Game Careers - Video Game Designers

Video game designers are the ones who designs the overall concept, layout and how the game will be played. This is a highly competitive field, but the good news is that the more experience you have, the more money you will make. If you want to get started, then find a mentor who will work with you to finding an entry level job.

The Work
A game designer creates the main idea of the game, discusses it, and uses the ideas that are the very best and basically puts it all together. It takes a long time to put a game together. You have to test a lot, and see how various parts work together, see if it's playable, and if not test and tweak it until it is. Game designers create a prototype, a demo to show just how how fun the game they have created is.

The lead designer is the person who makes sure the very best game is completed by the deadline set. A game designer basically takes ideas from the staff they are working with, create a great design that is improved upon until it is absolutely noticeable that it is fun and communicates by paper or speaking what the overall vision is. Other titles for a game designer in a higher position are: Senior Designer, Creative Director, and Design Manager. Entering a company as a designer, you would be considered a Level Designer, or Junior Designer.

The Skills
A game designer is a writer. If you want to design, you're going to have to love writing. A little experience in art and programming would be beneficial, but you don't have to have to know it. Most game designers have studied computer science, or another type of engineering. Some other courses they may have taken would be the fine arts, sociology, and philosophy.