[In this interview, Kathleen Kunze of German developer InnoGames details the day-to-day life of a game designer, and delves into the process behind making browser-based games.]

German developer InnoGames currently operates a handful of online focused titles that span a variety of genres and platforms. The company runs several social games and client-based MMOs, but most of its titles, including The West, Tribal Wars, and SevenLands, are designed to run independently within a web browser.

Here, designer Kathleen Kunze explains how she got her start working on browser-based games, and outlines the ways in which working on these titles differs from traditional game development.

Tell me a bit about your education. Did you go to school explicitly to become a game designer?

When I started my studies, we did not have the chance to attend a specific game design school in Germany, unfortunately. So, I chose Media Informatics, which is an interdisciplinary course of studies. It still gave me the chance to do lots of game projects at the time.

What inspired you to pursue a career in game development?

Well, my whole life, I have simply loved playing games, but even more importantly, I have also enjoyed creating and improving games for a long time.

How did you get your start working with games? How did you end up where you are now?

I started as intern in a graphics department. Later, I wrote my thesis about game design. When I finished my exams, I worked as a graphic artist, but after two and a half years, I got the chance to prove my skills as a game designer and producer -- including PR and HR work. I found out that my real love was tied to game design and I focused on that part of development.

What are you responsibilities as a game designer for the company? Tell me about your typical day at InnoGames.

I am responsible for the creative content, including balancing of a new game that should be released this summer. Furthermore, I perform consulting tasks for external game studios that we cooperate with.

My daily work consists of 60 percent planned work where you exactly know what to do, and 40 percent of my work arises spontaneously.

What would you say is the most challenging aspect of your job?

It is very challenging to develop solid and sustainable ideas about instant tasks within hours, or sometimes even minutes. This is probably the most challenging part of my job.

What sort of technical limitations do you have to keep in mind when developing browser-based games? How much does the platform influence your design decisions?

The game design of browser-based games differs a lot compared to retail games. Of course you cannot work that much with tremendous graphics, rich sounds or cutscenes, but in fact players who like browser-based games are usually not searching for this. Instead, they want a game that is very intuitive and that does not demand long gaming sessions.

The technical side of web development has proceeded very fast, so it does not really limit my creativity. And the outlook for Unity and Flash in browser games looks very promising as well.