Do you wish to go beyond playing video games and start creating them? Designing video games is a very rewarding career, yet it does not mean that you get to play them all the time.
This article will help you understand the role of a video game designer, skills and qualifications you need, professional courses, job opportunities, and earning potential. It will help you make an informed decision about pursuing video game design as a career.
Role of a Video Game Designer
Conceptualization and Design – As a video game designer, your primary role is to conceptualize new ideas for the game. This includes characters, gameplay, layout, plot and storyline, scenarios, maps, outcomes, difficulty levels, UI, etc. In a small design studio, you may work on various design aspects, but in a larger studio like Nintendo, Ubisoft, and Gameloft, your work tends to be more specialized. For example, you may work as a game mechanics designer who works specifically on the balance of the game and its rule system. An environment designer is responsible for creating different scenarios and environments of the game.
You also need to communicate the concept to game developers who can bring the idea to life using programming. The concept is usually communicated through 2D or 3D designs.
Testing – Game designers often collaborate with the QA team to test the game for broken code and areas where the outcome doesn’t match with the concept. Testing is different from playing a final game because here, you are essentially looking for bugs.
Design Production and Advertisement Material – Self-employed designers and those who work in small studios also produce marketing material such as logos, posters, and social media marketing graphics. In larger studios, there could be a separate team for this work.
Lead Designer – Once you have sufficient work experience or you have a studio of your own, you can lead teams of junior designers working on a project. Your role is to co-ordinate among different teams and oversee that the project runs on time and as per the guidelines.
Skills and Qualifications Required to Become a Video Game Designer
Professional Qualification – If you want to put a strong foundation to a career in game designing, you should consider either an associate degree or a bachelor’s degree from a reputed place such as New England Institute of Technology.
An associate degree prepares you for an entry-level position in video game design, animation, visualization, and other digital media production environments. You get to learn XHTML, JavaScript, intermediate game programming, 2D animation, game prototyping, 3D modeling, Unity, storyboarding and design, audio and video editing, UI/UX design principles, workplace communication and more.
A bachelor’s degree helps you acquire advanced skills such as high-level programs, concepts, and design challenges in 2D and 3D animation. You get to learn rigging, texturing, 3D scripting, game engines, 3D digital sculpting, 3D modeling, animation, analytics, virtual reality, and more.
Software Skills – Needless to mention, you should acquire and constantly upgrade these software skills in video game designing:
- Development environment software – Adobe ActionScript, C, Microsoft High-Level Shader Language (HLSL), Simple Direct Media Layer (SDL).
- Graphics software – Adobe Photoshop, Balsamiq Mockups, Microsoft Visio, OpenGL.
- Object-Oriented Programming Software – C++, Objective C, Perl, Python.
- Video creation and editing software – Adobe After Effects, 3ds Max.
- Web development software – HTML, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby on Rails.
Detail Oriented – As a video game designer, you need to decide detailed aspects like how fast the character can move, the body weight, how high they can jump. There could be hundreds or thousands of such possibilities to work on. As a tester, you need to be extremely detail-oriented and try to break the code by trying all possible permutations and combinations that an end-user can perform.
Creativity – Games are designed to sell and earn revenue. For this to happen, they need to be both functional and aesthetically appealing for the player. Designing a game that is both functional and visually attractive requires creative game designers.
Problem Solving – Game design is an extremely complex process that requires coordination among different teams and good problem-solving skills at every stage.
Basics of Human Psychology – As a designer and tester, you are essentially predicting what an end-user will want and how they will play the game. Basic understanding of human behavior and performance, differences in ability, personality, interests, learning and motivation ability, and psychological research methods can help you design a good game.
Time Management – Video game designing is just like any other software project that is time-bound. Every hour costs extra money to the client. Managing the tasks and completing them on time helps the game go live with minimal cost inflations.
Work Environment of a Video Game Designer
Video game designers hardly work in isolation. Given the complex nature of video games, they have to regularly co-ordinate with project leads, and developer and tester teams. In smaller studios or own startups, they also have to do multiple jobs. Yet, CNN Money has rated video game design as a rewarding career with high personal satisfaction, benefit to society, telecommuting, and low-stress levels.
It implies that apart from technical and creative skills, a video game designer also needs good interpersonal skills, communication skills and the ability to work in teams.
As a graduate student, it is natural to feel anxious about being in a live-work environment. Watch the story of Elizabeth Bergeron, a graduate of New England Institute of Technology who now works as a video game designer at Arenanet. The knowledge and skills she gained at NEIT helped her take on Guild Wars 2, a live project with full confidence.
What Do Video Game Designers Earn?
According to payscale.com, the average salary of a video game designer in the US is $65,043. But it all depends on what value you can provide for your employer, your skillset and experience level. Here is a breakup of median salaries based on work experience –
| Work Experience | Median Salary |
| <1 year – Entry level | $51,120 |
| 1-4 years – Early Career | $61,067 |
| 5-9 years – Mid Career | $73,344 |
| 10-19 years – Senior Level | $91,313 |
| 20+ years – Late career | $98,639 |
Note: All salary figures include bonus, tips, overtime payments. There could be additional profit sharing based on your individual T&Cs with the employer.
Here are popular employer salaries for video game designers.
Source – https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Video_Game_Designer/Salary
Career Opportunities as a Video Game Designer
According to CNN Money, video game designers can look at 13% job growth Y-o-Y over a 10-year period. An associate degree can help you with following career possibilities –
- Game designer.
- Character designer.
- Animator.
In addition to the careers mentioned above, a bachelor’s degree can additionally help you with the following opportunities-
- Character artist.
- Video game designer.
- Video game programmer.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) mentions following career paths for a video game designer –
- Designers –
- Lead designer
- Content designer
- Game mechanic designer
- Level designer
- Text and dialogue writer
- Programmers –
- Lead programmer
- AI programmer
- Graphics programmer
- Network programmer
- Physics programmer
- Tools programmer
- UI programmer
- Artists –
- Art director
- Lead artist
- Concept artist
- Modeler
- Animator
- Other major occupations –
- Audio workers
- Executives
- Producers
- QA testers
Start your own studio or a consultancy – Once you have sufficient experience in the industry, you can start a consultancy where you help other companies with their design elements. You can also start your game design and development studio.
The graphic below shows the most common and rare career paths that video game designers take based on payscale.com.
Source – https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Video_Game_Designer/Salary
The Way Ahead
Studios are now choosing to produce fewer but high-quality games for which they need experienced video game designers. The best way ahead is to get a professional degree, make a great demo reel, get connected with game designer networks online, and keep upgrading your skills. Visit websites, blogs, and forums that video game designers frequently visit and create networks.
You can also begin your career with smaller studios that provide not only great projects but also cross-platform learning opportunities, which are rare in larger studios.
Author Bio – Carrie Weisman is an experienced journalist and content creator. She has worked across different business verticals and specializes in creating well-researched, in-depth articles for Fortune 5000 companies.
