You’ve always been wondering, what exactly a Game Designer is and what their job includes? We’ll take you onto a deep dive on what Game Design actually is and what kind of work this career involves. So let’s start with the basics:
What is Game Design?
Game Design is the process of creating the rules and content of a game and answers questions like:
- Is it a first or third person perspective?
- How does the battle system work?
- Does the player have to eat to survive?
- ….
It doesn’t involve animation, concept art or modeling at that stage. It’s designing the system and boundaries of your game and it defines what the player can and what they can’t do.
While designing a game, each and every element has to be tested and documented to ensure the quality of the product. Write a GDD (Game Design Document), build prototypes and rework the design if necessary.
Good Game Design is thoroughly planned, well documented, precisely executed and balanced… Even after release.
What does a Game Designer do?
Often people who are working in this field struggle to explain to their friends and family what they’re exactly doing in their job because they need to cover a wide range of work.
In your daily life as a Game Designer, you often have to following things:
- Writing rough storylines, dialogues & backstories
- Develope gameplay, rules & systems
- Document, prototype and test the game
- Script & program Game Features
- Brainstorm & rework ideas
- ….
Game designers are like architects. They don’t build the physical structure but instead create the blueprint needed to construct them.
They are the core that writes the GDD and communicates the idea to the rest of the team: for artists, programmers, writers, audio engineers, marketing etc.
What kind of skills do I need as a Game Designer?
A Game Designer has to have a variety of skills & knowledge to be successful and to be able to create amazing designs.
In addition to a passion for gaming, Game Designers need to have the following skills:
- Writing & Story Telling
- Level & World Design
- Scripting/Programming
- Editing & Rendering
- Communication
- ….
Nowadays with all the free resources out there on the internet, it’s easy to improve your own skills. So if you feel like you’re missing or lacking one of those categories, don’t hesitate to enhance that particular skill.
Depending on what you’re aiming for, be it a huge company like Ubisoft, EA or maybe a small little Indie-Studio, the set of skill required can vary greatly. Usually big companies look for more specialized people in each field while a small studio often takes the generalist approach, where you can do a little bit of everything.
How do I get a job as a Game Designer?
Unlike most beliefs, it’s not necessary to have a special degree to get hired in the Game Industry. What really matters is your experience and the skillset you bring with you.
Of course it wouldn’t hurt to attend an online-course or an university that is based around Game Design because it would enhance your skills while also connecting you with people in the field, but it’s not mandatory.
Instead, create a portfolio to showcase the projects you have worked on and to demonstrate what you can do:
- Put in the best projects you’ve created (Reels, Pictures,…)
- Polish them as much as you can
- Research the studio you apply to & build the portfolio around it
- Include short notes about your thought process
- Take your time and make it look professional
- …
Those projects don’t have to be things you already did for or with a certain company. They can be your own private projects or things you did with others in your spare time. The more effort you put into your portfolio, the higher the odds of getting hired.
What kind of programs should a Game Designer look into?
Due to the great variety of tasks a Game Designer has to do in his daily life, there is a multitude of programs he should consider looking into:
- Game Engines (Unity, Unreal,…)
- IDE Software (Visual Studio, IntelliJ IDEA,…)
- Writing Software (Scrivener, Evernote…)
- 3D DCC Tools (Autodesk Maya, ZBrush,..)
- 2D DCC Tools (Photoshop, Illustrator,…)
- Project Management Software (Trello, Nuclino,…)
- …
Depending on your expertise and the studio you’re going to work with, the programs you’re going to use can be very different but those are the essentials any Game Designer should have at least heard of or dabbled in them.
How much money does a Game Designer make?
Those numbers can vary greatly depending on the company, genre, style, experience, skills etc. but according to Career Explorer a Game Designer makes between $47k – $172k and the average income is around $90k per year.
If you want to know more about Game Design, how it works and what you can do with it, click here:
What is Game Design? – The Art of Video Game Creation
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