Overlooked Skills for Game Designers | Luke Smith | NZGDC 2025

Good designers elevate their games. Great designers also elevate their teams. Core skills can only get you so far. I want to share some useful soft skills, processes, and mindsets that I believe take a game designer from good to great. Things that I've seen have real impact over my career, yet feel overlooked in discussions about how to be a better designer or what value a game designer adds to a team. I hope this will help students understand more about life as a game designer beyond the core skills they are learning, help game designers better balance their professional development, and help hiring managers know what to look for beyond core skills.