Video Game Designer - Guidelines on How to Have a Successful Career

Copyright (c) 2011 Joe Maldonado

With the advent of popular video games such as Need for Speed, Grand Theft Auto, God of War, and the likes, the need for video game designers are expected to grow in the coming years. In fact, the US Department of Labor predicted a 32% increase in software publishing jobs in the next five years.

This is one of the evidence that video games are fast becoming a big business. They are no longer considered as entertainment for kids. Check any video games outlets and you can see adults checking out the latest versions of their favorite games. Thus, video game designers had become a lucrative and in demand job.

Because of these, it is no wonder that a lot of people had wanted to become a video game designer, much more have a successful career in it. Not only the said job is in demand, but it also has higher salary that ranges from $40,000-$6000 per year. In order to help struggling amateur game designers, this article outlines the basic guidelines on how to become successful in the said career. A game designer is responsible for designing the layout and gameplay of a video game, including characters, plot, different levels, and scoring of the game. Because of this, the necessary skills and innate abilities an individual need in order to be successful in this arena needs to be varied. Heavy coding and programming skills in computer graphics, animation and software design is often the requirements. Powerful imaginative abilities are also needed to create graphical and animated components of the games. Moreover, soft skills are also necessary. Soft skills involves strong interpersonal and written communications ability, organization, teamwork, analytical mind, an up-to-date knowledge of the history and trends of video game business and markets, and time management skills.

However, having all the necessary skills needed in a video game designer is not enough to get you a job. You need to have specific training offered at video game design schools. But having the necessary skills and training could not give you successful career as a video game designer. You need to develop your skills through gaining experience. However, it is a known fact that it is difficult to get a job without experience and it can be hard to get experience without a job. With this, you need to look for alternative options of gaining experience. You could have internship or apprenticeship with a video game designing company. A lot of them offer internships and apprenticeships for qualified students. Another way of getting experience is through offering yourself to be hired as a freelance designer, or you could find a job as a video game tester. This is the best way to break into the video gaming industry. Not only you gain valuable experience, but you can also secure contacts in the industry, which will come in handy in finding a job. Next thing you do is to pump up your resume. Include in your credentials the history of creating add-on levels for various games and the various activities you had done in your internship. Additionally, you need to create your own design portfolio for potential employers. This is a collection of game proposals carefully chosen and presented to show off the full range of your creative skills. With all these being taken, you are now ready to apply for a job.

However, applying the job and attaining it isn't all what it takes to be successful in the video gaming industry. Once you have a secured position, you have to expand your skills and your experience with further training. Do not just be contented with one job, do some mini-projects on your spare time. Make yourself marketable. Who knows, you might be one of the video game designers who designs new and popular video games in the future.


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Learn about how to become a video game designer.