Game Designer Career Guide

What is a game designer?

A game designer creates games by developing plots, storylines, and backstories, and conceptualizing scenes and environments. They create characters, including heroes, villains, and secondary characters, and visualize how the game will be played from start to finish. They communicate their ideas to developers, artists, modelers, animators, and others and manage the process of bringing the game to life, from an idea to a finished product.   

A game designer may specialize in a particular game element, such as environmental design, art design, or mechanical design. They might work for a major game design company or a small independent group. Some develop games on their own, handling the process from conceiving the idea to publishing the title. 

Game designers consider many factors when creating a new game. For example, they might create a game for entertainment or educational purposes. It may include maps and treasures and different scenarios. Game designers figure out how you win or lose the game. They come up with the rules, the roles, and the challenges. They need to know the target audience, whether it’s children, teens, or adults, to come up with a story that appeals to that specific audience. They design each level with that in mind. They need to create compelling characters and make sure the game difficulty is not too high or too low for the audience. They strive to engage the audience, immerse them in the story, and make the game fun for the player. 

Another factor game designers consider is the type of game they want to create. They might build action games, sports games, puzzle games, simulations, role-playing games, or other types of games. They determine how many levels the game will have and how the characters will interact with each other on each level. 

Game designers work under deadlines and budget constraints. They spend some of their time testing aspects of the game and may tweak the code to fix issues many times.

Qualifications and eligibility

Game designers must be flexible and able to solve problems quickly. They must be technical as they encounter many bugs and other code issues in designing a game and need to work with programmers to fix them. They need to be innovative and come up with new technologies and advancements to improve gameplay and game appearance, making games more realistic and visually appealing. 

Game designers should be able to work well within a team and communicate well with others. They need to be creative to come up with unique storylines and concepts and new ways to play games. 

A game designer should understand game levels, layouts, how to create game maps, architecture, and other design features that go into creating a game. They should be familiar with scripting languages, syntax, and other basic programming concepts. They need to understand the market and what their target audience wants. Drawing skills are important to visually communicate ideas to other designers and team members. 

Time management skills are a must, as are organizational skills and listening skills.

Many game designers have a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, computer programming, graphic design, or a similar field, although it isn’t a requirement. Some may have completed a master’s degree in game design. Certification isn’t required either, but game designers typically earn certificates in relevant programming languages or software applications. Some common certifications for game designers include:

• Calarts Introduction to Game Design
• University of Pennsylvania’s Gamification Certification
• Full Sail University’s Game Design Certification

Game designers typically have several years of experience in quality assurance, testing, or programming before advancing into the role of a game designer.

Work environment

Game designers typically work in an office setting or a studio. They spend much of their time at a desk in front of a computer and work closely with other designers and programmers. The work can be stressful, especially when deadlines are nearing.  

Typical work hours

Most game designers work a 40-hour week during regular business hours. They may have to work overtime, including nights and weekends, when releasing a new game or meeting a deadline.     

Position trends

Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the overall employment of software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers is projected to grow 25% from 2021 to 2031, much faster than the average for all occupations. Although the BLS has no specific employment statistics for game designers, the trend for software developers and game designers may be very similar.   

As the popularity of games continues, the opportunities for game designers should continue to grow. Gaming companies will need game designers for all aspects of game design.