Steps to Becoming a Successful Video Game Designer
If you love playing games and are interested in a game designer career, then you need to know what it takes to be a successful video game designer. Maintaining a career in the gaming industry requires a lot more than just playing games. Turning your passion for video games to earn a living and having a successful career in the gaming industry requires you to be highly creative, sound technical knowledge and specific skill set.
There are several different ways to be a game designer, which requires a specific education in the related field. In this article, you will learn what a video game designer does, and how to become a successful one.
What Does A Video Game Designer Do?
Video game designers always work in a team and collaborate with the development team to create video games. Game design and game development always collaborate as a team and work on a project. However, game designers are usually the ones who work in the pre-production stage. They are responsible for creating characters, designing the game, writing the storyline, etc. They use creative skills to write plot lines for a storyboard and their computer programming knowledge to execute game code.
A few specific duties of a video game designer are mentioned below:
- Designing and developing new game concepts
- Writing storyline, creating characters and other visual objects
- Finalising the game theme
- Design maps, levels and scenarios in the game.
- Merge different genres for an exciting user experience
- Write code with various programming languages
- Make sketches of their ideas on paper or with digital tools
- Collaborating with game developers to design game
- Testing the game in the early stage of development
Skills Required For Video Game Designers
The gaming industry is very competitive. Completing your graduations in game design, computer science and engineering will help you to stand out from other candidates. Use your education to develop skills to outshine in the game designer career. Here are a few skills that you need to excel in:
- Storytelling
- Communication
- Computer programming languages
- Collaboration
- Project management
Types Of Game Designers
Before going further on how to be a successful video game designer, you should know different types of game designers. Like many other technical jobs, the game designer’s role is rapidly specialized. Most companies have divided the responsibility to assure productivity. There are many job roles or types in the game designer. Here we have briefly explained a few important job roles, which are probably well known in the game industry.
Lead Designers
Lead designers are responsible for supervising the team of designers and making sure the overall vision of the game is achieved within the targeted schedule. As a lead designer, you will be responsible for deciding how the project is documented, create the overall storyline and determine the basic system or assign these to another designer on the team.
Level Designer
As the name suggests, level designers are responsible for creating levels in the game. They generally design levels by planning and placing items, properties like boxes, buildings, creatures within the leaves. Basically, level designers are artists who create assets that are needed to finish the level.
System Designers
System designers focus on a specific system within the game. They are responsible for creating complex systems like metagame features or progression. For example, in a fighting game, a system designer focuses on systems like crowd dynamics, avatar creation, training, fighting and levelling.
Multimedia Artists and Animators
Multimedia artists and animators required the skill of sketching and communication skills. They discuss plans with clients and design models, make sketches of their ideas by hand using pen and paper or with the help of digital software tools.
Software Developers
Software developers write complex code to create plans using computer programming language. They run tests to determine the software is free of errors and continue efficiently and also recommend updates when required. If you are interested in this job, then you need to have a bachelor degree in a computer-related field.
Step-By-Step Guide To Be A Successful Video Game Designer
To be a successful video game designer, you need to understand and master the latest video game knowledge and insights. Here are some common steps for becoming a game designer.
Find Your Niche
Never start your career without knowing exactly what you want. A good career plan starts with your passion for that particular subject. If you are interested in designing games, then the first step is to understand video games. The majority of video game developers are excellent video game players. If a game designer career interests you then start playing video games, think critically, talk about games to your friends and get different perspectives.
Get Relevant Education
Even if you didn’t focus on playing video games, you still need the right amount of technical education. Many key players in the gaming industry expect to hire designers who have relevant education. There are many options for pursuing a game design degree like game designing, computer science, mathematics and logic. However, if you do not have a relevant degree in game designing, you still can opt for certification game design courses in Arena Animations. The institution offers the most comprehensive courses like 3D Game Art and Game Development Program. These game design courses by Arena Animation will teach you the fundamentals of the game, designing a game character, game models like character, properties and environment.
Choosing a Gaming Internships
There is no doubt that the gaming industry is very competitive, so it is important to gain practical knowledge by joining a gaming internship. The internship always provides you to get to know the real-world gaming industry experience. You will work in a gaming studio alongside experienced designers and learn by their instruction.
Build Your Portfolio
In addition to the formal internship in the gaming industry, you can also enhance your designing skills by practicing at home. Many game designers practice by redesigning the game that they are familiar with. Creating a portfolio is a great way to showcase your game designing skills, capabilities and level of experience. Always mentions any specific games that you designed in the portfolio. Here are few points that you can add to your portfolio:
- Back-end programming
- Game screenshots that you programmed
- Link to download game
- Videos of gameplay
- Game review
You can also include your work experience, personal details and any additional achievements. Joining game design courses at Arena Animations will provide you with an online platform for showcasing your portfolio.
Always Stay Focused
You should always stay focused and involved in developing new skills and techniques as you progress in your game designer career. Elements like computer programming languages evolve constantly, it is crucial to be updated on current developments and be on top in your field. There are many associations for game design and game development that discuss industry news and blogs to learn the latest trends in the gaming industry. Joining these associations will also help you build your network with other professionals.
Conclusion
Gaming is a booming industry with no sign of slowing down. There is no doubt that a career in the gaming industry is always rewarding. If you are serious about your passion for playing video games to be a career as a game designer, then you should know that you need the most current and compressive game design courses. To be a successful video game designer in this competitive industry it is important to learn from the experts. Arena animation provides the most comprehensive courses on Game Art and Game Development. The institution also provides various certification courses like animation, VFX, graphic designing, etc. that will help you in having a successful game designer career.
