Gaming has long passed the point of being a simple hobby. It’s a thriving industry that’s projected to reach 500 billion by 2030, and for many, simply playing video games is a part of a full-time job. Given how competitive this space has become, it comes as no surprise that talented game designers are in high demand. But what does game designer do that makes them an integral part of the process? Here we will talk about this coveted career and explain what it takes to be good at it.
What Do You Do As a Video Game Designer
Let’s kick things off by going over the lead video game designer description. It’s a person who’s behind the creative vision and execution of a game. This means creating story, mechanics, levels, puzzles, bosses, etc. They don’t do all of this alone, of course. They are in charge of the whole development process, they delegate tasks, and at the core of it all is their creative vision.
It’s also their responsibility for the product to be a commercial success. So, they need to study trends, player behaviour, current competition, progression systems, reward structures, and what it takes to create an engaging experience within a particular genre.
Many designer have to play tons of other games, and check out their reward structures, to figure out what makes them tick. So it’s not uncommon for them to play casino games at spinmama to figure out why so many players enjoy these RNG systems. You might have noticed, but many modern games heavily borrow from casinos when creating player incentives and even side content. Well-structured and rewarding progression systems have a huge impact on game’s longevity. This answers the question of what does it take to be a game designer – the ability to blend together story, mechanics, and rewarding progression systems into a cohesive experience.
Different Types of Game Designer What Do They Do
The lead designer delegates tasks to other designers who are in charge of a specific aspect of the game.
- Level designer – In charge of creating segments or levels that are in sync with the overall vision, story, and mechanics.
- System designer – Oversees creation and implementation of core game systems, rewards, progression, balancing, and fine-tuning.
- Narrative designer – Creates narrative, world-building, dialogue, item descriptions, characters, and their background stories. Once again, the narrative needs to serve game mechanics, and it needs to make the gameplay more immersive and believable.
It’s difficult to create cohesion between these different aspects, so a lead designer needs to oversee everything and create a project where these main elements will click together.
What Does It Take to Be a Game Designer – Skills and Qualifications
Now that we have covered what does a game director do, it’s clear that such a strong leadership position requires a diverse set of skills. For starters, you need to be creative and, at the same time, aware of your limitations. Knowing how certain game engines work and what’s difficult to program is crucial. After all, you need to be efficient and pragmatic if you want your game to be released on schedule. So, programming or game development skills are necessary.
On top of that, you will need some knowledge of graphic design, and what an optimal PC or console can run on lower settings. Creating a game that only runs smoothly on a cutting-edge PC build is a very bad idea, as you’ll be limiting your user base. In other words, it’s difficult to simply take on this role; you need to grow into it.
Is Game Design a Good Career
Working as a lead designer in a AAA company is very lucrative (between $110k and $160k a year). However, getting there is extremely difficult, and as discussed, you need a lot of experience in different development departments.
In other words, you’ll have to start at an entry-level job, which is a junior designer, QA tester, junior-level designer, or junior developer. Then you’d gradually transition into a mid-level role, and we mentioned them already (lead narrative designer, lead level designer, etc.). In essence, these oversee the development of one important aspect of the game, and the salary for this position is $70k or higher per year. Then, with around 8–10 years of experience, you might be able to take on a lead designer role.
So if you are passionate about making games and love to tell stories through this medium, then this will be a great career. That said, if you don’t like the idea of taking on huge responsibility for the commercial success of a gaming product, then this will be very stressful. Also, gamers tend to be brutal with their feedback and are eager to share their criticism. So, you need to be thick-skinned and diplomatic when you interact with your audience.
Proficiency with Tools and Technologies
One of the reasons why this is such a demanding job is that you are expected to know how certain complex tools work. Game engines are the bread and butter of every title, and the current industry standard, in the AAA sphere at least, is Unity and Unreal Engine. However, many AAA companies also use proprietary software, so you can’t really learn how those work, unless you work for them.
Then you also need to know how certain design or prototype tools work, in order to figure out what’s possible for your in-game models. These include software like Figma, Sketch, and Adobe Creative Suite. Then you should also be familiar with programming languages like C++, C#, Python, and JavaScript. And on top of all that, you really need to be a people’s person, someone who will mediate between multiple teams.