Video games are a familiar entertainment form for people of any age. You can develop a career in this field when you have programming skills and love to play games.
As a game designer, your tasks involve story design, character building, and game development. Sometimes you must manage a project team from start to finish if you work at a large company.
So is it a promising career?
What is a Game Designer?
Game designers develop games based on ideas about plots, character levels, and workspace. Depending on the location and size of the company, they may need to specialize in a game segment or be directly involved in game production.
A game designer will be responsible for the following tasks:
- Collaborate with developers, software engineers, and other experts to communicate game ideas
- Project management or the entire game production process
- Working independently, creating ideas, and publishing games
- Character design and game plot development
- Set up the interactive environment between the user and the game
- Project development support
- Write code
- Maintenance, error handling, and arising problems
As a game designer, you can expect more benefits than high income. The sections help you answer whether a game designer is a practical career choice.
1. Creativity
We all know game design is a creative technology field. Every process, from creativity to design to game development, can attract many programmers with excellent creative thinking.
In other words, it allows you to apply your skills to create compelling characters and game worlds. You can try out the project, tweak the scene, or add elements in the latest ways.
2. Tangible Results
The final product allows any user to view and play with it. That said, you can fully enjoy your finished product right after it’s released.
If the game you create impresses with its top-notch graphics, it will surely attract a lot of video game lovers. You can interact and hear reviews about your products. It’s a great way to see your accomplishments as a game designer.
3. Independence
Although game designers often work in teams, many tasks require you to handle them independently. If you prefer to avoid working in a highly structured organization, you can still break out to produce games based on your vision.
Working independently costs you more money and time. So, your product has a more personal touch, which can be a breakthrough for your career later.
4. Collaboration
As a game designer, building beneficial partnerships between partners and potential customers will be easy for you.
Many talented people and tech experts choose this career for their development career. It could be ideal for you to learn skills and enhance your expertise.
Besides, the strong cooperation between you and the client will give you many opportunities to participate in their following projects to unleash their creativity and earn more income.
5. Chances
The opportunities are present for you if you develop as a game designer.
Video games are a vast field, encompassing many million-dollar game projects. So, the choices in designing your game are also very diverse.
In short, you can produce independently in your spare time or collaborate with significant studios to increase your income.
Like all careers, game designers also have certain shortcomings. With this job, you will likely face problems such as:
6. Stereotyping
You cannot avoid stereotypes in game development, even when working alone or in a team.
You must follow programming principles and structures to build projects based on existing designs. It can limit your creativity in the story and character design.
7. Uncertainty
Besides working in a game production studio, indie game design can give you much freedom and profit on the project when it’s done.
Yet, your career development and income will be less specific. For example, you will work for free during production, or only a few people will know about your work.
8. Competition
When choosing this field, you face huge competition. These include the rapidly growing number of applicants and product releases in the video game market.
Fortunately, the demand for video games is always high. It will bring more chances if you know how to exploit and keep up with new applications.
9. Long Hours
The working time of a game designer can be long, especially when they are on a tight deadline and are trying to finish their tasks on time.
That means game developers, programmers, designers, and all other participants must stretch their working hours daily. Sometimes, they also need to work overtime on weekends and overtime during holidays.
Identifying and dealing with bugs in the game also consumes a lot of time. So you will only be able to succeed with patient skills and a strong will to be ready to face different challenges.
10. Stress
Game development can be an exciting career, but it comes with much stress and pressure. You must complete tasks within a tight timeline and ensure product quality to the highest standards.
Because of these complexities, you must maintain strong motivation and patience to pursue this job.
Who Should Be A Game Designer?
Anyone can become a game designer. It can be an excellent chance for you to put your technical skills in programming and creative interest in game projects.
In short, those who possess the following skills and qualities should try a job as a game designer, including:
- Programming skills and technology application
- Ability to work in a team or independently
- Problem-solving skills
- Project management skills
- Effective communication skills
- Content creation skills
- Always be ready to face criticism and criticism
- Embrace every new invention and invention
Conclusion
You’ve known the pros and cons of being a video game designer. Considering the downsides with the great benefits it brings, it’s an excellent career to pursue.
Most importantly, this job gives you the creative freedom to conceptualize and fulfill your passion for video games freely. Thanks for reading!