Every game lover knows that a good game requires a well-done design. It’s not surprising that there are jobs devoted only to this because it’s a lot of work – hours and hours of projecting and creating. A person responsible for game design is a game designer. In this article, we will take a closer look at this profession and find the answer to the question of how to become one.
Game Designers – What Do They Do?
Let’s start with analyzing what game designers do and what is their role in the creation of the whole game. It’s worth noting that making this type of entertainment requires cooperation between different departments and specialists. A game designer, although an integral and important chain link, is not the only person that influences the final form of a game. There are also artists, developers and a lot of other specialists. However, let’s go back to our main focus here – game designers.
A game designer is that one person who puts together and conceptualizes everything that constitutes a video game – its main storyline and background plots, the whole environment and every level, even the interaction between characters. This job might require specialist knowledge from different fields if a designer works independently and the majority of work gets done by themselves. In big companies and studios, it’s a common practice for designers to specialize in only one element of a game and work on it in every production, heavily relying on cooperation with others.
The truth is that the term “game designer” is rather broad and a bit vague these days. Most companies use it concerning a great number of people responsible for different parts of game-making. It’s also quite wide because it encompasses all types and genres of games. A game designer takes part in the process of video game creation as well as participates in the process of making online games. Even online games require the work of a game designer. When you enter websites like VegasSlotsOnline and choose free games, you emerge into the world created exactly by these people. When you play, it’s not only about safety and secure entertainment – those games are also about fun plots and designs.
Describing a typical day of a game designer might be hard because the way it looks might, to some degree, be dependent on the type of game they work on. People with this job are a kind of bridge connecting writers, artists, programmers in the process of creation. A game designer should know a little bit of everything, even if specialized in only one element of the game. It’s also a person that should be up-to-date with the latest trends in the game – yes, the trends are changing, as exemplified in the article on the GameRefinery website.
How To Become A Game Designer?
Being a game designer might seem like this one unreachable dream for some people, but in reality, it’s easier than you think. If you are interested in this career, not for yourself but for a kid in your family, then you might sign them up for summer camps or courses connected with game designing. It doesn’t mean, however, that once your youth is behind you, there is nothing you can do. There are courses for adults, too, like the ones organized by CG Spectrum on game development.
Once you have the knowledge, unfortunately, it does not ensure you a spot in a game-making company. What to do to become a real, working game designer? First, you need to really get into the subject. Know all the latest trends and get to know every genre inside out. How to do that? It’s enough that you play various types of video games and instead of just enjoying it, focus on nuances that the average player does not recognize. It would do you no harm if you updated your knowledge by reading reviews and articles on the subject. When you know something, it’s time to show off your skills. Take a few elements that you might be good at, perfect them and create your very own demo reel. All these steps will certainly help you get into the industry.
The broadness of game design would probably make it easy for just about anyone to jump in. That broadness would cover pretty much anything from art, music, modeling, storyboard writer, etc.
And I think the easiest occupation for a game designer would be a freelancer, since they can always create assets that other game designers could use, so you really don’t need to be in a big company or studio to be a game designer. Plus, creating assets as a freelancer would actually make a game designer more employable, especially if they can showcase what they’ve made.