A career in game design opens the door to an exciting world of creativity, innovation, and possibility. As the gaming industry continues to expand, so do career opportunities for passionate, skilled game designers. Whether you’re drawn to developing intricate game mechanics, creating compelling narratives, or designing memorable characters and stunning settings, the field of game design offers lots of roles to explore.
Video Game Designer Career Outlook
The global video game market is projected to value more than $291 billion by 2027, making it an extremely lucrative industry. Video game designers are currently in demand, with forecasts predicting a 2% annual increase in jobs through 2029. Earning a degree in game design is a necessary first step to taking advantage of this industry’s growth.
Game Designer
Game designers create the core concepts, rules, and mechanics of video games as well as develop interactive characters and environments. They are key to the entire game development process and work on the project from start to finish. However, game designer is a broad term. There are specialized roles that fall under the game designer umbrella.
Lead Designer
Lead designers oversee the entire game design process. They manage all the designers on the team and make high-level decisions about art, programming, mechanics, storylines, and other key components. Overall, they are responsible for ensuring every element works seamlessly together and coordinating team members.
Concept Artist
Concept artists design the initial iterations for characters, environments, and other important design elements in a game. Their work provides other game designers with a starting point from which to work on their designs. Essentially, they create the “feel” of the game through their work.
Game Animator
Game animators use a range of animation techniques to bring 2D and 3D characters to life using multimedia tools to model, simulate, and render figures. Their work is focused on nailing down character and object movement, which allows players to interact with the game.
Level Designer
Also called environment designers or world builders, level designers create the unique settings and locations featured in a game. This includes landscapes, architecture, and interactive elements within these settings. Their work must be both visually appealing and fully functional.
Game Developer
Game developers oversee all creative and technical aspects of a game, including the design and programming components. Their role is to unify the game’s engine, graphics, animations, and settings into a single piece of software. Developers are involved from the very beginning of the process and can develop game proof of concept and development sandboxes for continued testing and development.
Game Programmer
Game programmers build the base software a video game runs on. They use coding languages like C++, Java, and C to allow user interfaces, artificial intelligence, visuals, and game logic to operate correctly across all platforms. With games increasingly becoming cross-platform, those with game development jobs must be versatile.
Game Quality Tester
Video game testers serve as quality control, helping perform alpha testing to provide design and programming teams with feedback. Their job is to detect bugs or other issues that could impact game quality and playability. Game testers have to be familiar with the whole game design process to provide maximum value to these teams.
Perfect Your Passion at Villa
While it is possible to design, program, and create a video game completely on your own, most individuals in the field work as part of team at a development company. You don’t have to be an expert in every aspect of the production process to have a career in game design. When choosing a career in game design, you can pick an area that matches your personal interests and aspirations. Villa’s game design program can help you prepare for just about any of them!
Interested in becoming a video game designer? Villa is proud to be the only institution in WNY that offers game design. Our students are given all the facilities, tools, and support they need to succeed in this growing industry. Contact us today to learn more about our game design program.
