Whats the difference between being a game designer and being a game developer?

Question

Many people are unsure of the positions in the game industry. Some people will credit the developer, some people credit the designer. But what do each of these jobs do and what separates one from another?

Answer 1

So, in this industry hiring teams and managers will usually ask for one thing from a person, but expect another. The big reason for this is the lack of clarity for what they are even looking for. Who makes the games, the designer or the developer?

A game designer needs to be a game developer to a certain degree, but the game developer doesnt have to be the designer. The generic answer is that the designer is the intermediary between the design, development, and art teams, but that also is just a single function of the job, and does not entail what makes a good game designer. The game designer is the arbiter of the story, gameplay, and direction of the game. They are the people who set up the structure of how you see, feel, interact, and play the game. In effect a real jack of all the trades that make the game you play.

The developer on the other hand is the executor. These people make the plan manifest itself into the gaming engine and onto your tv screen. When they concoct an idea, its how to, not what if. They, in effect, take the ideas given by the designer and find the best path possible to break it down into smaller parts that hopefully ends in the functions and methods used to create the mechanics that make the game idea into an experience.

So who to credit for the game, well if your excited about the new gameplay that was merged in with a unused genre before or those amazing camera positions or storytelling, thats the designer. If your amazed about the 60 frames per second and that amazing smoothing motion on the camera that makes everything seem seamless, thats the developer.