Video Game Designer Careers
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If all you think about – day-in and day-out – is playing video games, a career as a game designer might be a good fit for you.
A game designer does many things, from creating the actual concept of the game to developing the levels, and from creating the characters to balancing some of the game-play properties. Game designers may also test the games to make sure they play as planned – so you could actually be paid to play games all day! |
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The Life of a Game Designer
As a video game designer, you'll work for a major game developer like Square-Enix, Blizzard Entertainment or Eidos Interactive, or for one of the many smaller independent firms. These are the companies that do the actual programming of games. They’re different from the publishers – the companies who actually manufacture the video game CDs, market them, and create the CD case inserts. In rare cases, game design firms may have their own publishing department.
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While you might think that you'll need a computer science degree to find a job as a video game designer, that’s actually not true. Instead, the degree you'll need really depends on what aspect of video game design you want to go into. If you want to do the nitty-gritty programming of games, then yes, you'll need a degree in software engineering or programming. However, if you’d rather work to create the concept of the game and its characters, a degree in creative writing is more helpful. An art degree – especially one focused on computer generated graphics – is more useful if you want to draw out the characters and the world they inhabit.
In addition to these degrees, video game development companies seek experts in several other fields. While these jobs may not exactly fit with the traditional idea of a video game designer, they’re still great jobs in the video game industry. They include translators – especially ones who are proficient in Japanese – music writers, marketing experts, and many more. There's no simple video game designer degree – the background you'll need depends on what you want to actually do.
The environment you’ll be working in as a video game designer is highly focused on teamwork – no single person designs the entire game. Instead, you’ll be part of a group that – depending on the size of the company and the project – may be working on the whole game or a small part of it. You’ll not only have to work with your fellow teammates but you’ll also have to coordinate with other groups, including the programmers, writers, artists, and more.
Starting out, you’ll probably be part of a team that works on basic parts of the game like creating the game levels or specific items. As you gain experience, you may find yourself on the lead design team or, if your games do well enough, named lead designer, head writer, or lead artist. You may also want to use your growing experience to start your own video game design firm.
The good news about the video game design industry is that it’s growing at a good pace. If you have the education and the desire to work in the field, you can easily earn anywhere from $50,000 to upwards of $75,000 or more. How much you make is dependent on what type of design you do – writing, programming or art – and how successful the games you work on are. For example, if you play a significant part in creating the next Tomb Raider game, your skills will be well rewarded.
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