Do you love gaming and want to break into the video game industry so you can actually have a hand in creating something amazing?
The game industry is extremely competitive right now because there are so many gamers and artists who want the chance to create games!
Video games are interactive art, or at the very least, fun little games to pass the time. They take teams of people all working together to get made from start to finish. If there is a disconnect between the teams or a lack of skill, it’s all too easy to end up with a sub-par product (looking at you, first version of Cyberpunk 2077).
To increase your hireability in the video game design world, and decrease the chances of being the one to accidentally create a T-pose glitch, you’ll want to pursue some courses related to the field of game design.
What Does a Game Designer Do?
While you’ll be able to pivot roles once you get a foot in the door and some experience under your belt, it’s important to strive for the right role when you’re taking courses.
So, make sure that game designer is the position you actually want to pursue!
Many people confuse game designer and game developer or use the terms interchangeably.
A game designer works with a team of game designers, where together they come up with the premise and components of the game. Each designer might have a hand in every aspect of the design process, or there might be a specific designer or group that does certain design aspects.
For example, there might be a character design team, a level design team, a background design team, a sound design team, UX and UI design team, and so on.
The game developers are the ones who take these ideas and designs and create code that brings it all to life. While designers might use some code to work with the development team, the majority of the creation of the game’s code is made by the developers.
So if you want to decide how a game looks, feels, and sounds, then you want to pursue game design.
If you want to bring ideas to life and tackle the process of making a game become a playable thing, you’ll want to pursue the game development path.
Skills for Game Design
In any job, you’ll need a mixture of technical skills, soft or transferable skills, and talent skills to be successful. Since game design is on the creative side, raw technical talent can only get you so far. You need an artistic eye and intuition in order to know how to make a good game.
The technical skills you’ll need include:
- Proficiency in gaming engines like Unity and Unreal Engine
- Experience with art programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
- Scripting languages like Python and C#
- Nuclino or similar
- MakeHuman or similar
- A solid grasp on math and analytics
- Computer science
The creative skills you’ll need include:
- Coming up with new game ideas for the platform you’re working on
- Coming up with gameplay mechanics
- Storyboarding, storytelling, theming, symbolism, plotting, and other aspects of the journey for the players
- Creating scenarios, challenges, quests, maps, and difficulty levels
- Deciding how the game is won or lost and if there is more than one way to achieve that
- Deciding on the UI and UX
- Identifying what can be fixed in existing games and making them better
- Artistic skills, drawing skills, graphic design skills, knowledge of cinematography
Soft skills you’ll need include:
- The ability to work well as part of a team; collaboration
- Superb communication skills
- Problem-solving and critical thinking
- Artistic vision and the ability to put it down on paper
- Knowledge of the gaming industry and trends
- Knowledge of what it’s like to play the type of game you’re working on
Skills for Game Development
Since game design and game development overlap in many ways, you’ll need all of the absolve skills as a developer, but you’ll focus more on the technical skills.
You should be adept at software like game engines and character-makers as well as know how to use computers very well.
Where to Study Game Design and Development
Since the video game industry has been popular for a while and is continuing to expand, there are a lot of places you can seek out for education.
And, since the industry is the epitome of high-tech and cutting-edge, you don’t necessarily have to enroll at a traditional college or university to get the education you need!
Higher Ed
If you do want to stick to the college route, check out all the different perspectives there are to gaming and find a college that suits your vision.
Do you want to approach gaming with an educational spin? Do you want to develop games for kids? Do you want to help dementia patients with games? You’ll need to find a program that educates you about these specific topics since there is a scientific and psychological foundation required to make an effective game.
Of course, you can also seek out a college for pure gaming design as well, especially since they can give you access to software and other materials you otherwise might not have access to.
