An Insight into Video Game Development Careers

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Explore the world of video game development careers through aspects like salary expectations, examples of roles, a day in the life of a game designer, and challenges faced in the industry. Discover the opportunities, growth, and diversity within this exciting field.

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So, you wanna make a video game? By: Zachary Levin

Why I Chose This Career Simply put -I love video games! Played video games since I was 2. Why it s interesting to me I get to create what I enjoy doing! Can be a fun experience Lots of different game genres offer lots of variety in what you can create Can start as a hobby/side thing and evolve into a full-time career.

Is this field growing over time? YES!

Salary Expectations (Game Designer) Scales up with bigger companies Extreme crunch and unpaid overtime is possible in game industry

Salary Expectations (Programmer) Higher and better salaries than game designers, also flexible with what you can do. Crunch issues can apply here as well.

Examples of Video Game Development Careers * = Important! Design* Art* Programming* Sound Design Composer Writer QA (Quality Assurance) Testing Project manager (supervisor) Liz England s The Door Problem -perfect article for explaining what each role does on a game development team. Not every game will need every role filled, but design, art, and programming roles are essential. That doesn t mean other roles aren t important. Different games utilize different roles more than others.

A Day in My Shoes (Game Designer POV) If working by myself: Consult GDD (Game Design Document) Playtest my current work Get to work Update GDD and Changelog/Journal at end of work session If working with others: Meet with teammates Figure out where everyone is in terms of progress Meet with other game designers to determine what we have done and what we want to do next Get to work At end of work session, update GDD and Changelog/Journal

Hardest part of the job? Getting started and Procrastination!

Education and Experience Needed to Pursue Video Game Design as a Career Education(?) Game development courses can be found online from many different sites Zenva YouTube College -Optional Heavily dependent on your financial background College Minor Recommendation: Computer Science Comp Sci & Game Design go hand-in-hand. Programming is extremely important right now. Experience Bigger portfolio = More experience Make a portfolio site through Wix or from scratch to showcase your work Certifications are helpful Employers frequently look for people with multiple years in an engine or coding language

What software is best to create your first game? Unity GameMaker Studio 2 Great for 2D games Built-in Pixel Editor is easy to use Starts with 30 day free trial, afterwards must purchase a license Programming language: Game Maker Language (GML) Twine Free! Great for non-linear, interactive text-based games and stories No coding experience required, but you can do much more in Twine with HTML, CSS, and Javascript Great for 3D and 2D games Free! Beginner-friendly Programming language: C Sharp/C#

Great Tutorials For Making A Simple Game Unity: "How to Make a Game -Unity Beginner Tutorial" by Jason Weimann 3 hour long video on how to make a 2D game in Unity Extremely thorough and easy to follow Both my personal recommendation and what I used as a Unity refresher GameMaker Studio 2: "Platformer Game Tutorial (GML)" by Yoyo Games/Shaun Spalding 1 hour long video playlist on how to make a simple platformer game in GameMaker Studio 2 Yoyo games has multiple short playlists on how to make simple games in GameMaker Studio 2 on their YouTube channel. Shaun Spalding has been making GameMaker Studio tutorials on YouTube for over 7 years, and is a great resource for learning how to make games in GameMaker Studio 2. Twine: Twine Beginner Tutorial Series by DigitalExposureTV ~70 minute long video playlist on how to use Twine Twine is the most basic engine out of the three recommended, and is great if you want to try making a simple text-based game to get comfortable with how a game engine may work.

Additional Resources Liz England's "'The Door Problem' of Game Design" A great explanation of what a game designer does on a development team, as well as what other roles such as a Sound Designer or Writer or FX Artist do. W3schools.com Fantastic site for learning about web development and multiple major programming languages CS50 s Introduction to Game Development Free Online Harvard Course by edX A free introductory game development online Harvard course from edX that teaches you about the development of major 2D and 3D games such as Super Mario Bros., Pokemon, and Angry Birds. You can earn a verified certificate by purchasing an upgrade for $199 USD before completing the full course.