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Vision: A detailed view of the what the game can be
Passion: A deep emotional connection to games and the work
Vision requires imagination
and a thoroughness of detail that may not be present in the passion of a gamer. Vision
paints a complete picture, while passion has momentary often fleeting
incites to what could be.
Passion is the drive that gets the work done and pushes through the mundane aspects of the game design. Passion inspires others to work just as hard to achieve results. Passion informs the designer with a deep understanding of competitive games and the knowlege of practical solutions to common problems.
Lead
designers with passion but without vision will create derivative
games that suffered from frequent iteration as they explored the
fleeting incites of the designer.
Lead
designers with vision but without passion will create games that fall
far short of their vision and will struggle with mundane aspects of
the game design.
Lead designers with both passion and vision create the hits we love.
Just a thought.
- Tim Ryan
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TF2, for instance, is not a game that will ever be accused of having too much vision. The vision for the game was pretty much: something in the spirit of Team Fortress, but the wildly changing game designs from the last decade of its development demonstrate that their vision was anything but rigid and detailed. Yet look at the result: perhaps the most entertaining, inspired multiplayer games in the last decade. Passion and iteration was, apparently, enough to build a masterpiece.
Passion is going to be the driving force behind any game worth playing. Vision can help, and might be necessary in at least some small degree to give the project direction, but ultimately passion is the quality that will make or break it.
When you are passionate, have an emotional connection. This is required to do well at even simple tasks.
If you are passionate and have some amount of idealism, you will envision things as you would like them to be. That is the vision.
If you are passionate, have a vision, you're creative, and you're intelligent, you will then produce a great game.