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Career Exploration

Video Game Designers

Also called: Design Director, Designer, Game Designer, World Designer

What they do:

Design core features of video games. Specify innovative game and role-play mechanics, story lines, and character biographies. Create and maintain design documentation. Guide and collaborate with production staff to produce games as designed.

On the job, you would:
  • Balance and adjust gameplay experiences to ensure the critical and commercial success of the product.
  • Devise missions, challenges, or puzzles to be encountered in game play.
  • Create core game features, including storylines, role-play mechanics, and character biographies for a new video game or game franchise.
On the job, you'll need:

Engineering and Technology

  • design
  • computers and electronics

Communications

  • multimedia

Math and Science

  • arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, or statistics
  • psychology

Arts and Humanities

  • English language

Basic Skills

  • listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
  • reading work related information

Problem Solving

  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

People and Technology Systems

  • thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one
  • figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it

Verbal

  • read and understand what is written
  • communicate by writing

Ideas and Logic

  • come up with lots of ideas
  • create new and original ideas

Attention

  • pay attention to something without being distracted

Artistic

People interested in this work like activities that include creating, designing, and making your own rules.

  • Adaptability/Flexibility
  • Cooperation
  • Attention to Detail
  • Initiative
  • Achievement/Effort
  • Persistence

Development environment software

  • C
  • Microsoft Visual Studio

Data base user interface and query software

  • Blackboard software
  • Microsoft SQL Server

Object or component oriented development software

  • C#
  • Objective C

Video courtesy of CareerOneStop.

Job Outlook

The job outlook for this position is Bright.

New job opportunities are very likely in the future. This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Median Annual Salary: $83,240

Education

Bachelor's degree or high school diploma/GED is usually needed.