and face reality has a value. These people are professional game designers. In fact, in companies the game designers rarely are the creators of a new product. They are facilitators of game design, that is a role shared among the team.

If you know how to code, that’s enough to make a videogame. If you don’t know it, but you have the money to hire a game developer, you can develop a full game. And if you are sure of your assumptions you can improvise the rest and make a game. There are successful cases that started like this, one I have in my mind right now is Vampire Survivors.

But then there is the reality of the market, of the players out there. And then also the nerdiest anti-social coder will need help on game design.

Same discourse is valid for startup that passed to the growth stage. You may have started making scrappy games filled with ads, and you may assume that you know. But you will need game designers to interpret your (shitty) assumptions and land them down. You need professionals if you want to pass to the growth stage or keep there.