- University of Southern California
With a wide variety of core classes and electives, plus majors and minors in both the undergrad and graduate levels, USM has a lot to offer students seeking out a degree in the game design realm. - University of Utah
This institution offers game design-related degrees at all levels of interest, from casual curiosity at how the industry works to a dual MBA/Masters of Entertainment Arts and Engineering (MEAE) degree. They offer courses with an approach to gaming as an educational tool. - DigiPen Institute of Technology
The BS in Computer Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation degree offered at DigiPen is aimed at game developers and programmers. The second type of degree they offer is geared towards the creatives who want to pursue game design, and the third degree combines both so that graduates have a thorough understanding of gaming design, programming, and the industry.
Online Courses
Many fully-online courses are also available from universities and certificate providers.
Some of the most popular game development classes near me include:
- CG Spectrum College of Digital Art
- Franklin University
- Southern New Hampshire University
- Switchup
- The Tech Academy
- Game Art Institute
Tutoring and Coaching
For extra help with your game design or development degree, you can seek out the help of a tutor or coach to teach you individually. They can also help fill the gaps in your skillsets that you may not necessarily require an entire course to achieve.
The great thing about a private tutor is that you can have an accomplished expert help you personally and give you feedback on your work! You can get assistance and recommendations on how to build your portfolio, what real experts in the industry are looking for in a candidate, and get tips on building your network.
Can I Teach Myself Game Design and Development?
If formal programs aren’t in your budget or you just don’t like them, you’re in luck! Video game design and development are skills that can be learned entirely on your own online.
What else did you expect from an industry based around the internet and technology?
Free resources like YouTube and blogs can provide you with all you need to know about how to get started and which programs to use as a beginner.
There are tons of free programs out there for new game designers and developers to use, which is especially good when you’re just starting out, as you probably won’t be making any money with your projects.
Here are some of the most popular free tools that budding game developers and designers use…
Worldbuilding Tools
- Kanka
- One Stop For Writers Worldbuilding Surveys
- Scrivener
- Notebook.ai
- Now Novel
- World Scribe
- Campfire
Art Tools
- ZBrush
- Audacity
- Krita
- Blender
- Maya
- Pixelmator
Organizational Tools
- Nuclino
- Trello
- Slack
- Wrike
- Asana
- HacknPlan
- Plaky
- ClickUp
- Jira
Programming & Coding Tools
- MonoGame
- RPG Maker MZ
- GameMaker Studio 2
- Construct 3
- Unity
- Godot Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Defold
- Cerberus X
- GameSalad
- GameMaker
- GDevelop
- Adventure Game Studio
- Buildbox
- Stencyl
- CRYENGINE
- Visual Studio
- GameGuru
- CopperCube 5
- Cocos2D
- PlayCanvas
With all of these incredible tools and resources available, you can learn a lot about game design on your own.
It might be harder to build a portfolio and network without the help of a professor, but it’s not impossible.
You can always save money and learn what you can on your own and enlist a tutor for help with the specific things you can’t seem to grasp alone.
What Jobs Can You Get with Game Design Skills?
There are actually many jobs that someone with game design and development experience can do.
It’s not just “game design.” There are people whose jobs are specific to a certain element of the game, especially in a larger company as opposed to a smaller indie one.
Some specific designers and developers who work on video game teams include:
- Character designer
- World designer
- Level designer
- UX/UI designer
- Controls designer
- Audio/sound designer
- Graphic designer
- Story designer
- Interaction designer (how does the character interact with other characters and the environment)
- Mechanics designer
- Coder/programmer
- Animator
And for each of those game design subdisciplines, a developer also needs to be involved.
Other positions that are within the gaming industry but don’t involve directly designing or developing games include:
- QA Tester
- Gameplay tester
- Research and development
- Writer
- 3D modeling (with clay)
- Interpreter and translator
- Games critic
The world of gaming is ever-expanding and there is room for more and more workers in the industry every year. Because of the high demand and engagement from video game enthusiasts, it can be a very lucrative industry, but also very competitive!
No matter which path you take in learning game development, make sure you have a strong history of being involved in the gaming community, are up-to-date with current video game industry happenings, and have an impressive portfolio. Network as much as possible, and you might be able to find your way into the gaming world!
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