How to Become a Video Game Designer? If you think it’s fun to play computer games, think about what it would be like to make them. It’s a tough but rewarding job that requires hard work, ability, and a unique set of skills.
In this piece, we’ll talk about the fast-paced world of video game design and share some tips from experts on how to get started in this field.
What is Game Design?
Game design is a big part of the artistic side of making video games. It should not be confused with game programming, which is more technical. As a game creator, you focus on making the game’s story, characters, rules, and setting. Game programmers use code to solve the technical problems of gameplay. (Our blog has more information about the differences between game creation and game programming.
3 kinds of Game Design
The way a game is made changes a little bit based on what platform it is made for. Most of the time, the changes have to do with how players interact with the game how they direct it, or with the resolution you’re designing for.
There are three main kinds:
- Console games, like Xbox or PlayStation, are played through a real “box” that is hooked up to a monitor or TV.
- Mobile games are those that can be played on a smartphone or tablet.
- Computer games can be downloaded to a PC or Mac computer or played from a CD or other portable media.
What is the Role of a Video Game Designer?
People who make games often think in pictures. Their job is to think of new ideas and themes for the game and draw them out.
You might come up with story ideas and animations for cut scenes, plan out possible paths a person could take, and think up characters and worlds to help the story.
If you are a game creator, you might be in charge of:
- Creating the plot, the back stories of the characters, and the conversation
- Creating the game’s rules and score system
- figuring out how hard something is
- Putting together tools and settings
- Making a level and a world
- Scripting and programming
- A lot of information about how the game works and what it does
What Skills Do Video Game Designers Need?
Video game creators who are good at their jobs have both technical and creative skills. With these skills, you can make your ideas come to life on the computer. Knowing about other parts of making a game is also helpful.
- If you want to make good video games, you need to know the following:
- Having an idea of what makes a game “fun”
- Game concepts, such as game levels, level layouts, drawing maps, architecture, and other design areas linked to game-level design
- The way scripting languages, syntax, and other basic programming ideas are used in games.
- Marketing and market research can help you figure out what your target group wants and how to sell it to them.
- Game user interface (UI/UX)
Having experience is also helpful:
- Putting complicated parts into systems
- Using data to get qualitative knowledge to change your designs
- Using your drawing skills to clearly show ideas and plots
- With 3D art, you can do models, texturing, rigging, animation, and other things.
How to Become a Video Game Creator in 3 Steps?
Here are three steps to help you become a video game creator if you want to turn your love of games into a job:
1) Study Game Design
Anyone who wants to work in the game business needs to know the steps of how games are made. Here’s a quick run-down of how games are made:
Pre-production (20%): This includes coming up with ideas, storyboarding, study and development, making a game development document, mapping, and prototyping.
Production (60%): This includes 3D modeling, map action, animation, texturing, lighting, interactivity, artificial intelligence, cinematics, HUDs, and Menus.
Post-production (20%): This includes sound design and visual effects, quality assurance, polishing, packaging, and marketing.
The Game Design Course at CG Spectrum, an Unreal Engine Academic Partner and Authorized Training Center will help you understand the pipeline and methods of making video games. In nine months, you will learn:
Ideas for games
- Create more complex game systems, maps, and tools
- Make games with Unreal Engine.
- Make animations for fighting or shooting in AAA games
- Add complicated AI to Unreal Engine
- Get help from work mentors to make your game design portfolio and learn how to break into the job market.
2 – Develop Your Skills
After taking the Game Design Course and learning the basics, you might want to learn more about things like virtual production and game programming to help you become a better video game artist.
Troy Dunniway says, “As game designers, our ideas will often need to be implemented by a programmer. The more we can design and define our ideas so that they can be properly implemented, the better things will be for everyone.”
Taking a course in game art to improve your art skills will also help you as a game designer and as a team player, even if it’s just to help you show how your ideas look. Besides going to school, there are other ways to improve your skills, such as:
Play video games and figure out what makes them good by taking apart some of your favorites. Why are they so much fun? What do you want to change? To make a good game, you need to know why and how a game is fun.
Make a game with your classmates: The active online group of CG Spectrum can be a great place to work together. Working on a game with your friends will give you valuable knowledge that you can take with you into the industry. You might even make a game that you can show to potential jobs.
Develop your “soft skills,” like being able to talk to people and work as a team, which are important for any good game creator. The great thing is that you can improve your soft skills at almost any job, even while you’re learning or playing games. Talk to your trainer or the Career Development Manager at CG Spectrum to find out how you can improve these important skills.
3: Get Help from Experts
Next, talk to people who are already making video games. Reach out to your network and talk to designers who work in niches you’re interested in. You can learn a lot from these people and make connections that will help you in your job.
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