As video games become more and more popular, you might be interested in starting a career as a video game designer. To be successful in this role, you will need to possess a surprisingly broad set of skills. Video game design combines computer programming, graphic design skills, creative writing, storyboarding, and more to come up with popular games that people love to play.
Working in video game design requires a lot of expertise and can also have a demanding and intense schedule. But if you’re passionate about the industry, then it’s a role worth considering, and there’s nothing more rewarding for any gamer than seeing a game that they helped design on billboards in the mall or even playing it themselves at home. If you’re considering this for your career, here are some of the top reasons why it’s a good choice.
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Job Security
As a game designer, you can enjoy a lot of job security since there’s a high demand for video games and the industry brings in tens of billions of dollars. Video games are going nowhere, and you can definitely look forward to a great career if you are working on first-person shooter games or designing online casino classics for sites that provide online gambling for real money. If you’re looking for a career path where you can enjoy continuous and stable employment, video game design is an excellent choice.
Be Creative
If you want a career where you will get to create art and tap into your creative talent and abilities, video game design could be perfect for you. In recent years, video game design careers have seriously evolved, and games today have come a long way from the early days of titles like Pac-Man. Many video games today are viable rivals for feature-length movies when it comes to the artwork that is involved. As a video game designer, you will have the chance to be creative when you are inventing characters, creating digital scenes, composing music, writing software, and many other creative tasks.
Work With Your Talents
As video games become more and more complex, there has become much more room for specialization when choosing the type of video game design career that you want to get into. Whether you are interested in creating graphics, coding games, writing narratives, or composing music and producing sound effects, there’s a diverse range of careers available that allow you to mainly focus on the parts of video game design that you most enjoy.
Casual Work Environment
If you want to work in a casual environment with like-minded people, video game design could be the perfect career choice for you. As you can imagine, working in video game design probably won’t have you in a stuffy suit and dress shoes. Most video game designers get to work in comfortable clothes and have the opportunity to do lots of fun stuff at work like company-sponsored karting and paintballing, and of course, gaming.
Generous Annual Salary
If you want to make money doing what you love when it comes to your career, working in game design is worth considering. Game designers are a sub-set of the larger graphic design field and the average annual salary for a game designer is currently around $77k per year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. How much you can earn may vary depending on different factors including your specialization in game design, your location, how much experience you have, and more.
How to Become a Game Designer
If you’re convinced and want to get into game design for your future career, then what will you need to get there? Start by getting seriously familiar with video games – the more passionate you are the better. Spend your time, playing, discussing, reviewing, and critiquing games. You will also need to get a relevant education and some experience, such as an internship. Most video game design employers will expect you to have a relevant bachelor’s degree. Computer science, game designing, computer programming, and graphic design are some good major choices to consider.
With video games only becoming more popular the game design industry is booming, with lots of great employment opportunities for creative individuals who are passionate about making great games.
